Negotiated Inferiority: The Royal Commission on Aboriginal People's Vision of a Renewed Relationship

Abstract

It is commonly said that the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Peoples (RCAP) have been shelved by the federal government. In fact, many have argued that RCAP's report was received on arrival. There was a federal response (Gathering Strength), of course, but the government's policy paper responded to only a handful of the Commission's 444 recommendations and it did not constitute the radical transformation in public policy that RCAP had envisioned. Still, while RCAP itself has been effectively shelved by the federal government, I would argue that RCAP is not really dead since much of its vision of governance lives on in federal policy-in fact, RCAP's vision of governance continues to exist, albeit in a modified state with limited scope and application. This paper examines RCAP's vision of a renewed relationship between the colonizer and the colonized, focusing primarily on RCAP's vision for strengthening governance. As it would be impossible to focus on every element of RCAP's plan, I limit my discussion to the section of the RCAP final report that deals specifically with issues of governance. Doing so, I offer a cursory overview of the relevant section of the report (Chapter 3, Volume 2) before proceeding to a more detailed analysis of specific elements or recommendations that I view as problematic. Specifically, I demonstrate that RCAP's vision of governance necessarily entails a renewed relationship based upon negotiated inferiority or an unequal partnership and not the equal partnership (that is, partners in Confederation) the Commissioners advocated. Arguing that RCAP's vision of governance is one of negotiated inferiority, this paper provides a brief discussion of this vision as it is rearticulated in federal policy and concludes by suggesting that we need to look beyond this vision of governance and force a new relationship based on a true partnership between peoples and the settler society. RCAP's Vision of a Renewed Relationship The rationale provided by RCAP for decolonizing or renewing the relationship between and non-Aboriginal peoples is that it is necessary to address the complex (dis)array of a historical myths, deplorable acts, and unspeakable visions upon which Canada was founded. The chilling realities of the present not only explain the existence of the Royal Commission on Peoples, but they also expose the need for a new relationship and a more equitable and prosperous future. According to the Commissioners, a vision of a balanced relationship has been a constant theme in our work as a Commission.... we rejected the idea that the past can simply be put aside and forgotten as we seek to build a new relationship. What we should strive for instead is a renewed relationship. The concept of renewal expresses better the blend of historical sensitivity and creative initiative that should characterize future relations among and non-Aboriginal people in this country. It would be false and unjust to suggest that we start entirely anew, false and unjust to attempt to wipe the slate clean, ignoring both the wrongs of the past and the rights flowing from our previous relationships and interactions. (1: 676-677) In conceptualizing the renewal of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized, the Commissioners have based their vision on four key principles: mutual recognition, mutual respect, sharing, and mutual responsibility. According to the Commission, these principles define a process that can provide the solutions to many of the difficulties afflicting relations among and non-Aboriginal people.... When taken in sequence, the four principles form a complete whole, each playing an equal role in developing a balanced societal relationship. Relations that embody the principles are, in the broadest sense of the word, partnerships (1: 677-678). The Commission's vision is that this renewed relationship or partnership would be based on mutual recognition, meaning that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people acknowledge and relate to one another as equals, co-existing side by side and governing themselves according to their own laws and institutions (1: 678). …