Confederation anniversary is no cause to celebrate, says Mi’kmaw elder – CBC

Apr 01, 2024

Mi’kmaq of Newfoundland were not recognized nor acknowledged in Terms of Union with Canada

As Newfoundland and Labrador marks 75 years since it joined Canada, a Mi’kmaw elder who led the struggle for the recognition of Mi’kmaw people in the province says he won’t be celebrating the anniversary of Confederation.

“There’s nothing really for me to celebrate. There’s nothing for me to be excited about. We still have unfinished business,” said Calvin White, a founder of the Native Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, which later became the Federation of Newfoundland Indians.

White took the group’s legal battle all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada in a case that ultimately led to the creation of the Qalipu First Nation in 2011.

In an interview with CBC News, White said the Terms of Union in 1949 did not acknowledge the surviving Indigenous peoples who had lived on the island or Labrador for centuries, including Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit.