John McLean was a Christian missionary who lived for nine years with the Blood (Kainai) Indians in present-day Southern Alberta, learning their language, customs and traditions. Based on this, in 1889, at the request of the Smithsonian Institution, he wrote The...
Peter Best
A Distant Canadian Mirror–The Indians of Canada
Written in 1889 by John McLean: Christian Missionary, Philologist and Ethnologist The antagonism existing between the customs, intellects, and lives of the two races, and the despondency consequent upon the changed life of the Indians are important factors in...
A Lamentable Tale of Two Colonies
During the whole of recorded history, the empire has been the most constant and common form of political organization. A basic, self-evident feature of all empire-building has been the successful occupation of the lands of the local, Indigenous inhabitants by outside...
The Never-Ending, Debilitating, Civic Childhood of Canada’s Aboriginal People
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. -Corinthians 1 It is the right of all capable, adult citizens of Canada to share the same civic rights and to shoulder the same...
Featured News
Weaponizing the Law
The indictment of former U.S. president Donald Trump for crimes invented by his political opponents is the most egregious example yet seen of the weaponizing of the law. The United States is now full of examples. However, in Canada, we also see the law being...
“Looking At” Seizing Control Over Western Canada’s Natural Resources
OTTAWA, REGINA - Last week, two things happened that could have profound impacts on natural resources development in Saskatchewan. One is a hint the federal government might want to take control of natural resources away from the provinces, and the other is the...
Why Indigenous Land Acknowledgments are Harmful to the Public Interest
“... if it was not so serious Espanola’s declaration or whatever it is would be laughable, but it is not alone … So few realize if this .. continues some years from now it will be used in some claim.” -Retired Supreme Court Justice Jack Major. The...
Rewriting Canada’s Citizenship Oath to “Recognize Indigenous Peoples” is Wrong and Harmful
On October 23rd, 2020, Immigration Minister announced that the Liberal government will soon introduce a bill to alter the Oath of Citizenship making it “more inclusive,” and the minister says that “this bill will serve as “one more vital bill step towards...
De-Stabilizing Court Decision Further Erodes Crown Sovereignty
In December, 2018, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released its Restoule decision rendering Canada and Ontario equally liable to pay the 21 Robinson Treaties bands their “fair” share of all Crown revenue received from sales, leases and licenses, less expenses,...