UNI320Y: Canadian Questions: Issues and Debates

Week 2: Racializing Citizenship

Professor Emily Gilberthttp://individual.utoronto.ca/emilygilbert/

Racializing Citizenship

I. Racism, Imperialism and Citizenship

II. Citizenship as a Technology of Governance

III. Indigenous Citizenship

IV. Indian Migrants and Citizenship

I: Racism, Imperialism, Citizenship

RacismLiberalism

CitizenshipNationalism

Imperialism

II: Citizenship as a Technology of Governance

• Foucault on governmentality: the art of government

the conduct of conduct

• Self governing individuals: freedom, autonomy, entrepreneurial

• How is citizenship a technology of governance?

• BNA (1867): citizen is “a male British subject, aged Twenty-one Years or upwards, bring a householder”

• Indian Act (1876): Indians could become enfranchised either by obtaining a university degree, or by applying with a 3 year probationary period

• Naturalization Act (1881): excluded from citizenship are those with a “Disability … an infant, lunatic, idiot, or married woman”

• Bill to Restrict and Regulate Chinese Immigration to the Dominion of Canada (1885) and Head Tax

III: Indigenous Citizenship

Context: Quebec • 2001: Quebec Language Commission

recommends separate Quebec citizenship: single ceremony

• 2006: "That this House recognize that the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada“ -- 266 to 16

• Indigenous rights and historical fix• Marshall decision (1999)

Supreme Court affirms rights of Mi’kmaq: eel fishing

based on 18th century treaty and ‘truckhouse’—but refers only to ‘moderate’ subsistence

but problems with interpreting intentionality and continuity

• Native fishing in wake of Court’s decision leads to high tensions in Burnt Church, NS

• Court’s clarification Nov 1999: government affirms some jurisdiction

• ruling establishes precedent, but not universal Aboriginal rights

Nisga’a Accord (2000)• Calder decision (1973)—affirms

Aboriginal title and the government’s duty to negotiate

• Delgamuukw (1997)—affirms land title and importance of oral histories

• Nisga’a accord establishes Nisga’a citizenship

Nisga'a Enrolment & Citizenship• Enrolment as Nisga'a Participant

• An individual is entitled to become a Nisga'a participant if that individual satisfies the eligibility criteria of the Eligibility Chapter of the Nisga'a Treaty. You must be of Nisga'a ancestry and your mother was born into one of the Nisga'a tribes, or are a descendant of an individual described above, or you are an adopted child of an individual described above.

• Enrolment as Nisga'a Citizen despite death or divorce of Nisga'a Participant's Spouse

• An individual who is aboriginal, married to someone described as a participant and has been adopted or taken in by one of the four Nisga'a Tribes in accordance with Ayuukhl Nisga'a; that is, the individual has been accepted by a Nisga'a tribe at a settlement or stone moving feast.

• Citizenship entitlement of non-aboriginal person • An individual is entitled to become a Nisga'a citizen if that

individual is not an aboriginal individual, was a member of an Indian band before May 11, 2000, is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada and is ordinarily resident on Nisga'a Lands. This individual cannot be enrolled under another land claims agreement. This person is or was married to a Nisga'a participant and is adopted or taken in by one of the Nisga'a tribes in accordance with Ayuukhl Nisga'a.

‘Citizens Plus’• Harold Cardinal of Alberta Indian Federation produces

response to White Paper: Canadians “will have to accept and recognize that we are full citizens, but we also possess

special rights”

• Also Hawthorn Report (1966/7): common citizenship with special historic rights

• RCAP (1996): “a unique form of dual citizenship…as citizens of an Aboriginal nation and citizens of Canada” with Canadian passports that identify this duality

• Alan Cairns returns to affirmation of ‘Citizens Plus’ (2000)

Backlash: 2002 BC referendum on First Nations treaties

REFERENDUM QUESTIONS

1. Private property should not be expropriated for treaty settlements. (Yes/No)

2. The terms and conditions of leases and licences should be respected; fair compensation for unavoidable disruption of commercial interests should be ensured. (Yes/No)

