Call to Action, July 18, 2013

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”                                                                                          

– Margaret Mead

Will it ever end — the news of the injustice, the cruelty, the now evident nutritional experiments on starving Aboriginal people by the Government of Canada? Many Aboriginal people are still living with the direct effects of residential schools and other racist policies. Recently revealed medical records of Dr. Peter Bryce, former Medical Inspector for the Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa contain details of a reported death rate of nearly 50% in western Indian residential schools in 1907. He published a book in 1922 called “The Story of a National Crime: An Appeal for Justice to the Indians of Canada” which outlined his findings, but the last residential school in Canada was not closed until 1996.

Let this latest news of the forced starvation of Aboriginal children be not just another news story. Non-Aboriginal Canada, we must step forward and acknowledge the reality of what has been perpetuated by some of our ancestors (mine included) on the original people of this land (see a few examples, below). My ancestors moved to Saskatchewan to “homestead” – virtually given land by the Government. Land that should not have been the Government’s to give.

Remember Nelson Mandela in his hospital bed, who spent his life fighting Apartheid? Do we know that White South Africa learned how to create Bantustans (reserves) for Black South Africans from the Canadian government?  Bantustans consisted of the least useful land in the country. The South African government also learned how to limit the movement of people from Canada – did you know that the passbook laws of South Africa were Canadian ideas?

Each of us must DO SOMETHING today. Read news reports. Talk to someone about it. Teach someone. Reach out to the authorities to do more to help heal the pain. The apology of 2008 was only one small step. There must be restitution.

Charlene Hay

Executive Director

Centre for Race and Culture

Canada’s Bureaucratic Colonization of Indigenous Peoples
(accessed from: http://www.peoplescommission.org/files/poped/05.%20A%20History%20of%20Racism.doc.pdf)

1763 – Royal Proclamation: explicitly protects native sovereignty and specifies nation-to-nation treaties as the only means for obtaining Crown title. Enshrines fiduciary obligation.

1857 – The Gradual Civilization Act – stripped Native citizenship and legal rights. If Indians were educated, free of debt and of “good moral character” (i.e. assimilated), they could apply for and be awarded 20 hectares of land. This land was taken from reserve land and privatized, breaking the tradition of collectively shared land and awarded to men only. This act recommended that Native organizations eventually be replaced by municipal-style governments. Foreshadows “First Nations Self-Governance Agreements” today.

1867 – The British Parliament passes the British North American Act creating the Dominion of Canada. Section 129 of the Act confirms the Canadian government is bound by British legislation, including the Royal Proclamation of 1763.

1869 – Act for the Gradual Enfranchisement of Indians is passed. The Governor in Council is given power to impose the Band Council system of governance on Indian reservations and to remove from office those considered “unqualified or unfit”.

1871 – The colony of British Columbia joins Canada without the consent of Native Peoples. The terms of the Union acknowledge the Royal Proclamation of 1763.

1876 – Canada passes the Indian Act in violation of imperial and constitutional law. The Indian Act, as a policy of cultural genocide, is specifically designed to eradicate native culture and expropriate land and resources for profit and settlement. The Act prohibits Native women from running for Band Council or voting on land surrenders which require 50% agreement by males. The Canadian government gains complete control over who can purchase the Native land, the terms of the sale, and the price paid for surrenders.

Initially, purchasers pay a 10% down payment and carry a mortgage for the balance. As long as the annual interest is paid, the principal is not required. The annual income from the interest is supposed to be used to make annual payment, in perpetuity to the Indians who “sold” the land. This money is held “in trust” and administered to Indians through Canada’s Indian Agents. Canada uses “trust” monies to build Canadian infrastructure, health and welfare systems.

1876 – The Indian Act is amended to give the Canadian government control over timber extraction rates and terms.

1879 – Indian Act Amendment Bill passed, includes “Trespass, Timber, and Illicit Sale or Exchange” law which enable complete government control over the most micro-economic transactions of commerce including collection of debt, passing on inheritance to a family member, or division of family estates. The “Incitement of Indians to Riot” law includes 2-6 months imprisonment for the celebration of Potlatch, a ceremony which played a central role in Indigenous politics, social, economic and spiritual systems.

