No. 3
July 1, 2026
Canada Day 2026
The Need to Build Canada on the
New Historical Basis
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Video
Down with Colonial Confederation
For Your Information
Conception of Rights in Canada's Constitution
Process Which Led
to Adoption of BNA Act 1867
by British Parliament
June 24, 1497:
Britain's "Dominion, Title and Jurisdiction"
of Canada Begins
Canada Day 2026
The Need to Build Canada on the
New Historical Basis
Canada Day 2026 finds the working people across Canada and Quebec, alongside the Indigenous Peoples, in action on various fronts to affirm their rights, in the face of a intensifying anti-social offensive and militarization of the economy. It is our fight for our rights and laying our claims on society that will make history and create a Canada that meets the needs of its peoples, and for Canada to take its place in the world as a factor for peace and the defence of the rights of all nations. In doing so, they are confronted with the bankers and oligarchs and their representatives in Parliament, who on Canada Day are celebrating immutable "Canadian values" in which the people have no say. The values presented on Canada Day by the ruling circles, that are said to represent "universal values," are a continuation of the colonial arrangements which deprive the people of political power to govern themselves, or high ideals to justify interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
This Canada Day marks the 159th anniversary of Confederation when the British North America Act 1867 (BNA Act), an act passed by the British Parliament on March 29, 1867, was enacted by Royal Proclamation of Queen Victoria and came into effect on July 1. The current constitution is exactly the same as the BNA Act 1867 with the addition of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in which rights are subject to "reasonable limits" decided by the state, and an Amending Formula.
Canada Day and the
state-organized celebrations of institutions imposed by a
colonial power which perpetuate the disempowerment of the people
bring to the fore the necessity for renewal. They highlight the
need for a modern constitution to replace the anachronistic BNA
Act, and for the establishment of a constituent assembly
on a democratic basis to draft a modern constitution to replace
the colonial arrangements enshrined in the BNA Act.
First and foremost a modern constitution must get rid of the British monarch as Canada's head of state and abolish the Royal Prerogative and vest sovereignty in the people. For the Carney government to seek recourse to the British Crown to affirm Canada's sovereignty in the face of U.S. economic warfare and threats of annexation is a contradiction in terms and will not do.
In the name of "Canada Strong," the government has given itself the power to override its own laws to make it easy for foreign "investors" to control Canada's oil and gas, hydro, nuclear power and manufacturing. It is directing billions of dollars in public funds – diverted from health care, education, social programs and government services – into infrastructure projects including roads, ports, airports, transmission lines and other infrastructure called "dual purpose" so that they can be used not only to rip and ship raw materials but also for military purposes. It is promoting the use of workers' pension funds to invest in these so-called nation-building projects and in the government's Defence Industrial Strategy, announced in October 2025, to fully militarize the economy and further integrate it into the U.S. war economy.
The Defence Industrial Strategy of the Carney government, said to be a sign of Canada's "independence" and for its "security," has nothing to do with defence of Canada and is an agenda to embroil Canada in U.S./NATO warmongering and wars. An anti-war government is needed that makes Canada a zone for peace and demands that problems in international relations are solved without use of force, violence and war.
Furthermore, a modern constitution must replace the conception of rights as privileges granted or taken away by the state according to criteria established by those with power and privilege. In its place a modern constitution is needed to recognize the rights of all human persons by virtue of being human, put an end to all notions of superior and inferior cultures and races rooted in the Eurocentric concept of founding nations, and end the hierarchy of rights which imposes a profoundly racist regime of discrimination against minorities, especially immigrants.
A modern constitution must recognize citizenship rights on a modern basis and not mix up citizenship and nationality and demand agreement with what are called Canadian values as a criteria to qualify for citizenship. So too, new citizens must not be asked to swear allegiance to the British monarch or any head of state.
In the past year the Carney government, only reinforcing the Royal Prerogative and acting on behalf of the oligarchs that control the economy and political affairs, has been carrying out a broad and systematic restructuring of the state to concentrate power in the hands of the executive to implement the modern-day rulers' vision in which the human and natural resources of Canada are put at the disposal of the empire-builders of today.
