Quote:
Originally Posted by lio45
My analogy was pretty close: let's imagine some old documents saying that privileges X, Y, Z were supposed to be granted to Canadiens as part of the terms of the 1760s deals following the Conquest are found to have never been fully complied with, so every single Québécois with a pulse gets a lump sum of $30,000 no strings attached wired into their bank account overnight today in 2020 to "settle" the matter.
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People in NS often bring up rights granted by old treaties from the 1700's. As in 1990's court cases may bring up treaties from the 1750's.
The 1752 peace treaty between Britain and the Mi'kmaq in NS included:
That all Transactions during the late War shall on both sides be buried in Oblivion with the Hatchet, and that the said Indians shall have all favour, Friendship & Protection shewn them from this His Majesty's Government.
Cornwallis came up with this treaty, and both sides agreed to it, but people were tearing down Cornwallis statues in the 2010's due to events that happened during the war.
It had fishing rights in it (with no environmental protections; that was not a concern in 1700's NS):
It is agreed that the said Tribe of Indians shall not be hindered from, but have free liberty of Hunting & Fishing as usual: and that if they shall think a Truckhouse needful at the River Chibenaccadie or any other place of their resort, they shall have the same built and proper Merchandize lodged therein, to be Exchanged for what the Indians shall have to dispose of, and that in the mean time the said Indians shall have free liberty to bring for Sale to Halifax or any other Settlement within this Province, Skins, feathers, fowl, fish or any other thing they shall have to sell, where they shall have liberty to dispose thereof to the best Advantage.
Nobody mentions this:
That the Indians shall use their best Endeavours to save the lives and goods of any People Shipwrecked on this Coast, where they resort, and shall Conduct the People saved to Halifax with their Goods, & a Reward adequate to the Salvadge shall be given them.
https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/11.../1100100029041
I think at some point Canada needs to move past 1700's style legal treatment of distinct ethnic groups. And there should be more appreciation that parts of Canada have had fairly balanced treaties for a really long time. It was not a free-for-all of Europeans doing whatever they felt like to indigenous people even in 1755, although the frontier existed for a long time and the rule of law there was weak or nonexistent.