"Canada's Dirty Secret" - the exploitation of First Nations recognized by United Nations
CANADA'S `DIRTY SECRET': First Nations still searching for a place to call their home
Sara Mainville - Nov 05, 2007
Lately, I have been trying to understand why I cannot live in Ontario's cities comfortably.
For the most part, I notice too much. The "you don't belong here" stare may be part of it. I receive this common "welcome" in restaurants frequented by my lawyer friends. These looks may have more to do with my informal attire than my race. But it is hard to divorce class oppression from racial tension.
One thing is fairly clear – that I grew up economically disadvantaged largely because I grew up Anishinaabe on a reserve. And my personal comfort level on the reserve is much higher than in most Ontario municipalities. This may be why I continually gravitate back to reserve life.
I have had several discussions recently with an old friend. Schooled in mathematics, Chris Belleau also has been an amateur historian of the Garden River First Nation. Chris has actually been schooling me. He has told me about four imperatives that our nation – the Ojibway nation – agreed to during the period of first European contact. The imperatives were to find territory to support smaller populations of Anishinaabeg (Ojibway communities); to not let the Europeans gather us together in large numbers; to not show them the "shiny stuff" lest they gather among us in large numbers; and to never forget that we are Anishinaabe.
So it is no surprise that our ancestors agreed to settle in territory that would support us. Through treaties, "reserves" become our homelands. However, because of continuing land and resource development, on which the economy of Canada continues to be almost solely dependent, Canada's Indian Agents helped to expropriate a large chunk of our reserves. In my treaty, which involves most of northwestern Ontario and a small part of Manitoba, we also agreed to revenue sharing. However, reserves that were to be chosen by our chiefs were disputed by a land-hungry Ontario. In fact, Ontario fought all the way to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England to dispute the understanding between Canada and my ancestors. Sadly, Ontario's new interpretation of our solemn treaty won out.
Another sad feature of this reinterpretation of my treaty was that our homelands were to be set aside by agreement and compromise between Ontario and Canada.
In the 19th century, the chief of Whitefish Bay First Nation sent word to Crown representatives that it "agitated his heart" that he was to be placed on lands that were largely rocks and bog. Along with not being able to exploit the lands and revenues that we agreed to share in our treaty, our hunting and fishing rights were over-policed, with several wrongful convictions made by the Ontario government. It is interesting that now I am meeting with the Ontario government as a representative of my people on the "resource sharing file."
And it is especially interesting that arguments of equity and fairness are used against our claims for revenue-sharing arrangements. Either Ontario is forgetting its own history or its politicians are simply ignoring it. It was hoped that Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, would be transformative and right past wrongs done to First Nations. Unfortunately, it has done little but protect rights such as hunting and fishing that already were protected in treaties.
I am particularly troubled at how the concept of equity has been turned on its ear to argue against the "special" rights of treaty-rights holders. Treaties were agreed to exist "forever." Like constitutions, they should be held as the highest law of the land. My ancestors unfortunately never read Adam Smith or Machiavelli to understand the true nature of European-based societies. While my ancestors have attempted to right the failed relationship, I read documents from Indian Affairs' files that reveal the small evils against "Indians" that were regarded as necessary for the greater good of Canada.
It is no wonder that the call by Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, for self-criticism by Canada over its "aboriginal" policy had so little resonance in the media.
Ontario and Canada need to remove their blinders regarding justice for First Nations. Canada's long-held dirty secret has now been exposed on the world stage. Through the United Nations' Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, we may need to force you to move forward.