Browsing by Author "Irwin, Robert"
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Item Assembling sovereignty: Canadian claims to the Athabasca district prior to Treaty No. 8(2020) Irwin, RobertRecent Canadian legal scholarship has emphasised the centrality of treaties between the colonial state and First Nations in the assertion of Canadian sovereignty over Indigenous lands. Historical interpretations, meanwhile, would suggest that sovereignty, rather than asserted, is assembled over time. Historically, sovereignty is understood to be contingent and layered; it is assembled through a series of ‘detours, improvisations and tinkering.’ This paper looks at the historical circumstances of Canadian sovereignty in the Athabasca district prior to the making of Treaty No. 8 with the First Nations. British sovereignty claims to Rupert's Land and the Northwestern Territories (including the area that came to be known as the Athabasca district), were assembled through the practices and activities of the Hudson's Bay Company. These claims were transferred to Canada in 1869 and Canada hesitantly and quietly took measures to further assemble and express its sovereignty in these lands. Canada surveyed and inventoried the Athabasca district's resources, commenced exploratory work on petroleum resources, provided relief from famine, financially supported schools for Indigenous children, and established and enforced a system of law. By the time Treaty No. 8 was negotiated in 1899, Canada had thus taken a series of steps to assemble and express its sovereignty in the district. Rather than establishing, asserting or legitimating Canadian sovereignty, Treaty No. 8 may be better understood as another measure in the process of assembling it.Item Assembling sovereignty: Canadian claims to the Athabasca district prior to Treaty No. 8(2020) Irwin, RobertRecent Canadian legal scholarship has emphasised the centrality of treaties between the colonial state and First Nations in the assertion of Canadian sovereignty over Indigenous lands. Historical interpretations, meanwhile, would suggest that sovereignty, rather than asserted, is assembled over time. Historically, sovereignty is understood to be contingent and layered; it is assembled through a series of ‘detours, improvisations and tinkering.’ This paper looks at the historical circumstances of Canadian sovereignty in the Athabasca district prior to the making of Treaty No. 8 with the First Nations. British sovereignty claims to Rupert's Land and the Northwestern Territories (including the area that came to be known as the Athabasca district), were assembled through the practices and activities of the Hudson's Bay Company. These claims were transferred to Canada in 1869 and Canada hesitantly and quietly took measures to further assemble and express its sovereignty in these lands. Canada surveyed and inventoried the Athabasca district's resources, commenced exploratory work on petroleum resources, provided relief from famine, financially supported schools for Indigenous children, and established and enforced a system of law. By the time Treaty No. 8 was negotiated in 1899, Canada had thus taken a series of steps to assemble and express its sovereignty in the district. Rather than establishing, asserting or legitimating Canadian sovereignty, Treaty No. 8 may be better understood as another measure in the process of assembling it.Item Breaking the shackles of the metropolitan thesis: Prairie history, the environment and layered identities(1997) Irwin, RobertThis review of writings in Canadian prairie history and western American history suggests that a new synthesis of prairie history that searches for identity within a new framework is needed. Prairie historians must begin their work with an understanding of the relationships between people and the environment on the prairies. These environmental relationships provide the continuity upon which a new understanding of prairie identity can be constructed. This identity must be understood as an autonomous layer of consciousness rather than a "limited identity" within a national consciousness.Item Canada, aboriginal sealing, and the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention(2015) Irwin, RobertThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has described the 1911 North Pacific Fur Seal Convention as one of the ten most important events in environmental history. Article IV of this Convention provided First Nation sealers with harvest rights provided they conducted the hunt as practiced previously, without the use of firearms and not under contract to a commercial interest. While historians have studied the diplomatic and environmental aspects of the Convention, little attention has been paid to this Aboriginal harvest privilege. Its inclusion in the fur seal treaty inadvertently contributes to the modern “ecological Indian” construction and foreshadows the current environmental crisis faced by many First Nation communities: their harvest is acceptable provided it is considered primitive or traditional and noncommercial.Item A clear intention to effect such a modification: The NRTA and Treaty hunting and fishing rights(2000) Irwin, RobertThe purpose of this