One Settler Takes Guidebook Grievances Theatre Too Far
One March 22, discussions about Calgary’s Guidebook for Great Communities took a wild turn. Residents, reportedly over-represented by those from the Calgary neighbourhood of Elbow Park, stormed city hall (or angrily logged into video conferencing, as it were) to share why they think density is bad. For more details, we covered this in a recent newsletter.
But then one speaker decided — and I’m not making this up — that they would start their list of grievances with a LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FOR CALGARY TAXPAYERS.
Excuse me?
I had to talk about this.
Chances are you’ve heard or read a land acknowledgment in municipal settings. Some even put them in their email signatures. This newsletter has one, too.
The goal of a land acknowledgement is to recognize Indigenous peoples’ kinship with the land upon which our settlements exist. The people are called First Nations for a reason.
Land acknowledgements were one of the 94 recommended calls to action contained in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report. The report itself states the importance of rejection the ideas of colonialism by saying that as a part of reconciliation Canada must:
Repudiate concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous lands and peoples such as the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius
Terra nullius is a Latin expression meaning "nobody's land." The concept was used to legitimize claims that a place could be ‘owned’ by a state because they explored it or didn’t feel like anyone else lives there.
People who came to Canada, and made their way to Calgary to settle the land, were able to do so because of the Royal Proclamation, 1763, where the Crown established treaties with Indigenous people, who lived here for thousands of years before French and British expeditions came to the New World.
Calgary is on Treaty 7 land.
Treaty 7 is the ancestral and traditional territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy — made up of the Kainai, Piikani and Siksika, as well as the Tsuu T'ina First Nation and Stoney Nakoda First Nation.
It is incredibly ignorant to warp something meant to reconcile with groups of people who were displaced, stripped of their languages and cultures, and still suffer the effects of colonization to this day in order to express your anger that your community might have some row houses some day.
Imagine that instead of your local government proposing a way someone could build multi-family apartments near your house, that the federal government just moved you.
And took your children away from you.
And taught them to speak a different language so you couldn’t even speak with them anymore. Your not-in-my-backyard grandstanding looks so ridiculous next to this, doesn’t it?
That is why we do land acknowledgements and why the language shouldn’t be appropriated for your own pet grievances.
and
then
this
happened
In conclusion, I can’t summarize this ridiculousness any better than Corey Hogan.
Women Running for Local Government
This week, RATM co-editor Danielle Paradis was joined by two women on the board of Parity YEG — Cindy Caturao and Rajah Maggay — to discuss women in local government.
Have you ever thought about gender parity in politics? Why do we care who makes decisions at the local level? Check out our discussion on how women can get involved, how you can support them, and what challenges or opportunities exist in the October 2021 municipal elections.
More Money for Munis!
On Thursday, all municipalities in Alberta, Metis Settlements and a little thing known as the Townsite of Redwood Meadows Administration Society (we will talk more about this one day) are eligible for an expanded Gas Tax Fund, now renamed the Canada Community-Building Fund.
Nenshi Thinks It’s Funny He’s Holding Out On Us
Municipal Elections By the Numbers
We’re tracking data as we write about the 2021 municipal elections in Alberta.
This chart tracks the municipal elections in Alberta in 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2017. The base data is here.
Do you have a metric you’d like us to chart? Send us a message or leave a comment.
Top Photo: Flickr, Creative Commons