The answer to his approach lay in the political and military environment of the time. On both the Atlantic and Pacific fronts, early developments promised a more mutually beneficial approach to European-Aboriginal engagement than what ultimately transpired.
In the initial years of contact, the balance of power was still in flux. Because the European technological and military advantage was ultimately so overwhelming it is easy to forget how organized, sophisticated, and powerful many Aboriginal Nations were in those days. The Europeans desperately needed them as trading partners, wilderness-survival tutors, and military allies. This also gave him the support he needed to prevail over these competing colonizing and trading interests.
If you are interested in learning more about the court cases that support Aboriginal rights, consider signing up for our free, monthly Indigenous Relations Bulletin. Catharines Milling case of was used to settle a constitutional dispute between the governments of Ontario and Canada. During the case, lawyers for the Ontario government argued that the Royal Proclamation was of no force in the legal expression of Aboriginal rights.
However, in , Supreme Court judge Emmett Hall expressed quite a different view of the proclamation. The implications of this decision are that Indigenous land rights are legally enforceable over other large areas of the country. Whether the constitutional applicability of the Royal Proclamation refers to all of Canada or only to parts of the country is an ongoing source of debate.
Another question to be faced is whether the Proclamation is itself the source of Indigenous land rights, or whether it merely acknowledges and confirms pre-existing rights. The proclamation is referenced in section 25 of the Constitution Act, see also Constitution Act, Document. It also assures that its interpretation will remain an important part of any attempt to clarify Indigenous rights in Canadian law.
The th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation was marked in with an academic conference called Creating Canada. That has not happened. From Historica Canada.
Search The Canadian Encyclopedia. Remember me. I forgot my password. Why sign up? Create Account. They did so partly through diplomacy and also by facilitating the missionary activities of the Moravian Brethren, which gathered strength with the foundation of the Nain Mission Station in Colonial settlement on any significant scale, however, remained predictably absent. Environmental reasons and the imperial purposes for the coast of Labrador meant that, as on the island of Newfoundland, settlement was neither proscribed nor encouraged.
However, not only were the grants and settlements small in relation to the overall geography, but also the absence of any preceding Indigenous land surrender logically brought the region within the general category recognized by the Proclamation of lands that had been neither ceded to nor purchased by the Crown, contrary to the current strictures expressed by the Supreme Court of Canada in its judgment in the cases of R.
Bernard and R. Stephen Marshall. Settler encroachments not only caused profound environmental and economic harm to Indigenous communities, notably through agriculture and the disruption of transportation routes. It also led to the granting of land to colonists on an unprecedented scale. And we do further expressly conjoin and require all Officers whatever, as well Military as those Employed in the Management and Direction of Indian Affairs, within the Territories reserved as aforesaid for the use of the said Indians, to seize and apprehend all Persons whatever, who standing charged with Treason, Misprisions of Treason, Murders, or other Felonies or Misdemeanors, shall fly from Justice and take Refuge in the said Territory, and to send them under a proper guard to the Colony where the Crime was committed, of which they stand accused, in order to take their Trial for the same.
Given at our Court at St. In this thesis, Patricia Margaret Hutchings argues for the continuing application of the Royal Proclamation of to assert Aboriginal title in British Columbia and examines its legal force and effect in relation to pre-Confederation colonial legislation.
This thesis is available in UBC libaries. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall, Read More No Comments. Click for Topics A-Z.
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