article is to fill a gap in the historical literature regarding the Natural Resources Transfer Agreements; specifically, it aims to "provide insights into the negotiations leading to section 12 of the NRTA and identify the intent and purpose of the framers." The author, Robert Irwin, notes that the Supreme Court has made several decisions (e.g., Frank v. The Queen, Moosehunter v. The Queen, R. v. Horseman, R. v. Gladue, etc.) that have altered the understanding of Treaty rights and the NRTA regarding hunting and fishing rights, without the benefit of being able to draw on historical research on the NRTA, regarding the original intentions in its framing. Irwin asserts that in the construction of section 12 of the NRTA the Dominion intended "to ensure that Indians maintained their Treaty right of access to unoccupied Crown lands for the purpose of hunting, trapping and fishing;" it also "hoped to conserve game through wise management in the belief that this was important … because of Treaty rights;" and it recognized that hunting regulations and licensed fishing would be set by the provincial government. Irwin concludes by noting that the historical evidence suggests that "the government did not seek to extinguish and replace or merge and consolidate the Treaty rights with the NRTA."Item Farmers and managerial capitalism: the Saskatchewan Cooperative Elevator Company(1996) Irwin, RobertNorth American farmers have intrigued historians and social scientists for the last century. The special characteristics of an agrarian lifestyle in a capitalist and increasingly industrial world, combined with a tradition of political protest, differentiate farmers from other social groups. Recently, the rise of the Reform Party in Western Canada has renewed interest in earlier so- called agrarian populist protest movements. Commentators on the present political scene often make reference to the Reform Part/s prairie populist heritage, pointing to Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, Social Credit, or Progressive Party philosophy. But do historians truly understand this populist tradition? Since its roots appear firmly lodged in the agrarian economy, the ideology or ideas of the farmers need to be scrutinized.Item Keeping it a secret: the HBC, Canada and sovereignty in the Peace River and Athabasca districts(2018-5-17) Irwin, RobertThis paper looks at Canada’s activities in the area covered by Treaty No. 8 in the years prior to the making of that agreement. In particular, it looks at the Canadian government’s response to a famine crisis that occurred in the period 1886-1888.Item No means no: Ermineskin’s resistance to reserve surrender, 1902-1921(2003) Irwin, RobertThe patent to a section of land in the middle of Ermineskin's reserve was held by the Hudson's Bay Company and eventually sold to farmers. When the Department of Indian Affairs became aware of the situation, they embarked on a campaign to have the Ermineskin people surrender the land. This paper exams the practices of the Department of Indian Affairs and the determined resistance of the Ermineskin people to shed light on land surrender and Aboriginal agency.Item Oxidation of ferrocenes by copper(II) in aqueous acetonitrile: nitrate and chloride ion effects(2007) Irwin, Robert; Jordan, Robert B.The effect of nitrate and chloride ion on the rate of oxidation of ferrocene (Fc) and 1,1‘-dimethylferrocene (DmFc) by Cu(II) has been studied in 95% and 80% acetonitrile/water solutions. The complex formation constants for Cu(II) with the same anions in the same media have been determined by spectrophotometry. Nitrate ion mildly inhibits the reaction, while chloride ion substantially increases the rate. The results have been analyzed in terms of the Marcus theory, and it is concluded that complexation increases the rate of self-exchange between the CuII(X)n and CuI(X)n species. In the case of nitrate, the latter effect is compensated for by a less favorable overall equilibrium constant, which results in mild inhibition.Item Treaty 8: an anomaly revisited(2000) Irwin, Robert[Excerpt] In the Autumn 1999 issue of BC Studies Arthur J. Ray called attention to the important place of Treaty 8 in British Columbia's history. After reading Professor Ray's article, however, readers may be left with the impression that the Canadian government intended to include the McLeod Lake Sekani in Treaty 8 in 1899 but failed to secure their adhesion for a century because the BC government locked the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA). According to this interpretation, the agreement corrects an outstanding historical wrong perpetrated by the BC government. Professor Ray, however, omits important evidence that people need in order to understand fully Treaty 8 in British Columbia. He quotes from documents selectively - at times citing the statement of claim made by the McLeod Lake Sekani rather than the documents that are at the centre of the claim - and he makes errors in his presentation of evidence. If British Columbians are going to understand the McLeod Lake agreement, then they need a more complete understanding of the process of making Treaty 8 in British Columbia than that provided by Professor Ray.