2022 Year in Review

and Quebec were officially proclaimed the ‘Dominion of Canada’ and a selfgoverning
state within the British Empire.
During the first period, the largest impact on these communities stemmed from
the British legal doctrine of terra nullius — Latin for ‘unoccupied land’. This
permitted British colonists, in the eyes of
British law, to annex fertile, indigenous
lands and settle them for their own
purposes. During the second period, as
social and political structures across the
Dominion were codified into formal
colonial government, legislation was
implemented that aimed to assimilate
indigenous communities into the new
‘Canadian’ way of life.
P H O T O : A N D R E W J A M E S /
U N S P L A S H
Primary among these was the ‘Indian Act’
of 1876. This legislation implemented a
system of governance that barred
indigenous electoral participation and
processes of leadership selection —
notably dismissing the leadership role
played by women in First Nation
communities. Perhaps the most
devastating of the legislative measures
was the forced relocation of indigenous
children into British-styled residential
schools, which were deliberately
established several hundred kilometres
away from their communities to
indoctrinate the children into British
customs. These schools were operated by
churches with financial support from the
colonial government. From 1884, it is
estimated that more than 150,000
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