(written by Terry MacNeil, on November 19-21, 2025)

I don’t read about Canada as often as I should – for the past decade or so, I’ve mainly been reading about anarchism, Marxism, and (global) capitalism. But I recently heard Emily Grafton being interviewed on the CBC Radio (to promote her new book, co-edited with David BA MacDonald, titled Settler Colonialism in Canada: Lands & Peoples). As a white settler, I figured it would be just the book I need – so that I’d become more informed and sensitive to indigenous issues in Canada. In the end, I think the book did for me what I hoped it would.

Over my many years, I’ve often heard terms used by the Canadian news media (almost always without explanation or clarification) when they would be doing “indigenous” news stories. Such terms included “nation-to-nation”, “land back”, “colonialism”, “genocide”, “treaty rights”, “unceded territory”, etc. So I shall list a few questions I would wonder, thanks to the vagueness of those Canadian news media reports. “Didn’t colonialism disappear (to be replaced by neo-colonialism) when all those Asian and African countries gained their ‘independence’ in the mid-twentieth century?” “Do the indigenous want every square inch of land (that is today considered ‘Canada’) back, and will all settlers become refugees?” “Were there really enough indigenous deaths to warrant charges of genocide against the Canadian state?” And so on. Well, those were thoughts I had – and I’m embarrassed I ever had them. Oh well. Live and learn.

A reply: I have never heard any indigenous person advocate taking back ALL the land in Canada. From what I can tell, they want a lot (but certainly not ALL) of Crown Land to be handed over to indigenous nations, for them to live on (and off) as they please. If the indigenous nations ever get their wish – I just hope they won’t embrace capitalism. “Don’t make the same mistake us white (male) settlers did!” I will plead.

A reply: Some genocides have way higher body counts than others. The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide lists various categories of what qualifies as genocide. So many genocides are more “subdued” than what Nazi Germany did, or what Israel is doing. Forced sterilization programs? Residential School systems? Allowing large segments of the indigenous population to die of disease? Seizing indigenous children and putting them in white households? The UN considers all of these actions to be acts of genocide – because the Canadian state’s aim was (and still is) to drive every indigenous nation into non-existence.

Also, I’m reminded of a CBC Radio News report a year or so ago (I forget exactly when or where it took place, but I know it was somewhere in Nova Scotia). And it was about settler fishers becoming enraged that Mi’kmaw indigenous fishers were fishing (at a time, according to the Canadian state, that NO ONE was supposed to be fishing). Of course, the news report made no mention of the Mi’kmaw treaty right of hunting and fishing. But the CBC got a quote from one settler dude, who said (paraphrased): “We’re committed to equality for all fishers to fish, when it is permitted for EVERYONE to fish AT THE SAME TIME.” OK asshole, but by denying the Mi’kmaw their treaty rights – you are making a case for the Mi’kmaw to say “OK, you settlers have broken the treaty. So we’re just going to kick ALL settlers off ALL Mi’kmaw territory.” Granted, it’s HIGHLY unlikely that would ever actually happen – but I consider it proof that settlers need to be WAY more considerate when dealing with the indigenous. Nova Scotia HAS been recognized as MI’KMAW land, whether you settler fishers like it or not.

Should there be “Indigenous Privilege”? I say yes (UNTIL the anarchist revolution). Ⓐ