Colonial Canada Research Articles

Propositions for anticolonial belonging in Canadian early childhood environmental education

This article puts forward modes of belonging that hold potential for enacting environmental education for socio-ecological justice. The focus is on orientations that can shift the experiences of young, racialized immigrant children living and learning in settler colonial Canada, where neoliberal multiculturalism has a strong hold on early childhood education. As an antidote, three interconnected pedagogical orientations towards belonging are offered: anticolonial place relations, multispecies flourishing, and affective micropolitics. The article concludes on both the challenges and liberatory possibilities of shifting environmental education for young, racialized immigrant children away from neoliberal multicultural inclusion and its reinforcement of settler colonial logics.

Reduced representation sequencing reveals weak genetic differentiation between Canadian and European Larus hyperboreus (Glaucous Gull)

Abstract Climate change poses a significant threat to Arctic ecosystems. Evaluation of genetic diversity within and differentiation among populations is needed to effectively conserve Arctic species and ensure genetic variation is appropriately managed. This research examined population genetic structure in Larus hyperboreus (Glaucous Gull), a circumpolar Arctic species that is declining in parts of its range. Population genetic information is needed to help delineate management units, including information on genetic differences among related species, among subspecies (currently distinguished by subtle morphometric and plumage differences), and among colonies in North America. We conducted double-digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing for 62 L. hyperboreus, 18 L. argentatus smithsonianus (American Herring Gull), 6 L. a. argentatus (European Herring Gull), and 15 L. glaucescens (Glaucous-winged Gull) sampled across the Canadian and European Arctic. Interspecific analyses using 2,145 loci were unable to distinguish members of this species complex. Despite the geographic distance among sampling locations, molecular assignments and principal coordinates analyses based on 621 loci uncovered only weak population genetic differentiation among sampled European and Canadian colonies of L. hyperboreus. As L. hyperboreus occupying the eastern Canadian Arctic appear to be acting as a single panmictic population, conservation plans that protect Arctic habitat may help slow or reverse population declines. Proactive conservation strategies will benefit both L. hyperboreus and associated coastal Arctic ecosystems.

Canadian settler colonialism: Structure, event, relationship, or process?

AbstractGeography scholarship examining Canadian colonialism often draws upon concepts and categories from the field of Settler Colonial Studies, including Patrick Wolfe's definition of settler colonialism as a “structure rather than an event.” In this brief intervention, I argue that historical Marxist debates about structuralism and social class have important lessons for the way geographers characterize Canadian colonialism today. The definition of class as both relationship and process is especially relevant, because Indigenous intellectuals and activists tend to speak about (de)colonization in similar terms. By reframing Canadian colonialism as relationship and process rather than structure, we can better engage Indigenous criticisms of Settler Colonial Studies, understandings of (de)colonization, and epistemologies and ontologies.

Red Mitten Nationalism: Sport, Commercialism, and Settler Colonialism in Canada by Estée Fresco (review)

Red Mitten Nationalism: Sport, Commercialism, and Settler Colonialism in Canada by Estée Fresco (review)

Meanings of indigenous land-based healing and the implications for water governance

The continuous process of settler colonialism in Canada has profoundly impacted Indigenous Peoples' relationship with the Land and water, which holds immense significance in their healing journey. Reconnecting with the land and water through culturally rooted practices has far-reaching implications for the health and well-being of Indigenous communities. Maintaining a strong bond with the land and water is integral to Indigenous healing traditions. To gain insights into this connection we used a relational theoretical framework and engaged with Ministikwan Lake Cree Nation, a remote Indigenous community. Our approach centred around community-based participatory research, utilizing methods like deep listening, cultural camps and story-sharing to collect wisdom from community members, knowledge keepers, and Elders. The research findings show understanding the connection between Land-based healing practices and Indigenous-led water governance is critical to solving the water crises within remote Indigenous communities. This knowledge is indispensable for reshaping current water governance systems and ensuring the well-being of Indigenous communities across Canada.

The effects of protein supplementation, fumagillin treatment, and colony management on the productivity and long-term survival of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies.

