Conflict
Despite some claims, there is still ethnic conflict involving indigenous populations in Canada today. The Indian Act is still in place despite being discriminatory and oppressive to indigenous people. In addition to the Indian Act there are debates over territory for example there are issues with the treaties signed about how long land was to be given to the government, and how the government is still trying to take more indigenous land away from indigenous people. (Purich). The Canadian government while they are no longer trying to forcibly assimilate indigenous people into ‘Canadian Culture’ they are still controlling indigenous people more than they should be by keeping the Indian Act alive. The name in and …show more content…
During settler colonialism where genocidal acts and control were the responses to ethnic diversity indigenous people essentially had no rights and had to recognition as a people that had claim to the land in which they were living. Whether they lived or were killed came down to what the settlers wanted and even if they lived indigenous lives were controlled. During the 18th to early 20th centuries there was the Indian Act and residential schools there which resulted in internal expulsions and unwanted assimilation. From today’s perspective these responses to ethnic diversity do not seem positive and are still viewed extremely negative. However, in the context of the past assimilation and internal expulsions is a way of managing to ethnic diversity is an improvement from the genocidal acts and severe control that was taking place during settler colonialism. From there you look at how Canada is responding to the ethnic diversity today and one sees that there are still issues that are stemming from past conflicts. There is still lasting impacts of internal expulsions involving the Indian Act because of the way reserves are set up but there are improvements as there are some indications of territorial autonomy at least is the area of self-government on reserves and the potential for further consociationalism. In Conclusion, Canada has made positive progress for indigenous rights over the centuries because of the changing response to ethnic diversity in the nation-state. While that is said, there are still issues that need to be addressed by the Canadian Government in order to further the rights and protections of the indigenous populations, which could be best completed through further