Canada’s Colonialism

Our prime minister claims that Canada has no history of colonialism. He couldn’t be more wrong.

Stephen Harper wants the world to know how great Canada is. Fantastic. I like Canada too. It is a great country.

But it could be greater still if every citizen really examined the relationship between Canada’s past and Canada’s present.

And I have a suggestion about who should go first in this reckoning. At the G20 Summit last September, our prime minister boasted that we “have no history of colonialism." That the leader of our country can stand in front of dignitaries from around the world and speak these words is a testament to just how far we have to go in really understanding our national history.

While it is true that Canada has never had a formal colonial relationship with another country, we do have a colonial history. It just sits a little closer to home. To ignore this is akin to overlooking the crimes of a domestic abuser because they are only committed in his or her home.

Colonialism means acquiring control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. That Canada’s foundational history fits squarely into this definition should be a matter beyond debate.

It is time we faced the truth. Canada was and still is a colonial project.

Truth #1:

Canada was created through a process of acquiring control over lands occupied by other nations.

Let us use one example, just to make things clear. In 1878, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald instituted the National Policy to establish greater national cohesion. The policy included a commitment to the construction of a transcontinental railway, a protective tariff on imports, and western settlement. Its implementation required land: land for the railway, land for settlers, and land over which Canada could exercise the political control necessary to exploit the West’s natural wealth. To get it, Canada undertook the project of western treaty-making, implemented the reserve system administered under the Indian Act, and introduced land scrip for the Metis.

It is true. Canada was created through a process of acquiring control over lands on which Aboriginal Peoples already lived.

Truth #2:

Canada was built as a settler society.

Again, this is common knowledge. As many of you will recall, the first permanent settlements in what would become Canada were established in the name of France and England in the 1600's. Statistics Canada proudly explains that Jean Talon conducted a census of New France – North America’s first – between 1665 and 1666. The census enumerated 3,215 inhabitants of European descent, including three schoolmasters, five bakers, nine millers, and 36 carpenters. These were settlers. And their settler societies would eventually extend from coast to coast.

Let us also recall that it was the decedents of these and of later settlers who would form and control the Canadian government. Until 1960, Status Indians could not vote in a federal election unless they first gave up their right to be registered under the Indian Act, their treaty rights and their statutory right to property tax exemption. That is, until they agreed to become part of the settler society. Since Confederation, only 15 Metis, eight First Nations, and five Inuit have served as Members of Parliament. Today, of 304 MPs, three are Metis, one is First Nations, and one is Inuit. That means despite forming 3.8 per cent of Canada’s current population, Aboriginal people constitute less than one per cent of federally elected officials.

It is true. Canada’s government was, and continues to be, a Parliament for the settler majority.

Truth #3:

Canada’s economy was built, and continues to depend upon, the exploitation of Canada’s land and resources for the benefit of its settlers. Canada’s reliance on natural resources has been an integral part of its economic strategy since its inception. In the early sixteenth century, European fishermen took cod from the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and the Gulf of St Lawrence. These same fishermen began trading their European wares for furs caught by local First Nations people. The rest, as we say, is history.

The establishment of other primary industries, including agriculture, forestry, mining, and oil and gas development, followed quickly. Today, these primary industries consistently contribute between 5 and 10 per cent of our total economy. This makes the question of who owns, controls, and benefits from these resources as paramount today as it was when Macdonald instituted the National Policy in 1878.

Disputes over the control of these resources continue to abound. Indigenous people from Akwasasne, Tyendinaga, Six Nations, Athabasca Chipewyan, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Secwepemc, to name only some, are confronting governments and industries engaged in mineral exploration, logging, and resource extraction activities that they argue infringe on their autonomy over the lands left to them during the treaty process and fail to benefit their communities.

It is true. Canada’s economy was built, and continues to depend upon, the exploitation of Canada’s land and resources for the benefit of its settler society.

Truth and Reconciliation

These three truths matter. They tell us that Canada does have a colonial history. The fact that our prime minister could publicly claim otherwise while there are so many pending land claims also speaks to our colonial present – one that continues to pit the priorities of settlers against Aboriginal claims to use their lands as they see fit.

It is about time we confronted our past head on.

On June 11, 2008, Stephen Harper apologized for the Canadian government’s role in the residential school system. This apology no doubt directed more attention to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was established “to inform all Canadians about what happened in Indian Residential Schools” and “to guide and inspire Aboriginal peoples and Canadians in a process of reconciliation and renewed relationships that are based on mutual understanding and respect.”

The residential school system inflicted two related, but distinct, offences on Aboriginal people. The first was, of course, the incidences of abuse and neglect suffered by students. The second was the policy of assimilation that motivated much of the ethos of these schools – the desire to “kill the Indian in the Child.”

This policy cannot be separated from Canada’s colonial history. The policy assumed that the economic, social, political, and religious practices and values of the colonists should shape Canada’s national identity. It was motivated by the desire to maintain the dominance of settler communities. In this sense, might we not understand the residential school system as a mechanism with which to break Aboriginal cultural connections to the land in order to facilitate their domination?

Once this truth becomes part of our common parlance, we will be able to claim to be truly engaged in a process of Truth and Reconciliation. The first step is, of course, to recognize our colonial history.

We need not be afraid of our colonial history. In fact, it is the denial of it that fuels the conflicts that continue to simmer and flare up between Aboriginal communities and the Government of Canada.

If we as a nation could look at our past with clear eyes, we would recall that the Royal Proclamation of 1763 named Aboriginal peoples as independent nations. We would recall that it is members of these independent nations that are seeking to reclaim their culture and assert their rights to lands they consider to belong to them. We would recognize that living in a place with such rich diversity and tradition is part of what makes Canada great, and so we would seek to respect all the claims to Canada’s wealth.

Stephen Harper might have been wrong about Canada’s history of colonialism, but he was right about Canada being great. Right now, we have an opportunity to show ourselves and the world just how great we can be.