In this study, we intensively measured the longitudinal productivity and survival of 362 commercially managed honey bee colonies in Canada, over a two-year period. A full factorial experimental design was used, whereby two treatments were repeated across apiaries situated in three distinct geographic regions: Northern Alberta, Southern Alberta and Prince Edward Island, each having unique bee management strategies. In the protein supplemented treatment, colonies were continuously provided a commercial protein supplement containing 25% w/w pollen, in addition to any feed normally provided by beekeepers in that region. In the fumagillin treatment, colonies were treated with the label dose of Fumagilin-B® each year during the fall. Neither treatment provided consistent benefits across all sites and dates. Fumagillin was associated with a large increase in honey production only at the Northern Alberta site, while protein supplementation produced an early season increase in brood production only at the Southern Alberta site. The protein supplement provided no long-lasting benefit at any site and was also associated with an increased risk of death and decreased colony size later in the study. Differences in colony survival and productivity among regions, and among colonies within beekeeping operations, were far larger than the effects of either treatment, suggesting that returns from extra feed supplements and fumagillin were highly contextually dependent. We conclude that use of fumagillin is safe and sometimes beneficial, but that beekeepers should only consider excess protein supplementation when natural forage is limiting.

Doukhobors (Spirit Wrestlers) and Colonialism in Canada

Abstract: Colonialism can be seen as a historical process, or an ideology. As this article demonstrates, for Canadian Doukhobors, it is also a lived experience. Canadian Doukhobors, or Spirit Wrestlers, are a group of pacifist religious dissenters of mixed ethnic origins who immigrated to Canada from the Russian Empire in 1899. The worldview of the Doukhobors was radically different from the principles on which the colonial government was founded. The goal of this article is to describe the colonial policies directed towards the Doukhobors, their anticolonial struggles, and to consider the implications of the Doukhobor history for contemporary anti-colonial thought in Canada and worldwide. The government subjected Doukhobors to a range of discriminatory actions including cancellation of earlier granted land registries in Saskatchewan, incarcerations for refusal of military service (despite an existing legal exemption), taking away children of some Doukhobors and placing them in a juvenile detention center to force the assimilation. While considering the significance of the Doukhobor struggles against colonialism, the article proposes a new term, 'colonial privilege.' This article is reflexive and sheds a new light on the earlier recorded facts. Résumé: Le colonialisme peut être considéré comme un processus historique ou une idéologie. Comme le démontre cet article, pour les Doukhobors canadiens, il s'agit également d'une expérience vécue. Les Doukhobors canadiens, ou lutteurs spirituels, sont un groupe de dissidents religieux pacifistes d'origines ethniques diverses qui ont immigré au Canada en provenance de l'Empire russe en 1899. La vision du monde des Doukhobors était radicalement différente des principes sur lesquels le gouvernement colonial était fondé. L'objectif de cet article est de décrire les politiques coloniales menées à l'encontre des Doukhobors, leurs luttes anticoloniales et d'examiner les implications de l'histoire des Doukhobors pour la pensée anticoloniale contemporaine au Canada et dans le monde. Le gouvernement a soumis les Doukhobors à toute une série d'actions discriminatoires, notamment l'annulation de l'enregistrement des terres octroyées antérieurement en Saskatchewan, l'incarcération pour refus du service militaire (malgré une exemption légale existante), l'enlèvement des enfants de certains Doukhobors et leur placement dans un centre de détention pour mineurs afin de les forcer à s'assimiler. Tout en considérant l'importance des luttes des Doukhobors contre le colonialisme, l'article propose un nouveau terme, celui de "privilège colonial" . Cet article est réflexif et jette une nouvelle lumière sur les faits précédemment répertoriés.

“A Nation is Ill Served by a History which is Not Genuine:” The Past, Present, and Future of the Records of the Department of Indian Affairs

The records of the Department of Indian Affairs, commonly known as RG10, are among the most important primary sources in researching the intercultural history of Canadian colonialism. In reflecting on the history and future of RG10, we start from the TRC’s Calls to Action 69 and 70, which maintain that Indigenous Peoples should exert greater control over access to and management of archives in which they have an interest. This is consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Joinet Orentlicher Principles, Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution and the First Nations Information Governance Centre’s Principles of Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP®). Additionally, we advocate for Indigenous control of RG10 because these records are fundamentally different from other government records. RG10 is imbued with institutionalized violence through the government’s efforts to undermine Indigenous Peoples and their cultures, languages, and spiritualities. This makes RG10 a source of misinformation about and harm to Indigenous nations, communities, families, and individuals, in addition to being, often, a unique and irreplaceable source for histories of Canadian colonialism and for personal, family, community and national Indigenous histories. We consider the ways in which past and present archiving of RG10 has created further harms and complications, and how changes in archival practices may affect the future of historical research and writing.

