The doctrine of discovery remains an entrenched influence in North America’s collective memory. Even though intellectually many can see its manifest unfairness, and that its roots are firmly founded in racism, its cancerous spread throughout legal and social thought and institutional frameworks since 1492, prevent an effective means of removing its influence totally. In Canada, Crown Sovereignty exists because of it, and while one can see the day that the doctrine itself may be rejected, it is virtually certain that another, better dressed, and intellectually more tasteful, but from an Aboriginal perspective, equally unfair, concept could be run up the ladder of law in its stead. The agents of the Crown including the Courts, and loyal citizens of this nation, can never deny the validity of Crown sovereignty. The challenge is to establish the validity of Aboriginal sovereignty historically, a process which is well underway, and largely I think, won. The difficulty will be to show how Aboriginal sovereignty can and ought to coexist with that of the Crown today. To do it in a way that maintains as much of the integrity of the Crown and Aboriginal societies as is acceptable to both, is the reconciliation challenge.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 13:24:56 +0000