The aim of all the government's
measures is to make sure the working class and people are
powerless. Their aim is also to sort out the refusal of the
Canadian state to recognize hereditary and treaty rights by
establishing once and for all that the Crown can override them
whenever it pleases. Indigenous Peoples' defence of their rights
is considered an obstacle to be overcome through whatever means
– enticements to join in economic "partnerships" in
infrastructure and resource extraction projects or, if that
fails, straightforward police powers and violence to force
through projects that have no consent.
Canadians, Quebeckers and Indigenous Peoples are deeply concerned about the direction that the government is taking and the archaic institutions that deprive them of political power to change it. A modern political process is needed which must guarantee equal membership in the body politic and forms of governance where members of the polity have a say and control on all decisions which affect their lives. It must provide the practical means to hold to account those in government and positions of authority at all levels. No hierarchical levels of authority must be permitted whereby those "at the top" dictate policy and rule over those "at the bottom."
History calls on the peoples of Canada and Quebec and the Indigenous Peoples to establish modern arrangements based on modern definitions. The challenges are great, but the present conditions beckon us all to rise to the task so as to avert the dangers which lie ahead and build a bright future where the the peoples themselves are empowered to provide rights with a guarantee by overseeing their implementation.
Let the working class constitute the nation and vest sovereignty in the people with a modern constitution that builds Canada on the new historical basis!
All Out to Build the New!
Demonstration in Toronto on Canada Day 2025 opposing Ontario and
federal legislation denying Indigenous Peoples a say and control
over the decisions affecting their lands and rights.
Video
Down with Colonial Confederation
For Your Information
Conception of Rights in Canada's Constitution
In order to understand the conception of rights enshrined in the Constitution it is necessary to look at the conditions which prevailed at any particular time, how the ruling elites dealt with them, in whose interests they intervened and the results of the intervention.
For instance, between 1663 and 1673, under the tutelage of King Louis XIV of France, some 800 young women were sent to what was then called New France "to marry, found a home and establish a family to colonize the territory." They are referred to as Les Filles du Roi -- the King's Daughters. What is often not told is that any of the men of European descent who were joined to Indigenous women and rejected this edict were deprived of their property. Refusing to succumb to unjust laws, French and Scottish fur traders moved west and joined their lives to those of the Cree and Ojibway. Their descendants formed a distinct culture, collective consciousness and nationhood in the Northwest. They established distinct Métis communities along the fur trade routes which were also brutally attacked by the British-imposed state to deprive them of their lands and way of life.
The colonial state used racism to divide the peoples from the get-go, declaring the Indigenous way of life "devil-inspired" and the Indigenous Peoples to be the enemies of the aspirations of the settlers to establish homes, farms and communities. The British policy of divide-and-rule was at the base of the conception of rights which enshrined private property in the service of the interests of the British Empire by putting the decision-making power and the monopoly on the use of force in the hands of the elites who occupied the posts entrusted with enforcing the rule of the Crown.
To this day, this elite usurps power for purposes of enriching narrow private interests at the expense of all other interests. So long as the settlers served the purposes of protecting the British North American possessions against their annexation by the U.S. as well as the dispossession of the Indigenous Peoples, all well and good. But, no sooner than the peoples unite against injustice, all have been dealt with brutally no matter who they are.
The republican conception of rights put forward by the Quebec Patriots as well as the reformers and revolutionaries in Upper Canada in the mid-1800s is another case in point. The British opposed this conception which called for vesting sovereignty in the people no matter their national origin. The British brutally suppressed the rebellions and denied any conception of rights which would put decision-making power in the hands of the people.
Meanwhile, to understand the
conception of rights imposed by the British in the Constitutions
of 1840, 1867 and 1982, it is necessary to see what the
conditions reveal today. For instance, conditions today show
that the incorporation of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 into
the Constitution Act, 1867 made the Indigenous Peoples
wards of the Crown and designated all their lands Crown lands.
We go into the past to enrich our ability to solve problems and open society's path to progress today. In this regard, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) approaches the study of history and political theory in a manner which deals with the relations people enter into and what kind of society this gives rise to.
