The Saskatchewan government loves to celebrate treaties.
“We are all Treaty people, and we are all responsible for honouring Treaty rights and relationships,” then-Minister Responsible for First Nations, Métis, and Northern Affairs Don McMorris reminded us as the government proclaimed Treaties Recognition Week in 2023.
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of Treaty 4, Premier Scott Moe told us that “we have travelled part of the journey when it comes to reconciliation, but there’s more to come as we all work together to secure a brighter future for everyone in Saskatchewan.”
However, all this reverence for treaties magically disappears as soon as they prove the slightest obstacle to what the government wants.
We have seen this time and time again in Saskatchewan—feigned veneration for the numbered treaties that preceded the creation of our province, which vanishes instantly whenever the existence of the treaties prove problematic to the government’s desires.
In just the past few years alone, we have seen the government appear to “forget” about the existence of treaties as they marched forward in their ongoing battle with the federal government.
First we had the passage of the Saskatchewan First Act, which asserts exclusive provincial jurisdiction over natural resources in Saskatchewan in opposition to Ottawa.
As Gina Starblanket writes, “Indigenous people have broadly panned the act due to the Saskatchewan Party’s absolute lack of engagement with Indigenous people and Indigenous governments in its drafting, as well as in the act’s failure to even name, let alone engage with, the province’s treaty obligations.”
Then there was Premier Moe’s “pipeline pre-approval” fiasco, when he took to social media to declare: “All pipeline permits going east, west, or south received in Saskatchewan will be considered pre-approved.”
Premier Moe appeared to forget that his government has a legal duty to consult First Nations people, “whose land or treaty would be affected unconstitutionally.”
In the wake of the premier’s social media blast, Star-Phoenix columnist Doug Cuthand remarked that “as far as the Sask Party and the Moe government are concerned, it’s as if Indigenous people didn’t even exist.”
Finally, we have the ongoing controversy over a potential separation vote in Saskatchewan. The premier has played coy on the possibility of a vote to separate from Canada, trying to play both sides of the field by insisting that he is for a “united Canada,” but also stating that the government “won’t silence the voice of Saskatchewan people.”
While Premier Moe has shown no reservation in alerting the public to the consequences of policy—particularly if it comes from Ottawa—he has been completely silent on what the consequences of a separation vote would entail due to treaty rights.
As Niigan Sinclair shows, “there is no legitimate or legal decision, precedent or argument for a Canadian province to secede from Confederation and take Indigenous lands without the denial of Indigenous rights and a whole lot of conflict.”
As Sinclair further argues, while a newly independent province could try and manufacture a reason that “First Nations rights don’t matter, international law would dictate otherwise.”
By failing to inform the Saskatchewan public of the real consequences of a separation vote, Premier Moe not only allows the fantasies of the separatists to fester, but also continues his government’s long tradition of ignoring treaty rights.
While none of this will come as a surprise to Indigenous Peoples in Canada, what does it say to the rest of us when our government publicly proclaims the importance of the treaties time and again, only to demonstrate again and again that they are, in fact, so unimportant to this government as to not even be worthy of consideration?
