Canada can be a home to everyone except those who made it, as the official story so often now goes.
asserted
story → make → it
At universities, in corporate boardrooms, and at municipal ceremonies from Victoria to Halifax, Canadians are reminded that they sleep, live, and breathe upon somebody else’s “traditional territory,” as “uninvited guests” on “stolen” land.
asserted
they → remind → land
This is the doctrine of delegitimization, designed to make Canadians politically and spiritually docile, for whatever reason.
asserted
Canadians → design → reason
In fact, Canada is the traditional land of the Canadian people because this is where they became a people in the first place.
asserted
they → become → place
True, at some point, their ancestors may have set sail from Britain or France or wherever else in the world their forebears sailed from.
uncertain
forebears → set → world
But a country that your family has not lived or died in for four generations or more is no longer a homeland.
asserted
family → live → generations
Visiting London or Normandy may feel more familiar than Rio de Janeiro, but you are still a tourist in-spite of your surname.
uncertain
you → visit → surname
The original colonists and those who followed became Acadians, Canadiens, Maritimers, and British Columbians a long time ago, while others made families with Indigenous people, creating the Métis.
asserted
others → follow → Métis
All were distinctly North American, with their own songs, fables, and even accents (though these are sadly fading).
asserted
these → fade → songs
That transformation happened in North America, and it makes no difference that the languages they speak today originally came from Europe.
asserted
they → happen → Europe
That transformation predated Confederation.
asserted
transformation → predate → Confederation
Colonists on the St. Lawrence in the late 1600s were already calling themselves Canadiens, and French military officers did not hesitate to recognize that they were different, nor did the colonials themselves.
asserted
colonials → call → themselves
During the Seven Years’ War, the tensions between the native-born people of New France and their European officers were apparent.
asserted
tensions → bear → France
The Canadiens and Indians would not march with the same confidence under the order of a commander of the troops from France, as they would under the officers of this colony,” remarked Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, the first Canadien-born governor of New France, on the eve of the British conquest.
asserted
Vaudreuil → march → conquest
Likewise, during the War of 1812, General Isaac Brock had great reservations about the North American-born members of the militia compared with his British regulars.
asserted
Brock → have → regulars
All of these were signs that Canadians, both English- and French-speaking, had become something different from their counterparts in the metropole, though bound by loyalty.
asserted
Canadians → speak → loyalty
People like to call Canada a “land of immigrants.”
asserted
People → like → immigrants
Canada is a country with many immigrants, to be sure, but not everyone can claim the immigrant story, and many have no reason to try.
uncertain
many → claim → reason
By the 1930s, nearly everybody living in Newfoundland was locally born.
asserted
everybody → live → Newfoundland
Such people cannot be called Europeans maintaining a colony.
asserted
people → call → colony
A people’s land becomes traditional when children are born in the same place where their grandparents are buried.
asserted
grandparents → become → place
Despite rumours to the contrary, there is a Canadian culture that has its own songs, written by men like Stan Rogers, Tom Connors, and Gordon Lightfoot.
asserted
that → be → Rogers
Much of their music will be forgotten as the generation that grew up with it ages out of life, apart from a few iconic songs like “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “Barrett’s Privateers.”
asserted
that → forget → Fitzgerald
Ironically, much of that same postwar generation that listened to that music on the radio is the one that disregarded the culture and habits that made those songs possible, replacing them with a bland, generic modernity they mistook for sophistication.
asserted
they → listen → sophistication
Nonetheless, “uninvited guests” rarely make such well-made, evocative music.
asserted
guests → make → music
Making the term “traditional territory” exclusive to discussions about Indigenous peoples denies millions of Canadians a status as a people that others around the world can take for granted.
asserted
others → make → world
It allows one small segment of the population an indefinite and ever-strengthening relationship to the land while treating another as incapable of belonging to the same place.
asserted
It → allow → place
A family may have lived beside the same river for hundreds of years, yet its descendants are still considered guests by the institutions that educate and employ them.
uncertain
that → live → them
All of it is psychological dispossession, aimed at making the Canadian presence feel conditional.
asserted
presence → aim → it
Even being called simply “guests” directly implies that Canadians are not in their own home, and yet this is the moderate label used at universities.
asserted
this → call → universities
It is one thing to recognize the older Indigenous presence on the land and another thing entirely to turn non-Indigenous people into moral subordinates.
asserted
It → recognize → subordinates
Furthermore, this is gaslighting because it tries to make Canadians disbelieve the ironclad evidence of their own history.
asserted
Canadians → try → history
Their towns, cemeteries, and family photos are there for all to see, yet institutions refuse to treat them as evidence of legitimate attachment.
asserted
institutions → see → attachment
“Traditional territory” itself is a very broad historical description that has been conflated with “unceded,” which is a legal term in constitutional discussions.
asserted
which → conflate → discussions
Going further and calling it “stolen” is an outright accusation, but the difference has been blurred.
asserted
difference → go → it
For example, Trent University in Peterborough states that the campus stands on treaty territory, specifically within the nearly two million acres ceded to the Crown in 1818.
asserted
campus → state → 1818
However, it also describes the people who live and work there as “uninvited guests.”
asserted
who → describe → guests
Repeating the same drivel is a way for these institutions to claim authority and embed new rituals that ensure compliance.
uncertain
that → repeat → compliance
Canadian applicants and workers have no option but to participate in these ritual humiliations or risk having their lives and careers sabotaged.
asserted
lives → have → humiliations
Those who administer these rituals get a kick out of it, as if castigating an audience or a candidate is an act of subversion.
asserted
castigating → administer → subversion
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
