Debunking the Myth of Canada as a Non-Colonial Power

ABSTRACT

This article proposes that the understanding of Canada as a non-colonial power articulated by federal leaders representing Canada to the world is based on a myth. Foundational to contemporary understandings of the state, this myth is founded on a reproduction of a specific form of historical amnesia. When taken at face value, this myth-making both enables and promotes a false image of Canada, one which erases the persistent reinforcement of a domesticated settler colonialism. To begin deconstructing this myth we sketch out its parameters and permutations. In doing so we consider the implications of this myth promotion, and link this analysis to a specific framing of domestic sovereignty. Through this, we argue that this myth-making enables the continued dispossession of Indigenous nations by erasing the colonial relations of power through which their relationships with the state operate today. Drawing on the discourse articulated by the Harper government, recent emphasis on Nation-to-Nation relationships by the Trudeau government, and the work of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry, this analysis offers a window into how these national myths and imaginaries made and remake a settler coloniality.

KEYWORDS:

• Settler colonialism
• mythmaking
• sovereignty
• Canadian foreign policy

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the comments and recommendations of Can Mutlu and others at the Atlantic Provinces Political Science Association 2019 Annual Conference. All mistakes and errors are those of the authors.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Indeed, in response to the use of this document in one of our classes, a First Nations student responded “that is not the Canada I know,” and Indigenous advocates such as Cindy Blackstock (2019) and Pam Palmater (2020) have consistently highlighted Canada’s own unwillingness to live up to its stated commitments.

2. Through the text, we use both power and state when referring to Canada and the myth of it as non-colonial. Our references to Canada as a non-colonial state is meant to direct attention to the apparatus of the state; references to Canada as a “power” are intended to invoke the broad understanding of Canada as a nation, inclusive of the Canadian people and society.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was obtained for this research.

Notes on contributors

Liam Midzain-Gobin

Liam Midzain-Gobin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Brock University. Brock sits on territory shared between the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee nations according to the Dish with One Spoon wampum. He is of mixed ancestry from the Caribbean and Eastern Europe.

Heather A. Smith

Heather A. Smith is a Professor of Global and International Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia. UNBC sits on the traditional territory of the Lheidli T’enneh. She is of Scottish and Irish ancestry.

Both live and work primarily on the territory that today is recognized as Canada.