Legacy contaminant trends in the Great Lakes uncovered by the wildlife environmental quality index

Since the 1970s, wildlife managers have prioritized the recovery of Great Lakes ecosystems from contamination by Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Monitoring and quantifying the region's recovery is challenged by the diversity of legacy contaminants in the environment and the lack of benchmarks for their potential biological effects. We address this gap by introducing the Wildlife Environmental Quality Index (WEQI) based on prior water and sediment quality indices. The tool summarizes, in a single score, the exposure of wildlife to harmful levels of multiple contaminants – with harmful levels set by published guidelines for protecting piscivorous wildlife from biological impacts. We applied the new index to a combined Canadian and American dataset of Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) egg data to elucidate trends in wildlife for eight legacy industrial pollutants and insecticides in the Great Lakes. Environmental quality of the Great Lakes region (as indexed by WEQI) improved by 18% between 2002 and 2017. Improvement came from reductions in both the scope of contamination (the number of guideline-exceeding contaminants) and its amplitude (the average size of guideline exceedances) at bird colonies. But recovery was unequal among lakes, with Lake Erie showing no improvement at one extreme. Weakly- or non-recovering lakes (Erie, Ontario, Huron) were marked by inconsistent improvement in scope and amplitude, likely due to ongoing loading, sediment resuspension and other stressors reported elsewhere. Fast-recovering lakes (Superior and Michigan), meanwhile, improved in both scope and amplitude. Contrasting trends and contaminant profiles (e.g., exceedances of PCBs versus DDTs) highlight the importance of lake-specific management for equalizing recoveries. Lower environmental quality at American than Canadian colonies, particularly in Lake Huron, further suggest uneven success in – and opportunities for – the binational management of wildlife exposure to legacy contaminants.

In different states of indifference: movement, friction, and resistance

In different states of indifference: movement, friction, and resistance

High pathogenicity avian influenza (H5N1) in Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus): Global spread, clinical signs and demographic consequences

During 2021 and 2022 High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) killed thousands of wild birds across Europe and North America, suggesting a change in infection dynamics and a shift to new hosts, including seabirds. Northern Gannets Morus bassanus appeared to be especially severely impacted, but a detailed account of the data available is required to help understand how the HPAI virus (HPAIV) spread across the meta‐population, and the ensuing demographic consequences. Accordingly, we analyse information on confirmed and suspected HPAIV outbreaks across most North Atlantic Gannet colonies and, for the largest colony (Bass Rock, UK), provide impacts on population size, breeding success, and preliminary results on apparent adult survival and serology. Unusually high numbers of dead Gannets were first noted at colonies in Iceland during April 2022. Outbreaks in May occurred in many Scottish colonies, followed by colonies in Canada, Germany and Norway. By the end of June, outbreaks had occurred in colonies in Canada and the English Channel. Outbreaks in 12 UK and Ireland colonies appeared to follow a clockwise pattern with the last infected colonies recorded in late August/September. Unusually high mortality was recorded at 40 colonies (75% of global total colonies). Dead birds testing positive for HPAIV H5N1 were associated with 58% of these colonies. At Bass Rock, the number of occupied nest‐sites decreased by at least 71%, breeding success declined by c. 66% compared with the long‐term UK mean and the resighting of marked individuals suggested that apparent adult survival between 2021 and 2022 could have been substantially lower than the preceding 10‐year average. Serological investigation detected antibodies specific to H5 in apparently healthy birds, indicating that some Gannets recover from HPAIV infection. Further, most of these recovered birds had black irises, suggestive of a phenotypic indicator of previous infection. Untangling the impacts of HPAIV infection from other challenges faced by seabirds is key to establishing effective conservation strategies for threatened seabird populations as the likelihood of further epizootics increases, due to increasing habitat loss and the industrialization of poultry production.

