Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

The challenge of reconciliation • 251international law or contribute to reconciliation. Such concepts are a current manifestationof historical wrongs and should be formally repudiated by all levels ofCanadian government.Our intention in so concluding is to highlight that there is an important distinctionto be drawn between the Doctrine of Discovery and its related concepts and the severalinherently unjust policies, laws, and principles to which they have given rise overthe years. It would not be enough to simply repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, forexample, while still maintaining the requirement for Aboriginal people to prove thevalidity of their existence and territoriality. We would not suggest that the repudiationof the Doctrine of Discovery necessarily gives rise to the invalidation of Crown sovereignty.The Commission accepts that there are other means to establish the validity ofCrown sovereignty without undermining the important principle established in theRoyal Proclamation of 1763, which is that the sovereignty of the Crown requires that itrecognize and deal with Aboriginal title in order to become perfected. It must not beforgotten that the terms of the Royal Proclamation were explained to, and acceptedby, Indigenous leaders during the negotiation of the Treaty of Niagara of 1764.Treaties: Honouring the past and negotiating the futureIt is important for all Canadians to understand that without Treaties, Canada wouldhave no legitimacy as a nation. Treaties between Indigenous nations and the Crownestablished the legal and constitutional foundation of this country.Elder Fred Kelly emphasized that Treaty making and Aboriginal peoples’ ways ofresolving conflict must be central to reconciliation. He said,There are those who believe that a generic reconciliation process is a Westernbasedconcept to be imposed on the Aboriginal peoples without regard totheir own traditional practices of restoring personal and collective peace andharmony. We must therefore insist that the Aboriginal peoples have meaningfulparticipation in the design, administration, and evaluation of the reconciliationprocess so that it is based on their local culture and language. If reconciliation isto be real and meaningful in Canada, it must embrace the inherent right of selfdeterminationthrough self-government envisioned in the treaties....Where government refuses to implement Aboriginal rights and the originalspirit and intent of the treaties, the citizens of Canada must take direct action toforcefully persuade its leadership. Treaties and memoranda of agreement aresimply the stage-setting mechanisms for reconciliation. There must be action ...all Canadians have treaty rights.... It is upon these rights and obligations that ourrelationship is founded. 32