3. Hunting, fishing and recreational opportunities on Crown land should be ensured for all British Columbians. (Yes/No)

4. Parks and protected areas should be maintained for the use and benefit of all British Columbians. (Yes/No)

5. Province-wide standards of resource management and environmental protection should continue to apply. (Yes/No)

6. Aboriginal self-government should have the characteristics of local government, with powers delegated from Canada and British Columbia. (Yes/No)

7. Treaties should include mechanisms for harmonizing land use planning between Aboriginal governments and neighbouring local governments. (Yes/No)

8. The existing tax exemptions for Aboriginal people should be phased out. (Yes/No)

IV: Indian Migrants and Citizenship

• Indian indentured labour 1830s+• 1880s+ movement of free Indian

labour—as British subjects protected by Colonial Office

Frank Oliver, Minister of the Interior and Superintendent General of IndianAffairs (1905-11)

• Immigration Act 1906: barring and deportation expanded

• Immigration Act 1910: exclusion of "immigrants belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate

or requirements of Canada." • 1908 implements border inspection service at 37 points

along Canada-US border

• 1907: Vancouver riot spurred byAsiatic Exclusion league

• 1907 law passed to deny those of Indian heritage the vote, run for public office, or act on juries; not permitted to become accountants, lawyers, pharmacists

• 1908: Minister of Labour, William Lyon Mackenzie King, proposes Continuous Passage Act and that immigrants be required to have $200 on their person

1909: JS Woodsworth, Strangers Within our Gates:We, in Canada, have certain more or less clearly defined goals of national well-being. These ideals must never be lost sight of. Non-ideal elements there must be, but they should be capable of assimilation. Essentially non-assimilable elements are clearly detrimental to our highest national development, and hence should be vigorously excluded.

The public school is the most important factor in transforming foreigners into Canadians…

Komagata Maru incident (1914) • Komagata Maru chartered by Gurdit Singh• Boat picks up 376 passengers, all British subjects • News of sailing travels the world:

• BC Newspaper headlines “Boat Loads of Hindus on Way to Vancouver” and “Hindu Invasion of Canada”.

• May 23, 1914: KM lands in BC• Boat detained for 2 months during legal battles• Singh: “We are British citizens and we consider

we have a right to visit any part of the Empire. We are determined to make this a test case and if we are refused entrance into your country, the matter will not end here”

• May 23, 1914: KM lands in BC• Boat detained for 2 months during legal battles• Passengers agree to launch test case in the

name of Munshi Singh defended by lawyers Bird and Cassidy—but application denied

• court rules that has no authority to interfere with Dept. of Immigration and Colonization

• Tug, Sea Lion, sent to push KM out of harbour

• HMS Rainbow also mobilized

• Passengers attack• Only 24 passengers

allowed to disembark

• KM forced to sail on July 23, 1914

• KM arrived Calcutta Sept 26, 1914• Taken to Budge Budge harbour• Ship put under guard, and passengers taken as

prisoners• During protests, 20 passengers killed

British Columbia Court of Appeal1) British subjects no longer

automatically considered Canadian citizens

2) Federal government has ultimate authority to define citizenship

3) Right to determine who is an alien—Indian migrants, but also First Nations peoples

Judge McPhillips (1914):“The Parliament of Canda—the nation’s Parliament—may be well said to be safeguarding the people of Canada from an influx which is no chimera to conjure up might annihilate the nation and change its whole potential complexity, introduce Oriental ways as against European ways, eastern civilization for western civilization, and all of the dire results that would naturally flow there from… In that our fellow British subjects of the Asiatic race are of different instincts to those of the European race—and consistent there with, their family life, rules of society and laws are of a very different character—in their own interests, their proper place of residence is within the confines of their respective countries in the continent of Asia, not in Canada”

Postscript

Jan 9, 2007: Jack Layton demands a government apology for the Komagata Maru incident, and for a permanent memorial

Conclusions:Citizenship, Racism, Imperialism

RacismLiberalism

CitizenshipNationalism

Imperialism