1880 – The Indian Act creates the Department of Indian Affairs, and empowered its Superintendent General to enforce imposition of the elective system of Band Council government. This legislation deprives remaining traditional leaders of recognition by stating only spokespeople for the Band are those elected according to the Indian Act.

1881 – Amendment to the Indian Act makes it illegal for Indians to “sell, barter, or trafficfish”.

1884 – “Indian Advancement Act” confers certain privileges for more “advanced” bands of Indians of Canada with the view of training them for municipal affairs. It gives the

Band Council power to levy taxes and extends council’s power over police and public health matters. Most reserves refuse to come under Act.

1884 – Indian Act amended so the Superintendent General of the Department of Indian Affairs can lease Native land to non-natives.

1885 – Permit system instituted for Indians absent from reserves.

1885-97 – Off-reserve Native men and male veterans east of Manitoba are granted limited voting rights. On-reserve men only able to vote with the surrender of their exemption from Income Tax.

1887 – An order-in-council pertaining to mining is adopted. This regulation allows exploration on both surrendered and unsurrendered lands with approval of the Superintendent General of the Department of Indian Affairs. If a third party wishes to secure a mining location, they pay the government (again “in trust” for Indigenous Peoples) $5 per acre along with a royalty fee of 4% of revenues.

1894 – Amendment to the Indian Act authorizes the forced relocation of Native children to residential boarding schools where Native language, culture, traditions, customs, values, and even clothing is forbidden and punished.

1895 – Indian Act amended so that traditional Native leaders elected to Band Council office, but deemed unfit and thrown out by the DIA, could not be re-elected by the people as was practiced in resistance to colonialism and in the fight for self-determination. Traditional Sundances, Pow-wows, and again the Potlatch are outlawed.

1910 – Indian Act amended so “No contracts or agreements are binding…either made by chiefs or councilors of any band…shall be valid or of any force or effect unless or until it has been approved by the Superintendent General” of the Department of Indian Affairs.

1911 – Two amendments to the Indian Act give the Department of Indian Affairs the authority to expropriate native land, first for “the purpose of any railway, road, public work or any work designed for public utility”, and second, “In the case of an Indian reserve which adjoins or is situated wholly or partly within an incorporated town or city having a population of not less than 8,000” land can be expropriated if “expropriation is expedient for public and Indians”, then “Indians should be removed from the reserve or any part of it”.

1919 – Act amended so that “Any Native woman, who marries any person other than an Indian, or a non-treaty Indian, shall cease to be an Indian in every respect within the meaning of this Act”.

1920 – Indian Act amended for the compulsory enfranchisement, the relinquishment of Indian Status, in return for voting privileges. The bill “allowed for the enfranchisement of an Indian against his will following a report by a person appointed by the Superintendent General on his suitability”.

1920 – Federal government passes legislation making it mandatory for all native children, 7 years or older, in BC (the least Christianized province) to attend residential schools or face fines and prison terms.

1924 – Indian Act amended to allow the DIA to “authorize and direct” the expenditure of Band funds for capital projects which would promote “progress”.

1927 – Indian Act amended to prohibit “lawyers and other agitators from collecting money from Indians for the pursuit of claims against the government without departmental approval”. For over 30 years First Nations are prohibited from raising money for, or even using the courts as a means to pursue grievances on land issues and claims.

1927 – $73 million held in “trust” fund for Indians, accumulated through mineral and resource extraction from Indian lands, is liquidated to create Canada’s social programs.

1928 – Alberta passes its Sexual Sterilization Act which allows for the sterilization of any Residential School inmate.

1933 – BC passes its Sexual Sterilization Act which allows for sterilization of Residential School inmates.

1951 – Amendment to the Indian Act allows First Nations people to drink alcohol in accordance with provincial or territorial regulations. They are not, however, permitted to be drunk in public.

1952 – After 25 years, the 1927 ban on Indians pursuing claims in court is repealed.

1960 – All First Nations accorded full voting rights

And on-going into the current era…