Théorie politique

H12 - Reconciliation: Indigenizing Settler Institutions?

Date: May 31 | Heure: 02:00pm to 03:30pm | Location: Classroom - CL 410 Room ID:15722

Chair/Président/Présidente : Loren King (Wilfrid Laurier University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Loren King (Wilfrid Laurier University)

Clash of the Legal Theories: The Hidden Task in Acknowledging Indigenous Legal Traditions in Canada: Melany Banks (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Abstract: In Canada’s Indigenous Constitution (2010) John Borrows argues that for many Indigenous people in Canada the dominant legal traditions (common law and civil) do not accurately capture their experiences both in terms of their relationships with one another and with the land. Further, Borrows argues Indigenous legal traditions must be recognized as a part of the legal system in Canada. Borrows’ project is important, perhaps essential, to the larger project of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Canada. The Canadian court system has largely treated Indigenous legal traditions (historical and continuing) as evidence of socio-cultural norms, not legal norms. As such, recognition and elevation of such legal traditions appears to be the logical solution. Arguably, Borrows’ approach relies on an assumption that Indigenous legal traditions and the common and civil law in Canada are sufficiently similar and thus, could work alongside one another. In one sense this may be true: both systems contain commands and penalties, and therefore, may appear similar. However, I argue we must investigate the underlying source of legitimization in each system. These disparate metaphysical worldviews highlight the crucial ways in which these two legal systems differ. If this difference goes unacknowledged it will in the least problematize the integration of Indigenous legal traditions, and at worst it will undermine the entire project of reconciliation. Therefore, I propose this metaphysical difference be taken seriously, which may in turn indicate which options are viable options as we move towards reconciliation.

Consolidating the Canadian “Peaceable Kingdom”, 1876-1885: The Place of Liberal Colonial Progress in Indigenous Dispossession and Subjugation: Elena Choquette (University of British Columbia)
Abstract: This presentation exposes some of the theoretical tensions internal to the life of liberal colonialism within the Canadian settler Dominion, from 1867 to 1885, by examining a number of moments in its politico-territorial consolidation. I undertake to investigate the processes of territorial, agrarian and pioneering expansion and densification unfolding during these years, which produced indigenous dispossession and subjugation. To do so, I present an analysis of the Dominion’s parliamentary debates on the joining of Manitoba in the Canadian federation (1870), on the adoption of Dominion Lands Act (1872), on the creation of the Northwest Mounted Police (1873) and on the Proclamation transferring Britain’s Arctic territories to the Dominion (1880). Distinguishing some of the recurring elements in the discourse enclosed in these documents, I find that progress – of lands and peoples – is a key conceptual tool that simultaneously enabled and ennobled settler colonial dispossession and assimilation. Detailing how liberalism organised liberty to secure and legitimise settler colonial purposes, this research sheds a new light on the larger liberal tradition and its historical connection to settler colonialism in the second half of the 19th century in British Dominions. By tracing some of the disempowering and epistemically destructive effects of the liberal colonial impetus to improve lands and peoples, I finally bring into view some of the most important perils of its distinct understanding of progress.