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Improvement District, a municipal corporation whose powers are exercised by a trustee or board of trustees appointed by the provincial government. Unlike most municipalities, which are subject to the supervision of both the province and local electors, trustees are under provincial supervision only.
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Macleans
A moment comes which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. - Jawaharlal Nehru, first prime minister of a free India, on Aug.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on August 18, 1997
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The Indian Act is the primary law the federal government uses to administer Indian status, local First Nations governments and the management of reserve land. It also outlines governmental obligations to First Nations peoples. The Indian Act pertains to people with Indian Status; it does not directly reference non-status First Nations people, the Métis or Inuit. First introduced in 1876, the Act subsumed a number of colonial laws that aimed to eliminate First Nations culture in favour of assimilation into Euro-Canadian society. A new version of the Act was passed in 1951, and since then, has been amended several times, most significantly in 1985, with changes mainly focusing on the removal of discriminatory sections. It is an evolving, paradoxical document that has enabled trauma, human rights violations and social and cultural disruption for generations of Indigenous peoples. This is the full-length entry about the Indian Act. For a plain language summary, please see Indian Act (Plain Language Summary).
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The Indian Act was first created in 1876. A new version was created in 1951. Since then, the Act has been revised several times. The main goal of the Act was to force First Nations peoples to lose their culture and become like Euro-Canadians. The Indian Act does not affect either the Métis or Inuit. (This article is a plain-language summary of the Indian Act. If you are interested in reading about this topic in more depth, please see our full-length entry, Indian Act.)
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Indian agents were the Canadian government’s representatives on First Nations reserves from the 1830s to the 1960s. Often working in isolated locations far from settler communities, Indian agents implemented government policy, enforced and administered the provisions of the Indian Act, and managed the day-to-day affairs of Status Indians. Today, the position of Indian agent no longer exists, as First Nations manage their own affairs through modern band councils or self-government.
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The Indian Boarding Homes Program was established by the Canadian federal government and operated from the early 1950s to the early 1990s. Its purpose was to relocate Indigenous children into non-Indigenous homes while they attended elementary and high schools, often far from their home communities. Relocation was compulsory; refusal was not permitted. The host families with whom they were placed were paid to provide care. Many children in this situation faced physical, sexual, verbal and psychological abuse (see also Child Abuse). The program was designed to assimilate Indigenous children into the mainstream Canadian society. As a result, children were often forbidden from speaking their native language or engaging in practices of their culture. This led, inevitably, to significant consequences that included loss of cultural identity and connection to their communities for the approximately 40,000 First Nations and Inuit children who were forced to relocate.
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The largest class action settlement in Canadian history to date, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) recognized the damage inflicted on Indigenous peoples by residential schools, and established a multi-billion-dollar fund to help former students in their recovery. (See also Reconciliation in Canada.)
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Macleans
For nearly a quarter of a century, their names have been inextricably linked. From Delhi's opulent salons to the bazaars of Madras, Indians of every political stripe have puzzled over the unswerving devotion of former prime minister P. V.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on October 7, 1996
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Indigenous Services Canada (part of the former Indigenous/Indian and Northern Affairs Canada or INAC) was created by the federal government in 2017 to provide and support the delivery of services such as health care, child care, education and infrastructure to First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities. The overarching vision of the department is to support self-determination as a means of providing Indigenous peoples with the power to deliver their own services.
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From the colonial era to the present, the Canadian electoral system has evolved in ways that have affected Indigenous suffrage (the right to vote in public elections). Voting is a hallmark of Canadian citizenship, but not all Indigenous groups (particularly status Indians) have been given this historic right due to political, socio-economic and ethnic restrictions. Today, Canada’s Indigenous peoples — defined in Section 35 (2) of the Constitution Act, 1982 as Indians (First Nations), Métis and Inuit — can vote in federal, provincial, territorial and local elections.
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Indigenous treaties in Canada are constitutionally recognized agreements between the Crown and Indigenous peoples. Most of these agreements describe exchanges where Indigenous nations agree to share some of their interests in their ancestral lands in return for various payments and promises. On a deeper level, treaties are sometimes understood, particularly by Indigenous people, as sacred covenants between nations that establish a relationship between those for whom Canada is an ancient homeland and those whose family...
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The context for Indigenous women and the franchise has been framed by colonialism as much as by gender discrimination. Indigenous women (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) have gained the right to vote at different times in Canadian history. The process has been connected to enfranchisement — both voluntary and involuntary — which means that Indigenous women were afforded political participation and Canadian citizenship rights at the cost of Indigenous rights (see Indigenous Suffrage).
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An injunction is an equitable judicial remedy issued at the court's discretion. It usually takes the form of an order preventing or restraining a person from performing an act. The order may also take a mandatory form by compelling someone to do something.
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Macleans
Albertas energy minister, Steve West, spent much of last week wearing a tight smile, his clenched jaw and square shoulders set as firmly as his conviction that people who blame the oilpatch for the next centurys foul weather have lost their heads.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on December 22, 1997
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This term is used to describe rights which protect the results of intellectual and creative activity: items such as a new product, a book or painting, or a marketing slogan.
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