Re: 鈥淭erritorial recognition is important,鈥� column, Feb. 24.
Recognizing the early presence of Indigenous people is important to the future of sa国际传媒. As a citizenship judge, I included the acknowledgment in all of my ceremonies.
One guest speaker told me that the previous week he was elected chief of his band and swore an oath, but he had never sworn an oath to sa国际传媒. He then showed me his treaty Indian document, the product of the difficult 鈥淚ndian Act.鈥� Sadly, it is impossible to 鈥渂low up鈥� that law and start again.
As I offered in each of my citizenship ceremonies: 鈥渟a国际传媒 is not perfect. We do many things right, but there are some wrongs to be made right. We are gathered on the traditional territory of the 鈥� Indigenous people. The histories of the original inhabitants stretch far into the past, thousands of years before the arrival of the Europeans.
鈥淭he early settlers, who arrived a little more than 150 years ago, discovered that they had to learn from the Indigenous population in order to survive and that they needed one another. Indigenous people were not officially citizens until 1956 and most could not vote until 1960.
鈥渟a国际传媒 has been built by the combined contributions of the Indigenous people and those who came later 鈥� from all over the world. It is essential that all Canadians move forward together on the road to a new relationship with the First Peoples of sa国际传媒, based on rights, respect and partnership.鈥�
Gerald W. Pash
Former citizenship judge
Victoria