This includes a militant call to oppose attempts to divide the people for purposes of maintaining the status quo, a practice introduced by the British colonialists and upheld by the Anglo-Canadian colonial state established on the basis of carrying out the genocide of Indigenous Peoples whose lands were expropriated and everything was done to extinguish their way of life.
Despite the Supreme Court of Canada's verdict that the colonizer's "Doctrine of Discovery" known as terra nullius (the land belonged to nobody prior to European assertion of possession) never applied in Canada, "as confirmed by the Royal Proclamation (1763)," the fact remains that what is called "the Crown" did not consider Indigenous Peoples to be human beings. It subsequently made them wards of the state with no names and set a course of cultural genocide to extinguish their way of life. This led to what can only be called crimes against humanity and acts of genocide which carry on to this day. The treatment of the Indigenous Peoples informs the notion of rights contained in Canada's Constitution. To understand the Constitution requires recognizing the truth of the relations between the racist Anglo-Canadian state and the Indigenous Peoples.
So too the suppression of the Métis Nation striving to declare nationhood in Manitoba was used by the ruling elite to give rise to the Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP). The NWMP was specifically established in 1873 to bring the authority of the Crown to the North West Territories (present-day Alberta and Saskatchewan). Its jurisdiction grew to include the Yukon in 1895, the Arctic Coast in 1903 and northern Manitoba in 1912. In 1904 Edward VII added the word Royal to the NWMP which subsequently became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) fashioned after the ultra-reactionary Ulster Constabulary created to crush the struggle of the Irish people against British rule.
An integral part of this history concerns the relations between trappers, voyageurs, fur traders, settlers and Indigenous Peoples and between them and established colonial institutions of rule, including the Catholic Church in Quebec whose main role was to keep the habitants in thrall. It also concerns the relations between the Indigenous Peoples and the patriots in Lower and Upper Canada, as well as help they received from American revolutionaries at the time and enlightenment forces in Europe and the Americas.
The struggle of the Patriots in the mid-1800s espoused the most advanced ideas of the time, as did Louis Riel when founding the Métis Nation in Manitoba. For instance, in Quebec, the patriots based their nation-building project on the anti-colonial cause, the abolition of the feudal seigneurial system, the granting of citizenship rights equally without distinction as to national origin or belief, gender or other consideration, including to the Indigenous Peoples. The Anglo-Canadian state continued to treat Indigenous Peoples as non-persons until the 1960s and continues to treat people of Indigenous origin as second-class members of the polity to this day. It does the same with all migrants and workers of all origins under conditions of a so-called global labour market which considers human beings to be disposable.
The Quebec Patriots' Declaration of Independence issued in 1838 called for the constitution of a republican form of government to enshrine those ideals as the law of the land. This cause was akin to the great wars of independence in Latin America and the Caribbean at that time as well as the national movements in Italy and other countries. Related developments in those days led to the formation of the International Working Men's Association by Marx and Engels in 1864 and, in 1871, to the Paris Commune.
The Patriots fought for institutions consistent with the needs of the times, especially the demand that decision-making power be vested in the people who constitute a new republic, not in the British Crown. For this, their rebellion was crushed by the British through force of arms, the suspension of civil liberties, mass arrests, burning of homes, the hanging of 12 patriots and the forced exile of 64 others.
It should be kept in mind that this was also the era when in the United States the direction was set on the basis of the ideology of Manifest Destiny. It held that "European Americans" -- i.e., white people -- were "divinely ordained to settle the whole of the North American continent." The slave state in the hands of white men of property pushed settlers ever further westward towards the Pacific, eventually herding the Indigenous Peoples into reservations while murderous campaigns were conducted to wipe them out. Today attempts continue to deprive them of their hereditary lands, resources and hereditary rights as well as their rights by virtue of being human.
All of this spilled over into what was known as "British North America."
The result is a conception of rights which are privileges which can be given and taken away by "the Crown" at its sole discretion. It is a medieval remnant incorporated into the Constitution to underscore the division of the polity between those who govern and take all the decisions on the basis of the self-interest of the person of state and those who it is said covenanted together to give their consent to be governed and therefore have no further say over the crucial matters pertaining to war and peace, crime and punishment.
