Assignment 3:2 – Royal Proclamation

Royal Proclamation: a project of white civility

2] In this lesson I say that it should be clear that the discourse on nationalism is also about ethnicity and ideologies of “race.” If you trace the historical overview of nationalism in Canada in the CanLit guide, you will find many examples of state legislation and policies that excluded and discriminated against certain peoples based on ideas about racial inferiority and capacities to assimilate. – and in turn, state legislation and policies that worked to try to rectify early policies of exclusion and racial discrimination. As the guide points out, the nation is an imagined community, whereas the state is a “governed group of people.” For this blog assignment, I would like you to research and summarize one of the state or governing activities, such as The Royal Proclamation 1763, the Indian Act 1876, Immigration Act 1910, or the Multiculturalism Act 1989 – you choose the legislation or policy or commission you find most interesting. Write a blog about your findings and in your conclusion comment on whether or not your findings support Coleman’s argument about the project of white civility.

I chose to address the Royal Proclamation because the majority of my knowledge of Canadian history begins in the early 1800s. I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I’ve never learned about this Proclamation before, and I had no idea how significant it was in terms of establishing land rights for Indigenous peoples. Before this assignment, my knowledge about land rights was all based on the Indian Act, and this happened over 100 years earlier.

Summary of the Royal Proclamation 

The Royal Proclamation was issued by King George III in 1763. After France surrendered the territories in North America to the British after the Seven Years War in the treaty of Paris, this Proclamation was put in place in an effort to assimilate the French to British rule. The Proclamation, and the policies therein, ultimately failed and was replaced by the Quebec Act in 1774. The Proclamation also set in place the structure for the negotiation of territory with Indigenous inhabitants and as such as been labeled an “Indian Bill of Rights”. The Proclamation “defined the North American interior west of the Appalachian Mountains as an Indigenous reserve” (Hall). Under the Royal Proclamation, the British appointed governor became the authority in newly formed Quebec. French law was replaced by English criminal and civil law and Catholics were excluded from public positions. 

Interestingly, the Proclamation reserved a large area in the North American interior for the Indigenous peoples. The Proclamation stated that: “Indigenous people reserved all lands not ceded by or purchased from them.” (Hall). The Proclamation, in doing this, set out a process that would allow an Indigenous nation to sell their lands to the British monarch – and only the British monarch.  This ultimately resulted in the British crown being a key player in the land treaties between colonial settlers and Indigenous peoples.

An interesting summary of the Proclamation can be found here:

History, Youtube. 

Implications of the Proclamation Today 

Today, the Proclamation continues to be important when it comes to debates about its constitutional applicability and how this plays into the title of Indigenous lands. Questions such as whether the Proclamation is the source of Indigenous land rights, or whether it simply acknowledges pre-existing rights, and whether the Proclamation applies to parts of all of the country continue to spark debate.

The Royal Proclamation: a project of white civility? 

Daniel Coleman, in his book White Civility, writes that “white civility [is] definitive of Canadian identity”, he argues that the state and its policies have “gradually reified the privileged, normative status of British whiteness in English Canada” (qtd. In Paterson). I believe the Proclamation is a state-enforced example of a nation attempting to create a white and British country. The Proclamation attempted to assimilate the other cultural and linguistic groups living in Canada, including Indigenous peoples, to the “notion of Canada as British”, therefore supporting Coleman’s statement (CanLit Guides). 

Justice Murray Sinclair and The Royal Proclamation 

Chippewas of Rama First Nation, Youtube.

In the Justice’s speech, he says that he has a “love-hate relationship with the Proclamation.” (Sinclair, 3:05). He loves that the Proclamation recognized that Indigenous people should be respected and not interfered with within their nations. He hates that the proclamation defended them against nothing and has in essence been used to interfere with Indigenous peoples since. He explains that the Proclamation was an assumption of the sovereignty of the Indigenous land by the King. It was the King’s way of saying: I am now the one the Indians must deal with.

Justice Murray Sinclair says that the Proclamation is “important because of the recognition it gives and the recognition it takes away.” (Sinclair, 7:00). I think this is what is so complex about the Proclamation – on a surface level, it seems to acknowledge and almost be a positive for the Indigenous people, but deeper, it was a way to ensure that Indigenous people could only deal with the British. In many ways, it can be viewed as one of the first official ways that the British attempted to assimilate Indigenous peoples. Sinclair explains the Proclamation became the vehicle by which the crown took lands away. I think Sinclair’s explanation illustrates why the Proclamation is an example of the concept of White Civility which Coleman writes about. 

Works Cited

CanLit Guides Editorial Team. “Nationalism, 1500–1700s: Exploration and Settlement.” Canadian Literature. August 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2020. http://canlitguides.ca/canlit-guides-editorial-team/nationalism-1500-1700s-exploration-and-settlement/

Hall, Anthony. “Royal Proclamation of 1763.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. February 2006. Web. 24 Feb. 2020. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/royal-proclamation-of-1763

History. “Fast Facts About the Proclamation of 1763.” Online video clip. Youtube. September 2017. Web. 24 Feb. 2020.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKNTBHmWOyA&feature=emb_logo

Montpetit, Isabelle. “Treaties from 1760 – 1923: Two sides to the story.” CBC News. May 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2020. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/treaties-from-1760-1923-two-sides-to-the-story-1.1081839

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3.1.” Canadian Literary Genres: Canadian Studies. WordPress, 2020. Web. 24 Feb. 2020. https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl372-99c-2019wc/unit-3/lesson-3-1/

“Royal Proclamation, 1763.” Indigenous Foundation. First Nations and Indigenous Studies, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2020. https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/royal_proclamation_1763/

Sinclair, Murray. “Justice Murray Sinclair on the Royal Proclamation of 1763.” Chippewas of Rama First Nation. Online video clip. Youtube. March 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2020. https://youtu.be/dSQsyZDGoX0