• About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home *Opinion*

We are all treaty people

by David Coon
October 21, 2013
Reading Time: 2min read
Warrior
Eliza Knockwood: The armed officer was pointing his gun at a pregnant woman and our Warrior Chief stood between the woman and the gun and said, “Stop aiming your gun at her. If you’re going to shoot anyone its going to be me.“ He was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet shortly after stating that and the shot was deployed from approximately four feet away.

We are treaty people, whether Aboriginal or not. Those of us who are not members of First Nations don’t usually think of ourselves as treaty people, but it is the case. The movement to protect our peoples, land and water from fracking has opened a door for us to stand beside our Aboriginal neighbours to demand that the treaties are honoured by both Fredericton and Ottawa.

In the Maritimes, treaties were signed between First Nations and representatives of the Crown following protracted and unwinnable warfare.  No side was conquered.  No territory was ceded.  Instead, Treaties of Peace and Friendship, as they were called, established the terms of peaceful co-existence recognizing First Nations as sovereign peoples. These treaties are recognized and protected within Canada’s Constitution.

The Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, and Mi’kmaq, known collectively as the Wabanaki people, have a unique legal status as the original peoples of our region.  Whether we realize it or not, we are in part defined by these treaties. They affirm rights and responsibilities on the part of all signatories.  The problem is that both federal and provincial governments have failed to respect the treaties or recognize the sovereignty of First Nations.

In response, First Nations have gone to court time and time again, and to have the rights which flow from the treaties upheld in Canadian law.  Yet these court decisions continue to be lost on our leaders.  In fact, governments, including our own, have repeatedly appealed court rulings that found in favour of Aboriginal people exercising their rights, forcing the proceedings all the way to the Supreme Court.  Still, our governments continue to operate as if the treaties don’t exist, and not surprisingly, have never made an effort to educate us about them.

It is plain to see for most people of good will, that we need a new relationship rooted in the treaties with First Nations if we are ever to achieve true peace and friendship. The efforts of anglophones, Acadians and the people of the First Nations to safeguard our water and land from fracking has opened that door.  Let’s all walk through it.

David Coon is the Leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick.

Tags: David CoonfrackingIndigenousNew Brunswickshale gasslider
Send

Related Posts

Environment

Why speeding up mining approvals won’t solve tariff troubles

May 3, 2025

Provincial governments and federal election candidates are falling over each other in a rush to expedite approvals for mining, as...

Tantramar Council orders annual glyphosate testing of Sackville and Dorchester drinking water
Environment

Tantramar Council orders annual glyphosate testing of Sackville and Dorchester drinking water

February 7, 2025

Tantramar Town Council resisted advice from Town Engineer Jon Eppell on Tuesday and ordered that drinking water in Sackville and...

First Nations chiefs shouldn’t be duped by ‘nuclear-is-green’ deception
Indigenous

First Nations chiefs shouldn’t be duped by ‘nuclear-is-green’ deception

January 6, 2025

Some First Nation Chiefs are victims of shenanigans, not unlike the swindle behind the purchase of Manhattan. The federal government...

Forever dangerous: New video outlines Indigenous Nations’ positions on nuclear energy and waste
Energy

Forever dangerous: New video outlines Indigenous Nations’ positions on nuclear energy and waste

December 3, 2024

A 10-minute video titled Askomiw Ksanaqak (Forever Dangerous): Indigenous Nations Resist Nuclear Colonialism was released on Nov. 29 as part of a study...

Load More

Recommended

New Brunswicker deported from Egypt following crackdown on March to Gaza [video]

New Brunswicker deported from Egypt following crackdown on March to Gaza [video]

3 days ago
The Millennium Scoop: an ongoing crisis for Indigenous families

The Millennium Scoop: an ongoing crisis for Indigenous families

7 days ago
Local News Matters — Incubating local news in the Maritimes [video]

Local News Matters — Incubating local news in the Maritimes [video]

3 days ago
Délai prolongé! COOP Média NB offre d’emploi : Journaliste vidéo autochtone

Toujours pas de justice cinq ans après le meurtre de Chantel Moore

6 days ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

X
Did you like this article? Support the NB Media Co-op! Vous avez aimé cet article ? Soutenez la Coop Média NB !
Join/Donate