No Place for Fairness: Indigenous Land Rights and Policy in the Bear Island Case and Beyond

by David T. McNab

Overview

Aboriginal policy and claims negotiation in Canada is seen to be a murky and perplexing world that has become an important public issue and has significant policy implications for government spending. Aboriginal land policy in Canada began as an Aboriginal initiative. In No Place for Fairness, David McNab - a long time advisor on land and treaty rights for both government and First Nations groups - looks at the Bear Island Indigenous rights case, initiated by the Teme-Augama Anishinabe, to explore why governments fail to deal effectively with Aboriginal land claims. The book, divided into two sections, includes a survey of the historical background of the Bear Island claim followed by a more personal series of reflections about what happened as the claim encountered decades of policy hurdles, court cases, public protests, and above all resistance by the Temagami First Nation. McNab provides details of how ministers and their senior officials resisted real efforts to resolve problems as well as examples of field staff resisting government attempts at resolution. He also shows that government entities such as the Indian Commission of Ontario and the Native Affairs Directorate were largely used as "mailboxes" where successive federal and provincial governments sent things they wanted to bury. No Place for Fairness is the story of what happens when Aboriginal peoples' political rights are crammed into the Euro-Canadian legal system. McNab makes a clear case that a legalistic approach to these problems is wholly inadequate and that more important things - like fairness - must be recognized as paramount if a just and lasting Aboriginal land policy is to be created.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773583368
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2009
Series:	McGill-Queen's Indigenous and Northern Studies , #59
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

David T. McNab is associate professor, Indigenous studies, York University. A Métis historian, he has worked on Indigenous rights in Canada for over thirty years.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction 3

1 Meeting Places and Negotiations, 1763-1850s 10

2 First Nations and British Imperial "Civilization" Policy in the Early Nineteenth Century 20

3 Stories of Teme-Augama Anishnabai Land Rights and the Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850 and Its Aftermath 39

4 "Don't fix it": Reflections on Ontario Aboriginal Policy and Processes, 1976-1984 55

5 The Bear Island Trial, the Steele Judgement, and the First Settlement Offer, 1982-1986 75

6 Bear Island and Land Rights under a Liberal Majority, 1986-1988 90

7 The Temagami Blockade of 1988 111

8 The 1989 Blockades and the 1990 Treaty of Co-Existence 134

9 Oka and the Blockades in Northern Ontario, Summer 1990 152

10 Reflections since the 1990s 168

Retrospect: Towards a Place for Fairness 188

Acronyms 193

Notes 195

Bibliography 221

Index 233

Editorial Reviews

"No Place for Fairness is a powerful piece of writing and a path-breaking study in the field of land claims, revealing the inner workings of the government. It deserves a wide readership." John S. Long, Nipissing University

"McNab is uniquely positioned to shed light on a topic of vital interest to Canadian public debate because of his extensive experience inside the Aboriginal land claims process. Part memoir, part history, No Place for Fairness is a unique and valuable contribution to our understanding of Canadian policy on Aboriginal affairs." Kerry Abel, author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History

From the Publisher