n Canada, the policy towards aboriginals was that of assimilation into the rest of Canadian society. Attempts at assimilation were done primarily on an individual level. Examples of the Canadian government’s efforts are creation of the residential school system, where aboriginal children were taken away from their families and forbidden to speak in their native tongue, and the attempt to make Aboriginal religious practices criminal. Attempts to terminate Indian status peaked in 1969 with the introduction the White Paper, which was overwhelmingly struck down. The resistance of aboriginals towards assimilation increased after this time and sparked the creation of First Nations political organizations. Olthius and Townshend state that the less than ideal conditions that aboriginals live in today, is a result of failed assimilation attempts. They believe that First Nations jurisdiction must be established in order for Aboriginals to grow as a people, and coexist in the Canadian state. One that “goes well beyond a municipal-government type of jurisdiction” .Thomas Flanagan’s essay concerning aboriginal sovereignty begins by defining the word sovereignty, as “a bundle of powers associated with the highest authority of government.” Flanagan associates sovereignty with, among other things, being able to enforce rules and make laws, something, he claims, aboriginal people did not have before European came. Although there was a process in which aboriginals dealt with political affairs, according to Flanagan, they could not claim statehood and sovereignty.After reviewing the two essays, I have decided to support the arguments against native sovereignty coexisting with Canadian sovereignty. Olthius and Townshend’s position based on historical and moral grounds seems weak in comparison to Flanagan’s definitions of sovereignty and arguments against implementing sovereignty for aboriginal peopl...
