The White Paper and Indigenous Activism, 1968–1982

"Citizens plus"

In June 1969, the federal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau released a policy paper that it said would bring equality to First Nations people. Its author was the Minister of Indian Affairs, Jean Chrétien. The government expected support.

Instead, First Nations across Canada rejected it almost immediately and organized against it on a scale never seen before. Within two years, the government withdrew it.

Why would a policy promising "equality" be rejected? The answer is at the heart of this lesson: First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples were not asking to be treated the same as everyone else. They were asserting that they are nations with inherent rights, treaty rights and rights to their lands. Between 1968 and 1982 they built organizations, went to court and to the streets, and won recognition of those rights in the Constitution.

The 1969 White Paper

The Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy, 1969, known as the White Paper, proposed to:

• abolish the Indian Act and end Indian status;
• close the Department of Indian Affairs and transfer services such as education and health to the provinces;
• treat treaties as limited historical documents to be reviewed and eventually ended;
• turn reserve lands into land that could be owned and sold privately;
• reject most land claims as too vague to settle.

The government's argument was that separate laws had kept First Nations poor and unequal, and that ending them would bring equality. Trudeau said in a 1969 speech that Canada could not recognize Aboriginal rights based on historical "might-have-beens".

The White Paper ignored the advice of the government's own Hawthorn Report (1966–1967), which had described First Nations as "citizens plus": Canadians who also had additional rights because of their history, treaties and status as the original peoples.

The response

• Harold Cardinal, a young Cree leader and president of the Indian Association of Alberta, published The Unjust Society (1969), a powerful attack on the White Paper. The title mocked Trudeau's slogan of a "Just Society".
• In June 1970, the Indian Chiefs of Alberta presented Citizens Plus, often called the Red Paper, directly to Trudeau and his cabinet. It argued that treaties were nation-to-nation agreements that must be honoured, and that First Nations must control their own affairs.
• Other organizations, such as the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood, published their own responses.
• The National Indian Brotherhood (NIB), founded in 1968, became a strong national voice. George Manuel (Secwépemc) led it from 1970 to 1976.

In 1971, the government withdrew the White Paper. It was a major victory for First Nations organizing.

Control of education

In 1970, families from the Saddle Lake area and nearby communities in Alberta held a sit-in at the Blue Quills residential school near St. Paul to demand that the community take over the school instead of having it closed or run by others. They won. In 1971, Blue Quills became one of the first schools in Canada run by a First Nations organization.

In 1972, the NIB published Indian Control of Indian Education, which called for First Nations parents and communities to control their children's schooling and teach their own languages and cultures. The federal government accepted it as policy in 1973.

Land, title and modern treaties

• The Calder case (1973): the Nisga'a Nation in British Columbia, led by Frank Calder (who in 1949 had become the first First Nations person elected to a provincial legislature), went to court to have its title to its land recognized. In January 1973, the Supreme Court of Canada split on whether Nisga'a title still existed, but six of the seven judges agreed that Aboriginal title existed in Canadian law before colonization. Later in 1973, the federal government created a policy to negotiate land claims.
• The James Bay Project: in 1971, Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa announced a huge hydroelectric project in northern Quebec, on lands of the Cree and Inuit, without consulting them. The Cree, led by young leaders such as Billy Diamond, and the Inuit of northern Quebec went to court. In November 1973, Justice Albert Malouf ordered the work stopped; a higher court quickly overturned his order, but the case forced Quebec to negotiate. The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (1975) is considered the first modern treaty in Canada. It gave the Cree and Inuit compensation, land rights, and their own school boards and regional governments, but the project went ahead and flooded large areas of land.
• The Berger Inquiry (1974–1977): Justice Thomas Berger studied a proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline in the Northwest Territories. He travelled to Dene, Inuit and Métis communities and listened to people in their own languages. His report recommended no pipeline across the northern Yukon and a ten-year delay in the Mackenzie Valley until land claims were settled.

Inuit and Métis organizing; political firsts

• Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (today Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami) was founded in 1971 to speak for Inuit nationally. In 1976 it proposed creating a new territory, Nunavut (which happened in 1999). In 1977, Inuit from Canada, Alaska and Greenland formed the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (today's Inuit Circumpolar Council).
• The Native Council of Canada (1971) represented Métis and non-status First Nations people. Its leader Harry Daniels fought hard to have the Métis named in the Constitution.
• Political firsts: James Gladstone (Kainai) became the first Status Indian senator in 1958; Len Marchand (Syilx/Okanagan) became the first status First Nations MP in 1968 and the first First Nations federal cabinet minister in 1976; Peter Ittinuar became the first Inuk MP in 1979.
• Protest: in 1974, the Ojibway Warriors' Society occupied Anicinabe Park in Kenora, and the Native People's Caravan travelled from Vancouver to Ottawa to demand action on treaty rights, housing and education.

The Constitution and section 35

When Trudeau moved to patriate the Constitution in 1980, Indigenous leaders insisted that their rights be included. George Manuel and the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs organized the Constitution Express (1980): trains carried about a thousand people to Ottawa, and delegations later went to Britain and Europe.

In November 1981, the federal-provincial agreement on the Constitution dropped the clause on Aboriginal rights. After protests, it was restored, with one word added: "existing". Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 says:

"The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed."

It defines the Aboriginal peoples of Canada as the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples. It was a historic achievement, although what "existing" rights included would be argued in courts for decades.