Societies are under constant
attack today. The saying applies, "If injustice is law,
resistance is duty." It is not a matter of laws and rules. It is
a matter of a just cause and social responsibility to intervene
for justice, for rights. Human agency is intervening to affirm
rights. It is pro-active and not primarily a matter of being
reactive to laws and rules imposed by the state which to this
day are based on the anachronistic definition of rights
enshrined in the Constitution, including the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms added in 1982.
The need for the political movements of the people to take up the work for a modern Constitution cannot be overemphasized. Only the working people have an interest to enshrine the rights which belong to all by virtue of their being. Establishing cohesion within the body politic as well around the independent politics of the working class is urgently needed to open a path to progress and avert the dangers which lie ahead as a result of the use of force to impose the will of the Crown in the name of high ideals.
(TML Archives)
Process Which Led to Adoption of
BNA Act 1867 by British Parliament
Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864
Charlottetown Conference, September 1864
Official accounts of the process which led to the adoption by the British Parliament of the British North America Act (BNA Act) 1867 tend to pretend Canada's Constitution has Canadian, not British origins. Two conferences held in 1864 are said to have laid the groundwork for the BNA Act 1867.
The Charlottetown Conference, held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in September 1864, is said to have been convoked to bring together "delegates" from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to discuss a potential union of the Maritime colonies.
Nova Scotia had already been accorded responsible government in 1848. It played a crucial role in terms of maritime trade and did not want to lose out should a union be created whose seat of government would be Ottawa, designated by Queen Victoria as the seat of government for the Province of Canada in 1857. The Province of Canada had been created by the Act of Union in 1840, following the suppression of the 1837-38 rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada.
During the meeting in Charlottetown, representatives from the Province of Canada are said to have convinced the Maritime delegates to consider a larger union of all British North American colonies.
Quebec Conference, October 10-27, 1864
This paved the way for the Conference of Quebec held in Quebec City from October 10 to 27, 1864. This Conference produced the Quebec Resolutions -- a document which outlined 72 key points that would form the basis of the Canadian Confederation. Keep in mind that given the interests of the framers of these resolutions, they in no way challenged the sovereignty of the British Monarch and Imperial Parliament over Canada.
|
The 4th Earl of Carnarvon
is often referred to as the midwife of confederation. What is called the London Conference was then held two years later, from December 1866 to March 1867, during which time the 4th Earl of Carnarvon, Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time, presented the finished act to the Parliament in February 1867.
The drafting sessions took place at Highclere Castle in Hampshire, England, owned by Henry Herbert, the 4th Earl of Carnarvon who was, at the time, pursuing a similar process for Australia and South Africa. In the case of Canada, Carnarvon worked closely with Sir John A. Macdonald, who became Canada's first Prime Minister, and other key figures like George-Étienne Cartier, whose role was said to be to make sure the interests of what became Quebec were upheld, and Alexander Galt from what became Ontario. Charles Tupper and Leonard Tilley represented the Maritimes.
Lord Carnarvon and John A. Macdonald are said to have maintained a steady correspondence over eight weeks as the BNA Act was being drafted.
The BNA Act was passed and received Queen Victoria's Royal Assent on March 29, 1867. The Royal Proclamation issued by Queen Victoria on May 22, 1867 then declared it would come into effect on July 1, 1867.
We, therefore, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, have thought fit to issue this Our Royal Proclamation, and We do ordain, declare, and command that on and after the First day of July, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-seven, the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, shall form and be One Dominion, under the name of CANADA.[1]
The BNA Act 1867 united the three separate colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a single "dominion" called Canada. The province of Canada was created by the Act of Union of 1840 after the British crushed the rebellions in Lower and Upper Canada which sought to end British rule and create modern Republics. The BNA Act also made provision for other colonies and territories of British North America to negotiate their entry into the Union.
The Act divided the province of Canada into Quebec and Ontario. A new federal government and Parliament was established in Ottawa together with provincial government legislatures and the division of powers between the federal and provincial levels of government. The BNA Act established that the "dominion" remained under the sovereignty of the British Monarch.
The BNA Act 1867 served as Canada's constitution until 1982 when a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, based on "reasonable limits" as determined by the state, and an Amending Formula were added while everything else remained the same.
