Although the rest of Canada has a long history of treaty making,
British Columbia has refused to negotiate treaties with Natives since
1854. In 1991, B.C. reversed this position. Events across Canada in
the years 1990 and 1991 provide a case study to explain why this
decision was made.
Quebec’s Oka crisis catalyzed the decision making process underway
in B.C. First, during the Oka crisis, B.C. agreed to cooperate with the
federal government on a strategy to settle Indian land claims. Second,
following the Oka crisis, the First Nations and the federal and
provincial governments set up the B.C. Claims Task Force to recommend
how these negotiations should proceed. Third, the Task Force made
recommendations to address numerous Native grievances and to prevent
“another Oka.” Fourth, because of the changed political environment in
B.C., both governments accepted all the Task Force’s recommendations by
December 10, 1991. It can be argued that B.C. took a rational approach
in making this decision to negotiate.
The B.C. comprehensive claims conflict can be viewed as part of
the evolution of the Native/non—Native relationship in Canada. In early
Canada, the two parties initially cooperated through trading and
military alliances. Next, in the coercive phase of their relationship,
the parties interacted through treaty making and assimilation attempts.
Starting in 1969, Natives used protests, lobbying, and legal cases to confront non—Natives. Although B.C. followed a similar pattern, this
province’s most notable difference is that no major treaties were signed
here. Now, by agreeing to negotiate comprehensive land claims, B.C. is
starting to re—establish the cooperative relationship that Natives and
non—Natives initially had.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/5151 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Thomas, Patty |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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