To any Canadian living near a First Nations reserve the Sun Peaks protest in British Columbia in 2001 would be a familiar scene. It was a peaceful road blockade with a couple dozen protesters holding signs, camping out and shouting for recognition. Developers fumed because their trucks couldn’t get by, news crews are scuttled about for the story, and everyday motorists searched for alternative routes to get to work.
Sun Peaks Protest in 2004. Source: Skwelkwek’welt Protection Center
The problem comes down to this: the provincial government gave a chunk of prime mountain land to Sun Peaks Resort to turn their small ski hill renovation into a $70 million mega-resort. It was going to be a boost to the economy worth the destruction of key spiritual and hunting grounds for the Secwepewc indigenous peoples. But they forgot one little detail: it’s not their land.
Police beat and arrested protesters on the spot. Chief of the reserve, Arthur Manuel’s own daughter was arrested and detained for 60 days simply for protesting. To Manuel, who had to drive his 4-month old granddaughter to visit her mother every week in jail to nurse, the whole episode was but yet another example of the Canadian governments racist and colonial approach to his people. He had to continue upon his own activist path.
Manuel’s co-authored book Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-up Call, released in 2015 shines a light on Sun Peaks and the entrenched injustice. Beginning with a brief history of the settling of Canada and the treatment of Indigenous peoples the two authors, lifelong activist and former regional chiefs, Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ronald M. Derrickson dive into a detailed retelling of the uphill battle the indigenous rights movement has been – and continues to be – in Canada.
Author and former B.C. Chief Arthur Manuel. CBC News
The Canadian government follows two guiding principles when dealings with Indigenous peoples today that originate from settlers first contact with Indigenous peoples hundreds of years ago: 1) Make them go away and 2) take their land and profit from it.
Never have more qualified men told the Canadian indigenous story. Both men are founding members of some of the most powerful national and international Indigenous rights groups, and played key roles in when the major UN declarations, nationwide movements, and local protest plans were penned. They have spent time working with the government, working for the government and most frequently against the government. But they experience, witness and suffer the injustices the system has created first hand. The book echoes this in weaving powerful personal stories into a very detailed and political history.
The first attempt in making indigenous people ‘go away’ was the creation of reserves hundreds of years ago. Land was set aside formally by treaties for Indigenous peoples to live separate from the rest of society. The system actually inspired the apartheid system in South Africa. The out-of-sight-out-of-mind approach created chronic poverty and racism that continues today. Early 20th century activists called the reserves, the fourth world. Meaning they were place where people lived in third world conditions within a first world country.
The crushing poverty and racism drove apart families, Manuel’s included. The heartbreak bleeds through the pages as he recounts the shoddy health care and employment opportunities that lead to the separation from his parents and siblings at the young age of 7.
The 1970s brought upon the formal policy of ‘extinguishment’ of indigenous peoples in Canada. The Canadian government wanted to dissolve anything that made Indigenous peoples any different than other ethnic groups, like Italian-Canadians. This meant dismantling land treaties and forcing all indigenous children above the age of five to attend residential schools. The goal was to dismantle the indigenous culture one child at a time. Notorious for abusing children, the last of the residential schools didn’t close until the 1990s.
Even the kids of activists couldn’t avoid residential schools to get the ‘Indian taught out of them.’ Due to the lack of employment opportunities and proper health care for his injured mother, Manuel and his siblings had no other option for survival.
Sun Peaks protest in 2001. Source: Skwelkwek-welt Protection Centre
The second guiding principle take their land and profit from it allows Canada to reap economic benefits from their racist approach to indigenous peoples. The land most reserves sit on are rich with natural resources. So for centuries Canada has simply started taking the resources without permission or paying for it and giving it to corporations to use.
It’s extremely profitable and the Canadian government is banking on the system continuing. Over $650 billion worth of investments in resource extraction are expected to pour into Canada within the next 20 years and most of that development is targeted towards Indigenous lands.
Unsettling Canada includes many examples of this happening for resorts, forestry, tar sand development and much more and how the practice varies from the government simply claiming the land as their own, to setting up expensive negotiations for land that put indigenous reserves in millions of dollars in debt. However, the fight against the major abuses of land rights is strong and getting stronger with youth participation.
The likelihood of government support for the Arctic North is slim due to its very high percentage of indigenous people. But Unsettling Canada demonstrates that the Indigenous Rights Movement in Canada already has major players in its corner it can lean on in the face of climate change. Such as to environmental NGOs like the NRDC, and economic power houses like Standard & Poor’s, and the World Trade Organization to support their land treaty disputes.
Furthermore, indigenous people across the globe are finally being recognized for their invaluable roles in protecting the environment. Even the World Bank sees a major role for indigenous peoples in protecting the environment.
The book is about Unsettling Canada on two levels. It shares the indigenous movement’s goal of unsettling the Nation or undoing the colonist mindset towards indigenous peoples, like no other publication has. Prominent author and activist Naomi Klein forwarded the book and it has been awarded the Canadian Historical Association’s Canadian Aboriginal History Prize.
Yet the book is unsettling to any reader, especially Canadians. Canadians pride themselves on living in a just and fair nation. Yet Unsettling Canada shakes that understanding to its core. We aren’t just to the indigenous peoples within our own borders – still! It is a wakeup call to our unsettling reality and a battle cry to the Canadian public. The real question is: will we finally answer?