Analyzing Colonialism's Impact on Canada's Political Landscape

This essay provides an analysis of colonialism in Canada, focusing on its enduring presence in the Canadian political landscape. The paper discusses the historical context of colonialism, including the dispossession of indigenous peoples, the residential school system, and the impact of government policies. It examines how colonialism continues to affect indigenous communities through discrimination, socioeconomic challenges, and political marginalization. The essay references key works such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, the works of Manuel and Vowel, and others to explore the political, legal, and social dimensions of colonialism. It highlights the importance of reconciliation efforts, the role of multiculturalism, and the need for the Canadian government to address the unfulfilled needs of indigenous peoples and include their voices in decision-making processes. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for a historical narrative that centers the experiences of indigenous people and promotes a more inclusive and just society.

Running Head: COLONIALISM AND CANADA
Colonialism and Canada
Name of the Student:
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Author Note:

1COLONIALISM AND CANADA
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness could not colonize it.”
― Jamie Arpin-Ricci
(Schmidt, 2018: 12).
Canada has an old history of adherence to the different political rights and the
associated form of civil liberties of the Canadian citizens. In the recent years of the Canadian
political scenario, it has seen rising concerns on the extent of the applicability of the
surveillance laws passed by the government as well as the laws passed by the courts. The
indigenous people of Canada and its other vulnerable populations continue to face the
different discrimination threats and other socioeconomic and political challenges. The
federal government of Canada has also acknowledged some of the different policies to
address the issues that challenge the government.
Colonialism in Canada can be best analyzed as Canada’s indigenous people were
forced with disconnection from their own land , their native culture and the indigenous
community by other communities in the society. The main source of the disconnection from
the indigenous group lies in the history of Canada that exists even today. Specially in the
northern part of Canada, the governments offer proper support to the different industries that
take control of its land for utilizing the available resources in order to remove Canada’s
indigenous people from its land (Manuel 2017)The analysis of Canada’s history is important
for the reconciliation the relationships that exist.
The residential school system of Canada was the reformed form of education system
that owes much for the existence of the aboriginal population of Canada. The residential
schools were mainly constructed with the purpose of catering education to the aboriginal
population who are neglected from the main stream of population (Vowel,2016).The
Britishers applied most of the government policies to weaken the structure of the Aboriginal

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population where the aboriginal population has been discriminated both socially and legally
which means marginalization of the population in order to maximize the profits for the
colonizers Such policies formulated by the Canadian government restricted the scope of
employment, lost their hold over the required resources and more significantly weakened
their social status.
The perspective of colonialism has been spoken in a different ways like legal, political
and social concepts. The sovereignty of people around the country had been taken by other
country and Canadian colonization was definitely not a legitimate colonization. The concept
of colonialism is often accompanied with the resistance factor which refers to the concept of
Canadianizes way of thinking of taking certain actions against the native colonial state. The
indigenous people have been assimilated into that state of society where any individual look
for redressed attempts within the existing parameters of the policies that have been already
established by the particular state. There are various presentations of the oral evidence of the
aboriginal people of Canada in their legal and the constitutional framework. The different
traditions include the memories of their unconscious treatment of the legal reforms of Britain
and Canada. (Borrows 2001). It was in 2018 when Canada has fully adopted the UN
declaration on the right s of all the indigenous people. In the previous years, Canada’s
conservative government objected the clause that stated that the clauses enacted by the
officials should also conform to the consent and the will of the Indigenous people where any
matter is concerned around them. The first and the most integral part of the Canadian
colonialism is the radicalism which has usually opposed the idea of the democratic principle
mainly the liberal form of democracy. ( Malcolmson et al 2016)The multiculturalism concept
presumes that any nation will accept the extent of the cultural differences in the mainstream
narrative area which will enter into a new domain.

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“The government had spent more than four times the amount on lawyers [fighting a
First Nations family's request for medical treatment] than would have been required to
actually do the surgery.”
― Charlie Angus
Finally, while addressing the problems the colonization, the government of Canada
must come out with new and appropriate measures for the inclusion of the indigenous people
in the different events. The indigenous voices should be brought to the forefront in order to
prevent the stigmatization of these groups. The colonization in Canada had a deep amnesia
over the past years, therefore more actions have to be taken particularly around having a
historical narrative of the country that puts all its emphasis over the indigenous people.
Though Canada has recorded significant progress as compared to the previous years, still
much is yet to be done regarding the unfulfilled necessities of the indigenous people of
Canada.

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REFERENCES
Borrows, J. (2001). Listening for a change: the courts and oral tradition. Osgoode Hall Law
Journal 39(1), 1-38.
Malcolmson, P, Myers, R, Baier, G and Bateman, T. (2016). The Canadian regime: an
introduction to parliamentary government in Canada 6th edition. Toronto ON: University of
Toronto Press.
Manuel, A. (2017). The reconciliation manifesto. Toronto, ON: Lorimer.
McFarlane, P. & Schabus, N. (2018). Whose land is it anyway? Vancouver, BC: Federation
of Post-Secondary Educators BC.
Vowel, C. (2016). Indigenous Writes: a guide to First Nations, Métis and Inuit issues in
Canada. Winnipeg, MB: Highwater Press.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Honouring the truth, reconciling
for the future: Summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada. Winnipeg, MB: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.