How Canada used the Indian Act to target Indigenous leaders

By Amy Swiffen, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University
Keith Cherry, Lecturer in Political Science, University of Victoria
Kris Millett, Assistant Professor, Sociology & Anthropology, Mount Saint Vincent University

For nearly 25 years, from 1927 to 1951, Section 141 of the Indian Act made it illegal for Indigenous Peoples to fundraise or hire lawyers to pursue land and rights claims against the Canadian government without permission from the Department of Indian Affairs.

Scholars and those who study Canada’s settler colonial legal history know about this provision. However, until recently, no one had dug into the archival record to find out how it was actually used.

We…

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