Besides quelling the rebellion of Britain's "colonial subjects" against British rule, while maintaining control over its "British North American Possessions," the main concern of the British parliament and ruling class in drafting the BNA Act and "giving" Canada what was called a "responsible government," was to make sure that by uniting their "North American colonies" in a federation, the new "Dominion of Canada" would govern some of its own affairs and undertake the expenses of its own defence while remaining under British rule.
Canada's foreign policy and participation in the wars of the British Empire continued under the command of the British at Canadian expense, as did the courts. Only in 1931 did the Statute of Westminster formally grant Canada full control over both domestic and foreign policy. Despite this, the right of Canada's "British subjects" to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council continued.
Statute of Westminster (1931)
Only with the Statute of
Westminster (1931) did the main characteristics of
dominion status confer complete legislative authority, as
provided by the Statute and, in the executive sphere, the right
of dominion ministers to have direct access to the sovereign
(the British monarch), whereas previously advice on dominion
matters could be tendered only by United Kingdom ministers.
Despite the fact that the word Dominion is no longer used when referring to Canada, the conception of supreme power residing in the Monarch anointed by God continues and is not merely symbolic but explains where the values and reason of state come from. All matters spiritual and temporal are according to what the state establishes. It is why matters related to war and peace, and to crime and punishment are represented by the Sword and the Bishop's staff in coronation regalia.
This is the recognition that the supreme power must be exercised in accordance with God's will. This concept is rooted in the biblical account of creation, where God creates mankind in His image and gives them "dominion" over the earth. (Genesis 1:26-28)
Citizenship Act (1947)
Furthermore, prior to 1947, people born in Canada or naturalized immigrants were considered British subjects. They were divided into "desirable" and "undesirable" categories. The most desirable were those of British and French descent and whose origins were in Northern Europe. Those of Slav and Mediterranean origin were passable while all those called Orientals -- peoples of Chinese, Japanese and East Indian origins -- were considered "undesirable." They were subject to all kinds of "Keep Canada White" laws whether or not they were British subjects as in the case of East Indians. People from the Caribbean and Africa or those later referred to as "people of colour," were barred from emigrating to Canada until the 1960s. Indigenous Peoples were considered non-persons and made wards of the state, deprived of civil rights. Only those who gave up "Indian Status" were later enfranchised. (Women were also considered non-persons until they were enfranchised after long battles accorded them the right to vote, own property, open bank accounts and travel without the authority of fathers and husbands imposed over them.)
Finally, the Canadian Citizenship Act of 1947 allowed residents of Canada to become citizens. The Act came into effect on January 1, 1947, formally creating the distinction between British subjects and Canadian citizens. To this day, Canada's constitution clearly stipulates that citizenship is a privilege, not a right. This signifies that it is not the citizens of Canada who define the state, but the state which defines the citizens. Those who do not adhere to whatever the state declares are Canadian values are deprived of citizenship, with new laws passed by the Carney government even depriving landed residents of landed status, subjecting them to deportation to places with which they might have no connection whatsoever.
Opposition to the BNA Act Prior to Its Proclamation
Prior to July 1, 1867, opposition to the BNA Act and the broader concept of Confederation was widespread, especially in Quebec as well as Nova Scotia. The main opposition was to the BNA Act's imposition without consultation with the "dominions." This was particularly widespread in Quebec where the people had no wish to be ruled by the British Crown. Already their uprising for a republic had been crushed and they were rightfully very concerned about losing their voice within confederation.
The lack of representation fuelled the perception that the act was being imposed on them without consideration for their circumstances as a people with their own right to self-determination.
In Nova Scotia, Joseph Howe actively campaigned against Confederation, arguing for the preservation of Nova Scotia's rights and highlighting potential negative economic impacts.
Nova Scotia had become the first British colony to achieve "responsible government" in 1848 -- a system where the executive branch is said to be accountable to the elected legislature.
Howe also advocated for a referendum on the issue and later fought to improve the terms of the agreement for Nova Scotia. Among other things, he expressed his concern that a strong central government in Ottawa would neglect the specific needs and interests of the Maritime dominions.
Highclere Castle where the British
North America Act was drafted. In 2018, Janice
Charette, then Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom,
planted a maple tree on the lawn.
