Reconciliation was never supposed to be easy – National Observer

March 13, 2026

For most people, the land acknowledgments that have become common in public gatherings in Canada fall somewhere between a responsibility and a chore. For Aaron Gunn, the filmmaker turned Conservative MP for North Island-Powell River, they are apparently a Trojan horse aimed at undermining private property rights.

In a recent social media post, he argued that “if the federal government truly believes in the private property rights of Canadians, they should probably stop opening every public meeting by proclaiming the gathering on the ‘unceded territory’ of this or that First Nation. Doing so reinforces the radical and dangerous legal concept that most Canadians live on ‘stolen land’.”

Read More: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/13/opinion/indigenous-reconciliation-conservative-reactions