Why is it that, at a time when countless state officials are apologizing for historic wrongs and insisting that Canada has entered a period of reconciliation, many settlers continue to act towards indigenous peoples with unabated aggression and resentment? This thesis attempts to explain the continual reproduction of settler colonialism through an investigation of the processes involved in the formation of settlers as political subjects. Developing a Butlerean account of the subject, the author suggests that settlers are produced through colonial regimes as political subjects with deep and often unacknowledged investments in the reproduction of systems of oppression that provide for their material and psychic position of privilege. While the instability inherent in such systems ultimately threatens settlers themselves – as seen in the collapsing North American middle class – the fragility and precarity experienced by settlers who are targeted by neoliberal reforms often leads them to reinvest in, and aggressively defend, those very systems of power as a matter of subjective continuity. The author’s inquiry into these issues emerges from his own experience as a settler, and as an attempt to understand what motivates the aggression and resentment that many elements within his own community direct towards indigenous peoples. Because of these motivations, much of this thesis is grounded in discussions about the ways in which the author’s home community, in the southern Ontario riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, is predicated in ongoing acts of colonization. From burial ground reclamations, to mob violence, to the problems inherent in combatting white supremacy without at once critiquing settler colonialism, each of the examples brought forward in this thesis attempts to analyze why this community of settlers seemingly throbs with a collective anger and indignation that is continually directed at the Saugeen Anishinaabek. / Graduate

<p> This thesis reports the results of a study that aims to develop and implement a simple, yet effective substrate identification and classification scheme for the Owen Sound and Colpoy' s Bay region of southern Georgian Bay using side scan sonar data. Documentation of substrate types in the study area is required to enhance fish rehabilitation programs conducted by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Over 500km of side scan sonar data and 1 OOkm of sub-bottom seismic data were collected in Owen Sound and Colpoy' s Bay during the summer of 2004. Analysis of the side scan images allowed identification of seven substrate types in the two bays including mud (Facies 1), sand (Facies 2), sand with ripples or dunes (Facies 3 and 4), sand with boulders (Facies 5), boulder rich lake floors (Facies 6) and bedrock (Facies 7). Patches of aquatic vegetation could also be identified on the images. Sub-bottom seismic data collected concurrently with the side scan data were used to validate interpretations of substrate type made from side scan images. This substrate identification system appears to serve as a rapid and cost-effective method of determining substrate characteristics based solely on the geophysical properties of acquired sonar and seismic data. </p> <p> Lake floor sediment distribution maps of Owen Sound and Colpoy' s Bay were subsequently created from the side scan data using both a computer-based and a more traditional hand-drawn technique. The hand-drawn mapping technique integrated interpretation of side scan images with sub-bottom seismic data and pre-existing knowledge of bathymetry, shoreline sediment types and environmental factors and appears to present the most realistic delineation of surface sediment distributions in Owen Sound and Colpoy's Bay. Substrate types within both bays can be subdivided into three distinct zones; Zone 1 is mud-rich and lies in water depths greater than 30m; Zone 2 includes sand dominated substrates and is found in water depths of between Om and 40m and Zone 3, found on exposed shoals and in shallow water areas consists of the coarsegrained gravel and bedrock substrates preferred as fish spawning grounds. </p> <p> This is the first side scan study to have been conducted in southern Georgian Bay and the results can be used to more effectively plan and design fish rehabilitation and restoration projects in the region. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)