The title of this book We Were Not the Savages speaks to the truth of what happened when Europeans invaded Mi’kmaw lands in the 17th century. Prior to the European invasion the Mi’kmaq lived healthy lives and for thousands of years had lived in harmony with nature in the land they called Mi’kma’ki. This book sets the record straight. When the Europeans arrived they were welcomed and sustained by the Mi’kmaq. Over the next three centuries their language, their culture, their way of life were systematically ravaged by the newcomers to whom they had extended human kindness. The murderous savagery of British scalp proclamations, starvation, malnutrition and Canada’s Indian residential and day schools all but wiped out the Mi’kmaq. Yet the Mi’kmaq survived and today stand defending the land, the water and nature’s bounty from the European way of life, which threatens the natural world we live in and need to survive. Since the first edition was published in 1993, Daniel Paul’s ongoing research confronts the mainstream record of Canadian settler colonialism and reveals that the mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples is not confined to the past. In this 4th edition the author shares his research, which catalogues not only the historical tragedy but the ongoing attempts to silence the Mi’kmaq and other Indigenous Peoples. Paul’s work continues to give the Mi’kmaq a voice that must be heard.

“We Were Not the Savages … is unique, in chronological scope and in the story it tells, covering the last three centuries of Mi’kmaq history in detail. Prior to the appearance of this book it was common for historians to downplay or even deny the violence inflicted on the Mi’kmaq people by European and Euro-American colonizers. This work, more than any other piece of scholarly production, has headed off that consensus at a pass. Scalp-bounty policies are now recognized as a historical problem worthy of investigation. The book will also be of particular interest to readers in the United States for a variety of reasons. First, the early history of colonization in the Maritimes is closely tied to the history of the colonies that became the United States, and as late as the 1750s New England’s political leaders played a prominent role in directing the course of colonial affairs on Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia. ... Second, the chapters on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries provide a detailed and much needed basis of comparison for anyone seeking to understand the similarities and contrasts between the U.S. and Canada on questions of “Indian Affairs.” And finally, it is important to recognize that we have far too few histories written by Native American authors—very few indeed that cover as extensive a time span as this book does.” — Geoffrey Plank, Associate Professor of History, University of Cincinnati “Having, over the years ... read most of the sources you cite in your book, I had long ago arrived at the same conclusion you have. Certainly, white intrusions everywhere in the world have been disastrous for indigenous peoples.” — Allison Mitcham, Professor Emeritus, University of Moncton “Count me in too, among your book’s advocates... [it] knocks the smile off Englishmen who claim their colonial presence among Indians was ‘better’ than that of the Spanish.” — C. Blue Clark, Interim Director, Native American Legal Center, Oklahoma City “We Were Not the Savages is a provocative and excellent book.... It is brave, insightful, unflinching and above all honest. And, most important, it greatly enhances our positive images of Amerindians.” — Barry Jean Ancelet, University of Louisiana “Reading the pages of this book, continually affirms for me, how good it is to be a Mi’kmaq. I so wish that my father was still living. Wouldn’t he be so proud that such a book was available. I also wish that this history book was in existence years ago, a book that now empowers me and fills me with great pride to be a Mi’kmaq.” — Sister Dorothy Moore, Prominent Mi’kmaq Educator This updated edition incorporates Daniel Paul’s ongoing research. It clearly and profoundly shows that the horrors of history still rain upon the First Nations people of the present. DANIEL PAUL is an ardent spokesperson and activist for human rights. He holds, among many awards, an honorary degree in Letters, Université Sainte-Anne, Church Point, Nova Scotia. He is a member of the Order of Canada and a member of the Order of Nova Scotia.

Indigenous peoples are vastly overrepresented in the Canadian criminal justice system. The Canadian government has framed this disproportionate victimization and criminalization as being an "Indian problem." In The Colonial Problem, Lisa Monchalin challenges the myth of the "Indian problem" and encourages readers to view the crimes and injustices affecting Indigenous peoples from a more culturally aware position. She analyzes the consequences of assimilation policies, dishonoured treaty agreements, manipulative legislation, and systematic racism, arguing that the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the Canadian criminal justice system is not an Indian problem but a colonial one.

The nation-state is seen by many today as the key unit of analysis for international organization and cooperation in the modern age, but not all groups that want to make up and control their own nation-state are able to do so: historical factors, domestic politics, and international relations often prevent them from obtaining sovereign power. Groups that have tried to create a nation-state and failed to do so can be referred to as being "frustrated." Frustrated Nationalism offers case studies by an international collection of scholars who describe the efforts of many of those groups to achieve sovereign status, or at least to obtain greater control over the policies that affect them, their strategies, and their outcomes.

