By Nelson J. Augustine, Sr. (Wolfman)
The natural and fundamental human rights of the Mi’kmaq Nation are being violated by all levels of Canadian government and there appears to be little or no effort on anybody’s part to cease and correct the injustices that have been perpetrated against the Mi’kmaq Nation.
Early in the history of European contact with the New World, European monarchies were preoccupied with accessing the vast resources of the New World. Three major European powers competed in this enterprise – the British, French and Spanish Crowns. During the era of initial exploration, all three powers were under the control and influence of the Holy Roman Church – the Vatican.
Prior to the discovery of the New World, the Vatican developed policies which dictated how European monarchies could conduct themselves in dealing with other nations of the known world. With the rise of Islam, the Vatican became concerned over the spread of Islam in the Holy Land. While a main concern was the protection of Christianity and Christian states, the Vatican could not ignore the fact that, according their Bible, all human beings were descendent from Noah, and as such, possessed natural, God-given rights.
The Holy Crusades were justified by the Vatican as the defense of Christianity in the Holy Land. However, the Vatican could not deprive Moslems of their life and property solely on the basis of them being non-Christian. After all, the Bible dictates that man shall not kill man, nor covet another’s property.
Subsequently, after much debate by ecclesiastic councils, Pope Innocent IV (1198-1216) issued a decretal - Quad super his - declaring that all human beings, including non-Christian societies, possessed natural-law rights which included the rights to rule themselves and control their own lands.
The discovery of a new world, hitherto unknown to European ethnocentric worldviews, presented fundamental and perplexing dilemmas within the Vatican. These dilemmas were the result of the premise that all human beings, as children of God, had natural rights. While the Holy Crusades were justified as the defense of Christianity in the Holy Land, Spanish subjugation and domination of Aboriginal nations in the New World, which posed no immediate threat to Christianity, could not be justified under any circumstance.
In 1537, Pope Paul III expanded on this principle in order to accommodate the discovery of the New World. In his papal bull, Sublimis Deus Sic Dilexit, Pope Paul III declared, “Notwithstanding whatever may have been or may be said to the contrary, the said Indians and all other people who may be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their property, even though they be outside the faithe of Jesus Christ.” (This did not preclude, however, the Vatican’s prerogative of converting non-believers to Christianity through peaceful means of coercion and persuasion).
Acting on a commission from the Vatican to convert the Mi’kmaq to Catholicism, Henri IV of France issued a royal proclamation in 1604 establishing a trade monopoly between France and the Sieur de Monts. De Monts was subsequently appointed lieutenant governor over French interests in Acadie (Atlantic Canada). This charter did not assert any imperium or dominium over Acadie against the Mi’kmaq; nor did it authorize the transfer of the king’s jurisdiction to De Monts.
Thus, the establishment of Catholic and trade missions in Atlantic Canada by the French was done under the authority and jurisdiction of the Vatican. Given that papal bulls regulated the administration of the commission, French colonialists were instructed in their trade charter to negotiate agreements with the Mi’kmaq regarding the privileges of settlement and trade. In 1610, such an agreement was finalized between the Mi’kmaq Nation and the French Crown as agents of the Vatican. This agreement is known as the Mi’kmaw Concordat. A copy of it is said to have been kept at the Collegio di Propaganda Fide in Rome.
The terms of the Mi’kmaw Concordat of 1610 reaffirmed the rights of the Mi’kmaq to govern themselves and their territories in their traditional ways while retaining their language and customs. At the same time, the Mi’kmaq agreed that they would embrace, each of their own free will, Catholicism, that they would maintain a peaceful alliance with the Church, and that they would promote, maintain and protect Catholicism within their territories. The Mi’kmaq would also grant the Church, its agents and priests free access to its territories under the principle of accommodation, which included the liberty to build and keep churches, and the privilege of the priests to attend council meetings of the Mi’kmaq Nation.
In turn, the Vatican agreed to recognize the Mi’kmaq Nation as an independent Catholic republic. The Vatican further agreed to protect the Mi’kmaq Nation as an independent Catholic republic against all European monarchies under the authority of God. The Vatican’s representative in France, the French King, would serve as the “godfather” of the Mi’kmaq, arranging for the provision of priests to the Mi’kmaq Nation and responsible for the defense of the Mi’kmaq against other Europeans under the Vatican’s doctrine of human rights, which advocated the concept of Aboriginal imperium and dominium. see Mi'kmaw Concordat of 1610 for the reading and interpretation of the Concordat.
As a result of the Concordat, the French Crown treated the Mi’kmaq Nation differently than it did other Aboriginal nations in New France and the Louisiana territory. France’s jurisdiction over lands in Atlantic Canada was limited to the terms and conditions of the Concordat – the Mi’kmaq only accommodated the French as guests in Atlantic Canada. This arrangement remained unchanged until the outbreak of the War of Spanish Succession (1701-14) and Queen Anne’s War (1702-13), which pitted two bitter rivals against each other – France and Great Britain.
While the French were initially successful in the defense of Port Royal in Acadie and of Quebec City and Montreal in New France, Queen Anne’s War came to an end when the British dissolved the European Grand Alliance in the War of Spanish Succession, resulting in the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. According to the terms of the 1713 treaty, Acadie was ceded to Britain.
The British Crown assumed that the Peace of Utrecht had given it jurisdiction over the Mi’kmaw Catholic Republic. However, the French did not have any jurisdictions in the Mi’kmaw Catholic Republic aside from the privileges afforded them by the Concordat.
Thus, the French had no authority whatsoever to include the territories of the Mi’kmaw Catholic Republic in negotiations that resulted in the Peace of Utrecht. While the Peace of Utrecht may have extinguished France’s political and economic interests in the Mi’kmaw Catholic Republic, it did not give the British Crown any legal jurisdiction over Mi’kmaq territories in Atlantic Canada.
In order for the British Crown to gain any legal jurisdictions over lands contained in the Mi’kmaw Catholic Republic, the Mi’kmaq Nation must formally agree to cede its territory to the British Crown. Never in the history of the covenant chain of treaties entered into with the British Crown after the Peace of Utrecht did the Mi’kmaq Nation agree to cede its territory.
The Concordat of 1610 established the Mi’kmaq Nation as an independent republic. The appropriation of Mi’kmaq territories in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Newfoundland by the British Crown and the provincial governments of Canada is illegal according to Canon Law, International Law and the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The British Crown and the federal and provincial governments of Canada must take immediate measures to restore these territories to the Mi’kmaw Catholic Republic, presently known as the Mi’kmaw Sante Mawiomi (Micmac Grand Council). The only other recourse is to take this matter before the United Nations’ International Court of Justice.
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