Note
1. Declaring Canada a
Dominion is said to be based on Psalms 8:6-8 and Psalms 72:8 in
the King James Bible which speak of the sovereign power as
mandated by God when he established the dominion of men over all
of God's creatures. The Psalms highlight that his chosen people
are under his authority and he rules over all his possessions
from sea to sea.
As God's representative on earth, the monarch is his messenger who interprets good values and practices and evil values and practices which transgress the word of God. As the person of state, his is the supreme authority which governs the supreme power constituted as a state. The values he proclaims guide and control the realms of crime and punishment as well as war and peace.
The sovereign is thus the one who exercises dominion and represents sovereign power. Nothing to do with vesting sovereignty in the people. So long as the sovereign power is represented by the King of England, the interests that determine the conduct of the state are not those of the people, but of the private interests which control the state and declare everything to be their possession.
June 24, 1497
Britain's "Dominion, Title and Jurisdiction"
of Canada Begins
Indigenous rally on the steps of the Alberta
legislature denounces the province's Alberta Sovereignty
within a United Canada Act which abrogates hereditary and
treaty rights.
On June 24, 1497, the Venetian navigator Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), commissioned by Henry VII of England, landed in Newfoundland. Believing it to be an island off the coast of Asia, he named it New Found Land. Under the commission of this king to "conquer, occupy, and possess" the lands of "heathens and infidels," Caboto reconnoitred the Newfoundland coast and landed on the northern shore of what is today known as Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
Caboto came armed with assumptions similar to those of the Spanish colonialists further south. Thus, the Letters Patent issued to Cabot by King Henry VII gave the explorer instructions to seize the lands and population centres of the territories "newely founde" in order to prevent other, competing European nations from doing the same:
"And that the aforesaid John and his sonnes ... may conquer, occupie, and possesse, all such townes, cities, castles, and yles, of them founde, which they can subdue, occupie and possesse, as our vassailes and lieutenantes, getting vnto vs the rule, title, and iurisdiction of the same villages, townes, castles and firme lands so founde..."[1]
While the King gave Cabot the "full and free authority, faculty and power" to "find, discover and investigate whatsoever islands, countries, regions or provinces of heathens and infidels," there was an important caveat. Cabot's licence only applied to lands that "were unknown to all Christians."
With this imperial licence to wage an unending, plunderous war against non-Christians, Cabot and "his sons or their heirs and deputies" gained the exclusive right to rule as the King's "vassals and governors, lieutenants and deputies." In exchange, they were "bounden and under obligation" to pay King Henry "either in goods or money, the fifth part [20 per cent] of the whole capital gained." The "capital" was defined as "all the fruits, profits, emoluments [earnings], commodities, gains and revenues."
When Cabot returned to England on August 6 he took three Mi'kmaq with him, thereby introducing slavery into North America. This may have been responsible for his disappearance when he returned to Newfoundland with five ships in 1498. When his ships arrived in northern Cape Breton Island, the M 'kmaq attacked. Only one ship returned to England, the other four, with Caboto as captain, never returned.
The royal charter stipulated that King Henry VII would acquire "dominion, title and jurisdiction" over all lands "discovered" by Cabot. It is the foundation upon which the "Dominion of Canada," as a supposed legal entity, is based. Caboto, sailing from Bristol, a strategic port in the Atlantic slave trade, represented the trading, commercial and shipping houses, such as Lloyds of London and Barclays Bank, which amassed fabulous wealth from the kidnapping of Africans and later financed the neo-colonial confederation of Canada created in 1867 and its railroads from their booty. Caboto returned with stories of the sea teeming with fish. European colonial fishing fleets began making trips to the Grand Banks every summer.
Initially the Mi'kmaq and Beothuk, however reluctantly at times, treated the visitors as political equals in most important respects and were willing to trade and allow the Europeans to briefly land and dry the cod.
In 1500, Caspar de Corte-Real, a slave trader financed by Portugal, captured several Mi'kmaq. He reconnoitred the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, part of the homeland of the Innu people who call it Nitassinan, kidnapping 57 "man slaves" (Beothuks) to be sold to finance the cost of the expedition. His belief that Nitassinan was teeming with potential captives led to it being called Labrador, "the source of labour material." The ship he was on was lost at sea, although two of his other ships did return to Portugal.
