Today we have a special guest post from Sarah York-Betram! She posted a version of this piece on her Instagram late last week, and was kind enough to transform it into a blog post.
A scholar from Treaty Six Territory, Sarah York-Bertram is a Canadian historian and PhD candidate at York University specializing in the socio-legal histories of the Canadian Prairies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
In 2013, the Mikisew Cree First Nation challenged the Harper Government’s 2012 omnibus legislation on the grounds that the legislation could impact the First Nation’s constitutionally protected rights to hunt, trap, and fish in Treaty 8 territory. They argued that, as per their longstanding treaty rights, the Crown had a duty to consult them when contemplating actions or decisions that may affect their rights as Indigenous people and their treaty rights. The omnibus legislation made significant changes to the Fisheries Act, Species at Risk act, and the Navigable Waters act, reducing government oversight of lands and waters. Opposition to the omnibus legislation and the Harper government’s approach to relations with the Indigenous peoples sparked the Idle No More movement in 2012.