17 

[MAP] 

THE PARENTHESIS OF THE "INDIAN COUNTRY" 
 

The Situaton Today 
 
Quebec itself is far from being equivalent to the Quebecois presence in America. It is an extension of the territory which, in the 18th century, was "reserved" - I am weighing my words - for the Canadians, that is to say, the tribe of the Canadians, to use the actual words of certain contemporary observers. 

As soon as we examine with some attention the first British map published after the Treaty of Paris we become aware of a fact which is suddenly glaringly evident. It was in London, in England, and not in Canada that the Province of Quebec was created, for the purpose of concentrating in it all the Canadians of North America. The idea was to separate them more effectively from their Indian allies [7], for whom a territory would be established which was all the bigger because it would be later completely eliminated. As soon as the strategic and military evidence showed that the old Canadian-Native alliance - the dream of Pontiac - would not outlast Pontiac's death the Indian country could disappear from the Imperial records. 

In such a geopolitical context Quebec, or rather the Province of Quebec created by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, constituted the first big Indian reserve, not only in North America but in the whole British Empire, for which, moreover, it would serve as a model. But what does all this really amount to, in relation to the contemporary evolution of the natives? Much more than we think.  

In the very spirit of British law, imperial or not, which declares what the law is in preference to establishing it, the recognition of the right of self-government involves a geopolitical exercise in reverse. From this standpoint it is therefore necessary to refashion, and extend to the whole of Canada, i.e. the totality of the territory covered by the BNA Act, the model developed for 
Quebec since the conquest for the purpose of adapting Quebec to the native space. 

I come finally to a concluding statement which has been floating around for years and which hesitates ... just like the country itself between tradition and innovation. 

There has to be a middle term somewhere. 

Will this country continue to base itself on the idea of devolution or are we finally witnessing a zero hour, as has happened with all the countries of the New World. 

Will or will there not be a founding Act, as was the case with the United States of America in 1776, the United States of Mexico in 1824, or the United States of Brazil in 1822, etc.? 

If there will, a wish comes to mind that the first phase of such an Act should be the work of this Commission. If there will not?  

... Well, it is all too likely that we will either see Canada shattered, or witness the integral long-term assimilation of any native base through the very process of granting it recognition.  

For above all the actual process of recognizing a native government should not, because of the legal and administrative and the linguistic imperatives it implies, become ipso facto a process of  cultural assimilation for those whose identity it was the task of  the process to preserve. For once the Natives have legally speaking become Anglophones what will really be left of the teachings of the Windigos and the Adoctes and Autmoins. 

There is one final question, which carries weighty implications throughout the current debate and which I would be sorry not to discuss for one last time. It constitutes, politically and culturally, the most important aspect of the whole question: it is the question of the inextricable linkage between Quebec, the Natives and English Canada. 

A recent headline in the newspaper Le Devoir (9 April 1992) read as follows: "Anglo-Canadians and Natives would be protected from the 'distinct society' [clause] offered by Canada [to Quebec]."  

Would it be absolutely necessary to infer that, in full constitutional reciprocity, Quebec must ensure that it is equally protected from ... from what, in fact? From any "non-distinct society clause" which might be imposed upon it by the other governments? 

Come on! There is something terribly distressing about this everlasting game of hide and seek. Either we are preparing to (re)form a country and we are talking about it openly, or we will get on with something else. But this business of giving outprivileges with one hand and protecting oneself from them or snatching them with the other, and vice versa, is a totally destructive form of political meanness which nobody will ever get over. 

Above all, it is not national unity we need, we need to rise above ourselves, trans-nationally. This country is sick for want of a VISION .  

We need to imagine, both for the present and for history and the geographical space history has created for us, what the Natives are and will be in the making of Canada. 

What I demand for everybody is the inherent right of self-enlightenment. 

Of course, we do have maps and documents. We have maps representing the Treaties, documents showing the location of the reserves, some 600 of them, maps displaying the distribution of linguistic groups, etc., etc. But all that is still tacked on afterwards to categories and territories imposed by another mentality. With the result that the question is never defined as such, but always in relation to the Other who laid down the definition ... 

The map of the reserves never represents completely the Indian presence, far from it; it shows the outcome of the negotiations which resulted in the establishment of the reserves by  representatives of the government. 

I myself feel an urgent need to see something else. To see - both in time and space - the native dimension, the third order of government, in its full dynamic. 

I refuse to be given at the outset this forced orientation in advance, this big triangular red rectangle [TR-sic] north of the 49th parallel which obliges us to conceive of everything in  
accordance with a pre-established order. 

I need a unity of conception that rests on a new basis and a new vlsion . 

It is with these words and these wishes that I conclude this presentation. 

It is Canada as a native entity that it is absolutely necessary to devise; this is the fundamental condition for the country's survival.  A condition without which this country will never be able to attain the potential which history and geography have bestowed upon it, but will run the risk of sooner or later breaking apart, at the very time when the eyes of the entire hemisphere are fixed on it for the first time in its history. 

J.M.  

Cote-des-neiges, 

Montreal