By 1504 French Bretons were fishing off the coast of Mi'kma'ki country. In 1507 Norman fishermen took another seven Beothuk prisoners to France. This affected all future relations between the Beothuk and the fishermen.
The development of the Atlantic fisheries, a seemingly inexhaustible source of cheap protein, is inextricably linked to the Atlantic Slave Trade which fertilized the development of the capitalist system and consolidation of national states in Europe. It later formed the basis of the wealth of leading families in colonial Nova Scotia and New England, as well as of leading politicians such as John A. Macdonald, the "father of Confederation" who married the daughter of a slave owner in Jamaica.
On June 11, 1578, Sir Humphrey Gylberte (Sir Humphrey Gilbert) received Letters Patent for Newfoundland. He was a big colonizer through English colonial plantations of Gaelic Ireland with his half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh. On August 5, 1583, Gilbert received a grant from Queen Elizabeth I and attempted to settle a colony in Newfoundland. He failed due to the lack of resources to withstand the cold and starvation. He nonetheless laid formal claim to Newfoundland and the Maritimes. France, citing Jacques Cartier's voyage and the "doctrine of discovery,"opposed the claim. Gilbert drowned in a storm on September 9, 1583 off Sable Island in Canada's first recorded "marine disaster."
On July 27, 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh first attempted to settle a plantation colony in Roanoke, which is part of the land named Virginia, in honour of Queen Elizabeth, who was referred to as the Virgin Queen. Roanoke is actually an island off the coast of current-day North Carolina. The first English colony in the "New World" was not successful, and the colonists withdrew in June 1586.
By 1586, back in Newfoundland, typhus was spread among the already weakened Mi'kmaq population, which yielded yet more lives to the deadly epidemic brought to the Maritimes by the Europeans.
Doctrine of Discovery and Royal Charters Based on It
Cartoon run in Toronto newspaper in 1885 on racist colonial policy of Canadian state.
The Doctrine of Discovery emanates from a series of Papal Bulls (formal statements from the Pope which set policy) originating in the 1400s. This doctrine was used as a justification for the colonial dispossession of sovereign Indigenous nations in the Americas of their lands and the subjugation of their people during the European "Age of Discovery."
The main tenet of this outlook was that Indigenous peoples had no souls and therefore were not human, and that the lands that were "discovered" were terra nullius, empty of human habitation.
This outlook was the foundation of Indigenous policy in Canada that has repercussions to this day. The call for Canada to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery is number 47 of the 94 Calls to Action of the historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 2015.
Royal Charters, issued by authority of Royal Prerogative, are legal documents that decree grants, particularly land grants, by the sovereign to his or her subjects. The power and authority of the King and Queen are almost absolute, as the following commentary by British jurist William Blackstone shows:
"And, first, the law ascribes to the king the attribute of sovereignty, or pre-eminence... He is said to have imperial dignity, and in charters before the conquest is frequently styled basileus and imperator, the titles respectively assumed by the emperors of the east and west." By many acts of parliament, his "realm" is declared to be an empire, and his crown imperial. Particularly the statutes 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12. and 25 Hen. VIII. c. 28 at the same time declare the king to be "the supreme head of the realm in matters both civil and ecclesiastical, and of consequence inferior to no man upon earth, dependent on no man, accountable to no man."
In 1997, on the quincentennial anniversary of Caboto's landfall, Queen Elizabeth II, sovereign of Canada, toured the country in an official celebration sponsored by the Canadian and British governments. A joint commission officially decided that Caboto had in fact first landed in Newfoundland. New monuments to Caboto were unveiled and a spate of books published.
According to the Queen, Caboto's landfall "represented the geographical and intellectual beginning of modern North America." It is an example of how the eurocentric Doctrine of Discovery is used to falsify history.
As is well known, in Newfoundland the genocide of the Beothuk Indigenous people occurred. Queen Elizabeth II was right -- the pattern was set there. So far as the Indigenous peoples are concerned, of course, the pattern set was genocide.
