Solidarity Statement from the Mount Allison Faculty Association
October 26, 2020
The members of the Mount Allison Faculty Association are mindful of the fact that we work on the unceded lands of the Mi’kmaw people and that the Treaties of Peace and Friendship are still in effect. We are appalled by the recent aggression of non-indigenous people against the Mi’kmaw community in Saulnierville, Nova Scotia, and the passivity of governments in response. We condemn the failure of the governments of Canada, both federal and provincial, that continue to refuse to implement indigenous rights established in the Treaties of Peace and Friendship and affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in the 1999 Marshall decision among others. One of the most important things that governments must do, before anything else, is to respect and implement the rights that have been established through the due process of law. We call on the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia to take whatever steps are necessary to resolve this situation based on the fundamental principle that the starting point must be to satisfy the treaty rights of the Mi’kmaw people.