Conclusion
29 Concluding Remarks
We wish to conclude this text by tying together Canada’s history with that of two relevant UNDRIP articles.
Article 10
Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return. (UN General Assembly, 2007)
This article may have the most heartbreaking rationale for inclusion in UNDRIP.
In the mid-1700s, pre–American Revolution, settlers engaged with Indigenous groups in bad-faith private dealings and later called upon their colonial governments to enforce their property claims. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 (pre–American Revolution) was issued by King George III in response to this situation. This document had the effect of reserving western lands for Indigenous groups, which settlers were unhappy about. Thirteen years after its release, the Royal Proclamation became one of the enumerated reasons for rebellion in Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (Paul, 2018).
In America, the nadir of this relationship was the forcible removal of Cherokee peoples, infamously dubbed the “Trail of Tears.” The state of Georgia ignored the Supreme Court of the United States’ ruling in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), which stated that Georgia could not impose its laws on Cherokee territory. President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce this ruling. In 1838, the Cherokee were forcibly removed from their territory: 12,000 people were marched nearly 1,300 kilometres, and of those people, 4,000 died on the journey (National Park Service, 2020).
In Canada, expansion west was marked not by private dealings by settlers, but by a series of treaties created in the mid-1800s called the Numbered Treaties, which were not without controversy. Many groups claim today that the Numbered Treaties were not a treaty for the sale of land, as the Canadian government argues, but simply a “right-of-way” agreement for the sharing of land.
These Numbered Treaties did not extend to most of British Columbia. Indigenous groups argue that these lands were never ceded to the Canadian government — and with good reason. The Royal Proclamation of 1763, which is still law, states that only the Crown has the authority to purchase lands from Indigenous groups. As most of the land was never purchased by any treaty, occupation is illegal.
Aside from the wrongful occupation of territory, there are modern instances of UNDRIP Article 10 being infringed in British Columbia. This includes forcible separation of children from their parents via the residential school system and the relocation in the 1950s of the Cheslatta T’En First Nation (Windsor & Mcvey, 2005). Their territory was flooded to build Kenney Dam, a project which still powers the Rio Tinto aluminum smelter located in Kitimat, B.C. (Rio Tinto, 2010).
Article 19
States shall consu