Innu women demonstrate in the mid-1980s against NATO overflights
and for self-determination for their homeland which they call
Nitassinan.
When Queen Elizabeth II visited Labrador, the reception was "mixed" as "protestors waved placards denouncing her visit."[2]
In Sheshatshiu, Innu community leaders on June 26, 1997 presented the Queen with a letter that read in part:
"The history of colonization here has been lamentable and has severely demoralized our People. They turn now to drink and self-destruction. We have the highest rate of suicide in North America. Children as young as 12 have taken their own life recently. We feel powerless to prevent the massive mining projects now planned and many of us are driven into discussing mere financial compensation, even though we know that the mines and hydro-electric dams will destroy our land and our culture and that money will not save us.
"The Labrador part of Nitassinan was claimed as British soil until very recently (1949), when without consulting us, your government ceded it to Canada. We have never, however, signed any treaty with either Great Britain or Canada. Nor have we ever given up our right to self-determination.
"The fact that we have become financially dependent on the state which violates our rights is a reflection of our desperate circumstances. It does not mean that we acquiesce in those violations.
"We have been treated as non-People, with no more rights than the caribou on which we depend and which are now themselves being threatened by NATO war exercises and other so-called development. In spite of this, we remain a People in the fullest sense of the word. We have not given up, and we are now looking to rebuild our pride and self esteem."[3]
On June 30, 2004 the late Keptin Saqamow Reginald Maloney opened the Halifax International Symposium on Media and Disinformation held at Dalhousie University by delivering the fraternal welcome of his people to the participants from North America, Europe and Asia. "The greatest disinformation we have faced is that of the 'discovery doctrine' of the Spanish, Portuguese and British colonial powers, which still ravages us today," he declared in his welcoming address.
On October 12, 2013 the Mi'kmaq Warriors Society and Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick, who were blockading a Texas monopoly's fracking operation, demanded as was their right that the government "produce documents proving Cabot's Doctrine of Discovery."
In marking the "discovery" of Canada and what took place on June 24, 1497, front and centre must be the just demands of the Indigenous peoples for the recognition of their rights. It is an issue facing the entire polity which can only be resolved through modern arrangements that uphold rights on the basis that they are inviolable and belong to people by virtue of their being.
Notes
1. The Letters Patents of King Henry the Seventh Granted unto John Cabot and his Three Sonnes, Lewis, Sebastian and Sancius for the the Discouerie of New and Unknowen Lands; March 5, 1498. An excerpt:
"Henry, by the grace of God, king of England and France, and lord of Ireland, to all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting. Be it knowen that we haue giuen and granted, and by these presents do giue and grant for vs and our heiress to our welbeloued Iohn Cabot citizen of Venice, to Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius, sonnes of the sayd Iohn, and to the heires of them, and euery of them, and their deputies, full and free authority, leaue, and power to saile to all parts, countreys, and seas of the East, of the West, and of the North, vnder our banners and ensignes, with fine ships of what burthen or quantity soeuer they be, and as many mariners or men as they will haue with them in the sayd ships, vpon their owne proper costs and charges, to seeke out, discouer, and finde whatsoever isles, countreys, regions or prouinces of the heathen and infidels whatsoeuer they be, and in what part of the world soeuer they be, which before this time haue bene vnknowen to all Christians; we haue granted to them, and also to euery of them, the heires of them, and euery of them, and their deputies, and haue giuen them licence to set vp our banners and ensignes in euery village, towns, castle, isle, or maine land of them newly found. And'that the aforesayd Iohn and his sonnes, or their heires and assignee may subdue, occupy and possesse all such townes, cities, castles and isles of them found, which they can subdue, occupy and possesse, as our vassals, and lieutenants, getting vnto vs the rule, title, and jurisdiction of the same villages, townes, castles, & firme land so found. Witnesse our selfe at Westminister, the fifth day of March, In the eleventh yeere of our reigne."
2. "Labrador protest: Royal visitors get mixed reception," Michelle McAfee, Canadian Press, in Victoria Times-Colonist, p. A10, Friday, June 27, 1997.
3. Letter from Innu people to Queen Elizabeth II, June 26, 1997.
(From material originally published in Shunpiking Magazine.)
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