Suchergebnisse

On April 1, 1999 the map of Canada will change forever. The Northwest Territories will be divided to create Nunavut Territory and the new Northwest Territories in the west. The two new territories are the first new jurisdictions to be created in Canada since Newfoundland joined Confederation half a century ago - and they represent the first change to the map of Canada to result from Aboriginal peoples' political activism. It is a time for celebration and for earnest renewal of efforts to build democratic northern governments that truly reflect the best of the founding traditions of the region. .

Northern organizations, governments, and governments-in-waiting have been formally and informally attempting to incorporate "traditional knowledge" into policy deliberations for some time. A public debate about this practice began in fall 1996, when Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard published criticisms of the Government of the Northwest Territories" (GNWT) Traditional Knowledge Policy and of the requirement that traditional knowledge be incorporated into environmental assessments. Widdowson was at the time a contract employee of the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development (Howard and Widdowson, 1996). As the controversy developed, she was suspended for one week as punishment for her public criticism of government policy. In the Canadian parliamentary tradition, public servants do not have the right to publicly disagree with the policies they are hired to implement. Employees who find themselves in fundamental disagreement with the decisions of elected officials have two options: they may work from within to bring about a change of policy; or, failing this, they must resign. As private citizens, they may - and should - criticize government policy freely. Widdowson should have resigned before speaking publicly, but at least her action stimulated public discussion of some very important questions (GNWT, 1993; Howard and Widdowson, 1996; Berkes and Henley, 1997; Howard and Widdowson, 1997; Laghi, 1997; Stevenson, 1997). The GNWT has adopted what is probably the first formal traditional knowledge policy in Canada, in an attempt to improve democratic representation in the North by moving the policies and practices of territorial government closer to reflecting the values and needs of all northern residents. The Traditional Knowledge Policy is only one aspect of this endeavour, but it is a potentially far-reaching one that deserves intelligent discussion and debate. .

Postwar northern political history is interpreted as a compressed reiteration of older patterns of Canadian development. It is argued that Native people and northerners have reacted to two contradictory tendencies in the Canadian constitutional tradition: liberal individualism and Tory top-down pragmatism. The general argument is that understanding current northern debates in this way exposes some grounds for long-term optimism about aboriginal and territorial self-government.Key words: territorial political development, federal northern administration ; On interprète l'histoire politique du Nord depuis la dernière guerre comme la répétition, en accéléré, des schémas antérieurs de développement du Canada. L'auteur soutient que les indigènes et les habitants du Nord ont réagi à deux tendances contradictoires dans la tradition constitutionnelle du Canada, à savoir l'individualisme des libéraux et le pragmatisme des conservateurs qui s'exerçait de haut en bas. L'idée générale est de démontrer qu'à partir de cette ligne de pensée, la compréhension des débats actuels sur le Nord débouche sur un optimisme à long terme quant à un auto-gouvernement aborigène et territorial.Mots clés: développement politique territorial, administration fédérale du Nord

"People across Canada's North have created vibrant community institutions to serve a wide range of social and economic needs. Neither state-driven nor profit-oriented, these organizations form a relatively under-studied third sector of the economy. Researchers from the Social Economy Research Network of Northern Canada explore this sector through fifteen case studies, encompassing artistic, recreational, cultural, political, business, and economic development organizations that are crucial to the health and vitality of their communities. Care, Cooperation and Activism in Canada's Northern Social Economy shows the innovative diversity and utter necessity of home-grown institutions in communities across Labrador, Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon. Readers, researchers, and students interested in social economy, Aboriginal studies, and northern communities will find much to enjoy and value in this book."--