Hutterite colonies and canopy cover: A remotely sensed analysis of the effects of cultural-religious beliefs on the treed landscape

Located across the extent of the Canadian Prairies, the Hutterisch-speaking Hutterites are comprised of four groups or kinships: the Lehrerleut, Dariusleut, Schmiedeleut-1, and Schmiedeleut-2. Previous case studies with limited sample sizes have highlighted how the use of trees across the landscaped communities, including for aesthetic and agroforestry objectives, differs between the four kinships. Using photo-interpretive analysis of stratified samples using remotely sensed imagery, this study examines canopy cover and the spatial distribution and composition of trees within 100 Hutterite colonies in Canada, testing the conclusions of the prior limited-sample size case studies. The results illustrate that canopy cover around built infrastructure and aesthetic use of trees significantly differs between kinships and that a higher canopy cover is more common amongst the Schmiedeleut colonies, consistent with prior studies. The canopy cover extent also differed significantly between different ecological areas; however, this correlation is confounded by the historical immigration patterns and distinct economic ventures of the kinships. The canopy cover extent can also be traced back through the parental linkages, which shows significant differences between parental origins. This research helps add to discourse surrounding the influence of ethnocultural values on landscaping preferences at a large scale and provides both quantitative and qualitative remotely sensed methods for socio-ecological studies with the potential to complement ethnographic interviews and surveys.

Land use changes associated with declining honey bee health across temperate North America

Urbanization and agricultural intensification continue to reshape landscapes, altering the habitat available to wildlife and threatening species of both economic and conservation concern. The honey bee, Apis mellifera, is a pollinator of economic importance to North American agriculture yet managed colonies are burdened by poor health and high annual mortality. Understanding the factors influencing this species is critical for improving colony health and supporting crop production. We used a nationwide cohort of 638 managed Canadian colonies to study the dominant drivers of colony health and overwintering mortality. We found that fall colony weight—a major predictor of overwintering survival—was strongly associated with landscape composition. Among four broadly defined land cover types, we discovered that urban and forested land covers were the least valuable sources of habitat for colonies, as inferred from fall colony weight measurements. Agricultural land appeared to provide habitat quality of slightly greater value, while herbaceous land cover was most strongly positively associated with fall colony weight. Herbaceous land cover also exhibited an associational effect size which was strongly statistically distinguishable from those of urban and forested land. Our research indicates that recent and ongoing land-use changes exacerbate modern apicultural challenges, and suggests variation in nutrition or floral resource availability plays a major role in modulating honey bee health. Our work highlights the need for additional research investigating whether land use change-associated alterations in floral resource availability increase the potential for resource competition between pollinator species.

США КАК «ЗНАЧИМЫЙ ДРУГОЙ» В КОНТЕКСТЕ РАЗВИТИЯ НАЦИОНАЛИЗМА В КОЛОНИАЛЬНОЙ КАНАДЕ И АВСТРАЛИИ XIX В.

В статье мы отталкиваемся от ставшего уже классическим постулата Ф. Барта о конструирующей роли границ в формировании этнической и национальной идентичности. С этой точки зрения национальное самоопределение – это не столько продукт развития культурной самобытности того или иного сообщества, сколько результат рефлексии о «другом» или, выражаясь словами Ж. Лакана, конституирующим другом. Мы ставим целью доказать, что подобным же образом, происходило и развитие колониального национализма в Канаде и Австралии. В развитии национального дискурса для их интеллектуалов важнейшую роль сыграла идея наличия у канадцев и австралийцев коренных отличий от американцев – их «значимом другом». In the article, we base on F. Barth's postulate, which has already become a classic, about the constructive role of borders in the formation of ethnic and national identity. From this point of view, national self-determination is not so much a product of the development of the cultural identity of a particular community, but rather the result of reflection on the «other» or, in the words of J. Lacan, the constitutive other. We aim to prove that the development of colonial nationalism in Canada and Australia took place in a similar way. In the development of national discourse for their intellectuals, the idea that Canadians and Australians have fundamental differences from Americans, their «constituting other», played a crucial role.

