Liberal Theory as a Tool of Colonialism and the Forced Assimilation of the First Nations of Newfoundland and Labrador

• Main Author: Wetzel, Jerry
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Schulich Law Scholars 1995
• Subjects: First Nations; Newfoundland; Terre-Neuve
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/djls/vol4/iss1/4; https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/context/djls/article/1080/viewcontent/DJLS_2C_20vol4_2C_20p105_2C_20WETZEL.pdf

Between 1869 and 1985, the Indian Act presumed that once the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia could be christianised and civilised, they would voluntarily embrace enfranchisement. By 1949, almost no Mi'kmaq had volunteered. A Parliamentary review of the Indian Act concluded that voluntary enfranchisement as a policy of assimilation was not working. In 1949, when Newfoundland's confederation with Canada was negotiated, federal officials refused to assume their constitutional obligations to the Mi'kmaq, and other First Nations, in Newfoundland and Labrador, by not recognising them as Aboriginal peoples pursuant to the Indian Act. What the Indian Act had failed to accomplish in respect to assimilating Mi'kmaq people in Nova Scotia with their consent, federal officials attempted to make happen in Newfoundland and Labrador by their unilateral use of Liberal democratic theory. Federal officials asserted that because the Mi'kmaq and other First Nations peoples in Newfoundland and Labrador had been de-Indianized by their contact with white colonial society and because they had a theoretical right to vote, they could not be considered as Indians under the Indian Act. Federal officials applied a policy of “forced†enfranchisement for the first time in Canadian history to the Mi'kmaq and other First Nations peoples in Newfoundland and Labrador in 1965. This policy is still in force today in Newfoundland and Labrador. *** Entre 1869 et 1985, la Loi sur les indiens supposa qu'après avoir été «civilisé» et «chrétienisé» le peuple Mi'kmaq de la Nouvelle-Écosse accepterait le droit de vote. Jusqu'à 1949, aucun Mi'kmaq se présenta comme volontaire. Une étude parlementaire de la Loi sur les indiens conclut que la politique d'octroyer le droit de vote aux volontaires ne marchait pas comme stratégie d'assimilation. En 1949, lorsque la confédération de la Terre-Neuve avec le Canada fut négociée, les fonctionnaires fédéraux refusèrent d'assumer leurs obligations constitutionnelles envers le peuple Mi'kmaq et les autres ...