Author: Kerry Coast

Publisher: Clarity Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780986036224

No treaties were made with indigenous nations residing in those territories where now there is a Canadian province called British Columbia. Instead a breathtaking policy of criminalization, assimilation and extinguishment of sovereignty and land rights has been carried out against them. Present day governments continue this approach, now 150 years old, in processes which have recently been re-named and cosmetically improved but remain unconstitutional and are prohibited by the 1948 Genocide Convention. Why do the people of BC seek the dissolution of some thirty distinct indigenous nations? Why do they cry, "One law for all Canadians," in answer to indigenous efforts to exercise their right of self-determination? BC's economy relies on resource extraction from lands and waters that have never been ceded, sold or surrendered to them by their indigenous owners. WhatÆs more: recognition of this fact has given rise to what is called "the uncertainty principle" currently impeding foreign investment, as judicious investors fear doing business with governments and others whose claims to ownership may be proved illegitimate. The indigenous nations have suffered excruciating losses. The ongoing colonization of British Columbia relies on the settler population's indifference to the indigenous peoples' plights and rights. The Colonial Present documents how the interests of resource industries have dominated accounts of indigenous peoples throughout the mainstream media, the academic presses and the courts. This has substantially corrupted and impoverished the non-native understanding of indigenous peoples on whose homelands they live and work, and to which they seem to feel entitled. This book is an exploration of how such a stunning string of events has happened, and British Columbians' continuing attempts to rationalize them. Book jacket.