In 1892 the Ontario government passed the Ontario Game and Fisheries Act. This legislation, designed to conserve wildlife throughout the province, was applied to Native peoples residing in Ontario. This led to conflict between the Ontario government, through its Game Commission, the Dominion government, via Indian Affairs, and Aboriginal peoples throughout the province. Natives, in this thesis the Ojibwa of the Robinson Treaties, were and are a federal responsibility under the constitution. Ontario, however, was acting within its constitutional jurisdiction by regulating a natural resource within its provincial boundaries. The conflict arose over whether provincial legislation can be applied to an area of federal concern, and contrary to promises contained within the Robinson Treaties that the Ojibwa could continue to hunt trap and fish as they had "heretofore been in the habit of doing." Beyond this constitutional and jurisdictional level, political concerns also played a part. Indian Affairs' bureaucrats were not completely adverse to regulating Ojibwa hunting as a means of hastening its own policy of acculturation, and they were unwilling to openly challenge the Ontario government over Native rights. The Ontario Game Commission, and its later incarnation was unwilling to compromise its control over wildlife which during the twentieth century became an increasingly important resource. The Ojibwa, politically powerless, lost control of the one resource which they were guaranteed access to by the Crown during treaty negotiations in 1850: wildlife. Ojibwa arguments for continued access were founded almost exclusively on the Robinson Treaties, but these were agreements which neither the Dominion nor the Ontario government were interested in.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/8656 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Calverley, David. |
| Contributors | Behiels, Michael, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 460 p. |
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