“Sunny ways” and broken promises : Tsleil-Waututh Nation v. Canada (2018) and the Liberal government’s relationship with Indigenous Nations in Canada

Abstract

This thesis challenges the current Liberal government’s depiction of its relationship with Indigenous communities as building what Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada have referred to as a “renewed, nation-to-nation relationship” (2015). It does so by analyzing, through the lens of key pieces of Indigenous scholarship, the arguments and positions expressed by the Government of Canada and Indigenous plaintiffs in the Tsleil-Waututh Nation v. Canada (2018) Federal Court of Appeal ruling. Secondarily, government policy releases and statements by government officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, regarding the Trans Mountain Pipeline Project1, as well as Indigenous media coverage, will be used to support the analysis of Tsleil-Waututh Nation v. Canada (2018) in order to understand the relationship between the Liberal Government and Indigenous Nations in Canada. Through socio-legal and narrative criminological approaches, informed by Indigenous scholarship, this thesis will demonstrate that the Liberal government’s relationship with Indigenous Nations as seen in Tsleil-Waututh Nation v. Canada (2018) does not constitute a renewed nation-to-nation relationship. Rather, these interactions will be shown to constitute a continuation of the colonial domination and state harm perpetuated by previous governments, including the most recent Conservative federal government. This thesis will argue that the Trudeau government’s assertion that a renewed nation-to-nation relationship is being constructed between itself and Indigenous Nations masks this reality of ongoing colonial domination and state harm.