The current surge of displaced and trafficked children, child soldiers, and child refugees rekindles the virtually dead letter of the Genocide Convention prohibition on transferring children of one group to another. This book focuses on the gap between genocide as a legal term and genocidal forcible child transfer as a catastrophic experience that disrupts a group’s continuity. It probes the Genocide Convention’s boundaries and draws attention to the diverse, yet highly similar, patterns of forcible child transfers cases such as colonial genocide in the US, Canada, and Australia, Jewish-Yemeni immigrants in Israel, children of Republican parents during the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, and Operation Peter Pan in Cuba. The analysis highlights the consequences of the under-inclusive protection granted only to four groups. Ruth Amir argues effectively for the need to add an Amending Protocol to the Genocide Convention to protect from forcible transfer to children of any identifiable group of persons perpetrated with the intent to destroy the group as such. This proposed provision together with Communications and Rapid Inquiry Procedures will highlight the gravity of forcible child transfers and contribute to the prevention and punishment of genocide.

The Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution provides an ideal first stop for Canadians and non-Canadians seeking a clear, concise, and authoritative account of Canadian constitutional law. The Handbook is divided into six parts: Constitutional History, Institutions and Constitutional Change, Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian Constitution, Federalism, Rights and Freedoms, and Constitutional Theory. Readers of this Handbook will discover some of the distinctive features of the Canadian constitution: for example, the importance of Indigenous peoples and legal systems, the long-standing presence of a French-speaking population, French civil law and Quebec, the British constitutional heritage, the choice of federalism, as well as the newer features, most notably the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section Thirty-Five regarding Aboriginal rights and treaties, and the procedures for constitutional amendment. The Handbook provides a remarkable resource for comparativists at a time when the Canadian constitution is a frequent topic of constitutional commentary. The Handbook offers a vital account of constitutional challenges and opportunities at the time of the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

In the aftermath of colonial occupation, Indigenous peoples have long fought to assert their sovereignty. This requires that settler colonial societies comprehend the inadequacy of their responses to Indigenous peoples’ contestations of existing power relations. Taking an international and contemporary perspective, this book critically explores the extent to which Indigenous peoples are transforming the conditions of their coexistence with settler colonial societies. With contributions from Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers across the humanities and social sciences, the book is divided into four sections that reflect some key arenas of debate: ontological negotiations; assertions of connections to and rights over land; the contradictions embedded in practices of "recognition"; and the possibilities for change based on rightful relationships. From medicine to urban spaces, from love to alternative economies, from acts of citizenship to environmental justice, the chapters of this book provide a grounded analysis of how these spaces of intertwined coexistence are being crafted, resisted, reconfigured, and expanded. Providing concrete insight into the responses of Indigenous communities to the impacts of settler colonialism, this book will appeal to researchers in Cultural Geography, Anthropology, Rural Studies, Political Geography, Indigenous Studies, and Settler Colonial Studies.

The first major volume to place U.S.-centered labor history in a transnational focus, Workers Across the Americas collects the newest scholarship of Canadianist, Caribbeanist, and Latin American specialists as well as U.S. historians. These essays highlight both the supra- and sub-national aspect of selected topics without neglecting nation-states themselves as historical forces. Indeed, the transnational focus opens new avenues for understanding changes in the concepts, policies, and practice of states, their interactions with each other and their populations, and the ways in which the popular classes resist, react, and advance their interests. What does this transnational turn encompass? And what are its likely perils as well as promise as a framework for research and analysis? To address these questions John French, Julie Greene, Neville Kirk, Aviva Chomsky, Dirk Hoerder, and Vic Satzewich lead off the volume with critical commentaries on the project of transnational labor history. Their responses offer a tour of explanations, tensions, and cautions in the evolution of a new arena of research and writing. Thereafter, Workers Across the Americas groups fifteen research essays around themes of labor and empire, indigenous peoples and labor systems, international feminism and reproductive labor, labor recruitment and immigration control, transnational labor politics, and labor internationalism. Topics range from military labor in the British Empire to coffee workers on the Guatemalan/Mexican border to the role of the International Labor Organization in attempting to set common labor standards. Leading scholars introduce each section and recommend further reading.

In 1973 the Supreme Court of Canada issued a landmark decision in the Calder case, confirming that Aboriginal title constituted a right within Canadian law. Let Right Be Done examines the doctrine of Aboriginal title thirty years later and puts the Calder case in its legal, historical, and political context, both nationally and internationally. With its innovative blend of scholarly analysis and input from many of those intimately involved in the case, this book should be essential reading for anyone interested in Aboriginal law, treaty negotiations, and the history of the "BC Indian land question."