No wheat crisis: trade liberalization and transportation innovation in Quebec during the 1830s and 1840s

Abstract In the first half of the nineteenth century, the wheat oriented agrarian economy of Lower Canada saw a rapid collapse in wheat production. These developments have been blamed on factors ranging from soil exhaustion to cultural conservatism and used to infer falling living standards in the colony. We provide evidence suggesting this collapse was largely the result of adjustment to the trade shock that followed the Colonial Trade Act of 1831 and a rapid reduction in freight costs between the Canadian colonies. Areas more exposed to external markets—as proxied by road access—shifted away from wheat production.

The Duty to Consult and Colonial Capitalism: Indigenous Rights and Extractive Industries in the Inuit Homeland in Canada

Advance Online Article published March 6, 2023This article contributes to academic debates about the relationship between Indigenous rights and the expansion of capitalism and colonialism in Canada. Using case studies of duty to consult litigation related to resource extraction on and near Inuit territory, I argue that Inuit experiences with the duty to consult have been mixed. While Inuit have won some important victories in the courts, in other cases the duty to consult has provided a notably weak legal mechanism for Inuit to either stop unwanted extraction or compel the government to impose effective mitigation measures to safeguard Inuit harvesting rights. The duty to consult appears to mostly enable, rather than impede, the expansion of colonial and capitalist social relations in the Inuit homeland.

Grounding Wellness: Coloniality, Placeism, Land, and a Critique of “Social” Determinants of Indigenous Mental Health in the Canadian Context

Authored by a small team of settler and Indigenous researchers, all of whom are deeply involved in scholarship and activism interrogating ongoing processes of coloniality in lands now known to many as Canada, this paper critically examines "social" and grounded determinants of Indigenous mental health and wellness. After placing ourselves on the grounds from which we write, we begin by providing an overview of the social determinants of health (SDOH), a conceptual framework with deep roots in colonial Canada. Though important in pushing against biomedical framings of Indigenous health and wellness, we argue that the SDOH framework nevertheless risks re-entrenching deeply colonial ways of thinking about and providing health services for Indigenous people: SDOH, we suggest, do not ultimately reckon with ecological, environmental, place-based, or geographic determinants of health in colonial states that continue to occupy stolen land. These theoretical interrogations of SDOH provide an entry point to, first, an overview of Indigenous ways of understanding mental wellness as tethered to ecology and physical geography, and second, a collection of narrative articulations from across British Columbia: these sets of knowledge offer clear and unequivocal evidence, in the form of Indigenous voices and perspectives, about the direct link between land, place, and mental wellness (or a lack thereof). We conclude with suggestions for future research, policy, and health practice actions that move beyond the current SDOH model of Indigenous health to account for and address the grounded, land-based, and ecologically self-determining nature of Indigenous mental health and wellness.

Colonial tuberculosis legacies and the Dynevor Indian Hospital (1908-1934).

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a legacy of colonialism in Canada; far higher rates persist among First Nations and Inuit people than non-Indigenous, Canadianborn individuals.[1][1] The roots of this disparity lie in historical governmental policies, which extend to the institutionalization of Indigenous

Are Colonial Systems in Canada and Australia Similar? A Study on Kenneth T. Willams’ In Care and Dallas Winmar’s Aliwa!

So different, yet so alike, Canada and Australia, the land of wilderness and the land of bushes respectively, are two nations that go back thousands of years with their culture, practices, traditions, and the natives’ deep and sacred relationship with the land. The arrival of the Europeans disrupted the peace and the pattern of their lives, resulting in loss of indigenous lands, languages, cultures, and misplaced identity. Kenneth T. Williams, in his play In Care, draws attention to the flaws and loopholes in the system that trap natives like spider-webs. The second play taken up for study is Aliwa! by Dallas Winmar, an Australian play that recounts the journey of a mother, who strives hard to escape the clutches of the system trying to break her and her children up. While much research has been done on the sufferings and trauma of the native people, what really transpires on the other side is mostly kept in the dark. This paper examines how the colonial systems in Canada and Australia mirror each other in multiple aspects. It also draws attention to the systems established in colonial Canada and Australia, which aimed at obliterating any and all vestiges of Aboriginality, under the pretext of ‘civilizing’ the uncivilized. The paper utilises a play from each nation to validate the central objective of the paper, with a particular emphasis on the act of taking Aboriginal children away from their parents, a strategy used by the colonizers in both nations.

Considering the Revolution

Considering the Revolution