45. We call upon the Government of Canada, on behalf of all Canadians, to jointly develop with Aboriginal peoples a Royal Proclamation of Reconciliation to be issued by the Crown. The proclamation would build on the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Treaty of Niagara of 1764, and reaffirm the nation-to-nation relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Crown. The proclamation would include, but not be limited to, the following commitments:
i. Repudiate concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous lands and peoples such as the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius.
ii. Adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the framework for reconciliation.
iii. Renew or establish Treaty relationships based on principles of mutual recognition, mutual respect, and shared responsibility for maintaining those relationships into the future.
v. Reconcile Aboriginal and Crown constitutional and legal orders to ensure that Aboriginal peoples are full partners in Confederation, including the recognition and integration of Indigenous laws and legal traditions in negotiation and implementation processes involving Treaties, land claims, and other constructive agreements.
The TRC recommends that Canada use both the proclamation of 1763 and the treaty of 1764 to inspire the development of a Royal Proclamation of Reconciliation to be issued by the crown.
It is clear, in the history of residential schools and other injustices, that Canada has forgotten the core values of these promises. This proclamation would re-establish a nation to nation relationship, meaning that indigenous peoples and the Crown would be understood as the two nations of the land and would each have rights to self governance. Recognizing this nation to nation relationship also means recognizing that indigenous peoples were already living on Turtle Island when Europeans settled there, and this conflicts with the Doctrine of Discovery and the idea of terra nulls: concepts that assert the land was uncolonized when Europeans arrived.
This proclamation would work in combination with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to re-enforce treaties, re-establish a nation to nation relationship, and finally recognize the role that indigenous peoples play in confederation and that their traditional methods of negotiation deserve a place in settling land disputes.
Further Reading:
Posts Tagged ‘Covenant of Reconciliation’
http://cep.anglican.ca/tag/covenant-of-reconciliation/
Justice Murray Sinclair’s challenge for Canada as it seeks reconciliation