DISAGREES WITH MILL RIVER COURT DECISION
I couldn’t disagree more with the P.E.I. Court of Appeal ruling against the P.E.I. Mi’kmaq and their legal title to 300-plus acres at the Mill River Resort. It was particularly egregious to see the language of the judgment refer to the “weakness” of the Mi’kmaq claim. I wonder how much members of that court actually know about the horrific history of Indigenous Peoples and colonization in Canada involving stolen land, broken treaty promises and forced dislocation from their traditional territory.
Have not the P.E.I. Mi’kmaq, the original inhabitants, lived off this land for some 12,000 years? Is there some comprehensive land treaty between the Mi’kmaq and non-Indigenous people on P.E.I. that I’m not aware of? Is there a legal document that the Court of Appeal can point to that shows definitively that the Mi’kmaq extinguished their title to the land on P.E.I.?
As I understand it, they signed Peace and Friendship treaties with colonial governments that scrupulously stayed away from the Mi’kmaq ceding title to the land. So, on what legal basis is the Mi’kmaq claim weak when you consider that they have inhabited that same land for over 12,000 years? One would think that the longer the Mi’kmaq inhabited this unceded territory, the stronger their legal claim to the land should be.
This judicial ruling, then, is especially disappointing at a time when this country is supposed to be seeking reconciliation with our First Peoples. It’s troubling that members of the P.E.I. Court of Appeal have not been following the general trajectory of recent Indigenous jurisprudence at the Supreme Court of Canada level.
Perhaps Senator Murray Sinclair, the former Chief Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, put it best in a recent op-ed piece: “… Lawmakers, judges and lawyers are the gatekeepers to the justice system. Until they understand the truth of our history and their role in making change, our country will not be able to move forward.” In short, when are people in high places going to start hearing that message —and then, more importantly, acting on it?
Peter McKenna is a professor in the Department of Political Science at UPEI.