Settler Colonial Violence Against Canada’s Indigenous Peoples
Shelby Johnston, Online Staff Writer
November 20, 2020
Dyck, Darryl. No title. Photograph. January 20, 2019. British Columbia, Canada. Accessed via CTV News.
Canada prides itself as being a peacekeeping nation, and the Canadian Government boasts about its efforts to reconcile with its Indigenous peoples. While the relationship between the Canadian state and Indigenous nations has always been fraught, in recent years the relationship between the Canadian Government, non-Indigenous people, and Indigenous nations has become increasingly hostile.
In 2015, the Liberal Party of Canada and its leader Justin Trudeau ran on a platform of Indigenous reconciliation, promising to reform Indigenous education, promoting the Kelowna Act and creating an inquiry on the advice of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Now in their second term, the Liberals have done little to fulfill their campaign promises to Indigenous peoples. There has been next to no education reform, no action taken from the suggestions put forth but the Truth and Reconciliation Commision and an ostracization of prominent Indigenous politician Jody Wilson-Raybould for her unwillingness to cooperate during the SNC-Lavalin Scandal. Canada’s relationship with its Indigenous peoples is nowhere near as perfect as they project to both domestic and international audiences.
In 2020, Indigenous people are fighting multiple battles in order to protect their treaty rights, safety, and livelihoods. The first battle arose as a protest against the Coastal GasLink (CGL) natural gas pipeline project set to run through northern British Columbia and right through the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s territory. This battle began in 2019 upon the proposal of the pipeline, however, it was reignited at the approval of the project in 2020.
The Coastal GasLink pipeline is a 670 kilometer pipeline meant to carry natural gas across Northern British Columbia. The company originally signed 20 agreements with each territory along the pipeline route, including the Wet’suwet’en territory. However, the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation have come out in strong opposition towards the pipeline, condemning the elected band council members who signed the agreement with CGL. A number of large protests emerged on Wet’suwet’en territory along the pipeline route, and tensions escalated when the British Columbia Supreme Court granted CGL an injunction against the Wet’suwet’en members blocking access to the pipeline. After several instances of the RCMP attempting to negotiate the protestors off the land, they were forcefully removed and over 20 people were arrested. This is a significant issue for the Wet’suwet’en people.
The Wet’suwet’en First Nations has an elected chief and council produced by the colonial system of Governance created under the Indian act. However, the Wet’suwet’en Nation includes both the elected bands and the traditional hereditary clan system. Five of the six elected band councils within the Wet’suwet’en Nation have signed benefit agreements with the pipeline company, while one did not sign as they are not on the pipeline route. The hereditary chiefs strongly oppose the pipeline and cite the 1997 Supreme Court decision of Delgamuukw vs. British Columbia which is a decision that recognizes that the Wet’suwet’en Nations have a “system of laws that predates colonialism.” The decision also recognizes that the Wet’suwet’en territory was never ceded to the federal government, and therefore their land and government do not belong to the elected chiefs and councils created under the Indian Act.
Multiple protests were organized in support of the Wet’suwet’en land rights dispute. A nearly month-long protest led by Indigenous youth created a blockade of the ceremonial entrance to the British Columbia Legislature. Attempts were made by government officials to hold a meeting, in which the youth took advantage of their access to the legislature in attempts to hold a sit in. They encouraged their peers to protest outside and completely surround the legislature. It was at this point that arrests were made and crowds dispersed. The next blockade occured in Belleville Ontario on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Reserve which halted train travel along two of VIA rail’s busiest Ontario routes. The protest lasted for more than a week causing a serious impact on freight and consumer travel. The blockade ended with an injunction and the violent removal of protestors. The second road blockade is located in Caledonia Ontario on the land of the Haudenosaunee peoples and has spanned for months, moving locations along the Provincial highway. The Caledonia blockade has recently been reinstated as a result of a second land rights issue occurring in Nova Scotia.
In September, a conflict arose between the Sipekne'katik First Nation and commercial fishers in Weymouth, Nova Scotia. The Sipekne’katik launched a self-regulated lobster fishery outside the federally regulated commercial fishing season. The Supreme Court of Canada decision dissented upon by Justice Marshall found that East Coast Indigenous communities, “have the right to fish for a moderate livelihood, citing peace treaties signed by the Crown in the 1760s.”
On September 18, a confrontation broke out between the Mi’kmaq and non-indigenous fishers on the wharf of the self-regulated fishery in Weymouth, Nova Scotia. Multiple arrests were made as a result of the incident. A few days later, a group of non-indigenous fishers removed traps that were set by the Sipekne’katik First Nation in St. Marys Bay in protest that the Mi’kmaq fishery was threatening lobster stocks by fishing outside of the commercial season.
In October, a lobster pound in New Edinburgh Nova Scotia was ransacked “while rocks were thrown and a vehicle was set on fire at another pound in Middle West Pubnico, Nova Scotia.” These events attracted a total of about 200 people at both incidents, which incited a series of violent events. Including a lobster pound in “Middle West Pubnico holding the catch of Mi’kmaq fishers being destroyed by fire.” The situation continues to progress daily becoming more violent as days’ pass.
In both instances, the Provincial and Federal Government have remained neutral. The government has agreed to speak with both CGL and the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, however nine months have passed and no substantive action has been taken to protect the Wet'suwet'en Nations right to their land. Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan and Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett “affirm that the Mi’kmaq have a constitutionally protected treaty right to fish in pursuit of a moderate livelihood.” However, the government has yet to respond in an adequate way to protect the Mi’kmaq people’s right to self-regulated fishing and have left the Indigenous people of Canada to fight yet another land battle on their own.
The Canadian Government has failed to protect Indigenous land right claims, leading the Indigenous peoples of Canada to continue to fight against settler colonialism and the harsh restrictions imposed by the Indian Act, as well as individual violence against them. Many of these land rights claims were dissented upon decades ago by the Supreme Court of Canada, and the Canadian Government has failed to uphold and protect these dissents. Indigenous nations in Canada continue to fight a battle they’ve been fighting since Canada’s colonial conception. It is 2020, Indigenous peoples should not have to fight for rights that have already been fought for and granted to them.