Rivers of resistance

In the early 1990s, Art Bennett tried to get charged with poaching a moose near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. A Métis community leader, he was rereading the 1982 Constitution Act, and got as far as Section 35, which recognized the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. “I thought, ‘Jeez!’ you know, we have the same rights to harvest as First Nations!” says Bennett. He gathered his siblings and cousins together to tell them that their community harvesting rights — as Métis — were protected under the new act. His family looked at him. “Well, how are we going to prove it?” they asked. “We’re going to have to be charged,” Bennett said. “Go to court.”

Although the Métis had been recognized as one of three Indigenous Peoples in the 1982 act, the Crown didn’t acknowledge what — if any — rights Métis people had. Historically, the rights of Métis and “halfbreed” communities and individuals were ignored or excluded by the Crown. This meant that many Métis harvesters who provided for their families and communities across the Métis Nation Homeland were charged with “poaching” and “illegal” fishing throughout the 20th century. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, federal and provincial governments continued to walk away from political processes and substantive negotiation tables to address Métis rights.

But while this pattern of refusal played out, so did a deeply embedded paradigm of Métis resistance. Instead of waiting for governments to come back to the table, Métis harvesters and communities began to turn to the courts to ensure the constitutional promise made to them in 1982 had meaning. So began the “Métis Hunt for Justice,” as Métis moved their constitutional right to hunt for food to the Canadian courts. “We were tired of hiding behind trees,” says Bennett. “The time was right, the Constitution was new, and we wanted to prove that what was in there was right.”

On August 4, 1972, the Ugandan Asian population of over 80,000 individuals was ordered to leave the African nation by President Idi Amin. Over 7,000 Ugandan Asians were granted refuge in Canada. They began arriving on Canadian shores exactly 50 years ago — in September 1972. On the 50th anniversary of the resettlement, Canadian Geographic interviews Senator Mobina Jaffer, who arrived from Uganda as a young woman.

The series forms part of Commemorate Canada, a Canadian Heritage program to highlight significant Canadian anniversaries. It gives Canadian Geographic a chance to look at these points of history with a sometimes celebratory, sometimes critical, eye.
In August 1972, Idi Amin, military dictator of Uganda, stunned the world when he announced that the South Asian population of Uganda, numbering some 80,000 people, had 90 days to get out of the country or else. The world was in disbelief.

Lives, families and businesses that were established in Uganda for generations were torn apart in a matter of weeks.

Nicolet is located between Montreal and Quebec City, where the Nicolet River meets the St. Lawrence. It’s quite tiny – when I was a kid, there were 3,000 of us, and now there are about 10,000 people.

In the past, Nicolet was a centre for education and religion. It used to be home to the third oldest seminary in Quebec, the Séminaire de Nicolet, as well as a prestigious music school and a plethora of religious congregations. But in 1955, the beautiful old downtown of Nicolet burned and, eight months later, was carried into the river by a landslide. Around the same time, the Silent Revolution was beginning a decline in religion in Quebec. The opening of CÉGEPs outside of Nicolet meant it lost its place as a centre for higher education.

The seminary was eventually shut down, and the building that housed it now belongs to the École Nationale de police du Québec (Quebec National Police Academy). On the land of the old congregations, there are parking lots, a high school and a luxury hotel. The music school has disappeared, leaving behind empty studios and new instruments. In Nicolet, there’s a lot of nostalgia for how things used to be.

Growing up, it was a place for imagination. I spent a lot of time in the town’s archives, which held hundreds of books from the old seminary. As teenagers, walking and biking around, we would make up stories about the town and its old ruins. I remember exploring at night while everyone else was sleeping and the calming sounds of the wind and the woods.

We begin in B.C.’s northeast Peace River district where grasslands and boreal forest meet. Birds of both ecosystems abound, many of whose ranges extend just into the province here in this region. Examples are Canada warbler, Nelson’s sparrow, yellow rail and upland sandpiper.
From here we’ll fly to Vancouver on the mighty Fraser River delta. This city’s position makes it a huge draw for birders from around the world who seek migrants, breeding birds and vagrants. Highlights here include exciting shorebird viewing in Boundary Bay, montane birds of the North Shore Mountains and seabirds and rainforest specialties of Stanley Park.

Vancouver Island awaits us after a two-hour ferry ride. We’ll spend three days exploring birding hotspots near Victoria such as Swan Lake and Martindale Flats, and take a whale-watching tour to view orcas up close. We’ll visit the wild west coast near Tofino for a pelagic tour that opens up a world of possibilities for seabirds, and comb the beaches in hopes of whimbrels, eagles and perhaps even a wolf.

From here we’ll traverse inland to the famed Okanagan region, known not only for its vineyards but also for avian diversity. Areas such as Kilpoola Lake host common poorwills and perhaps even sage thrashers, while Vaseux Lake is a site where we could have our highest daily species totals for the trip.

Overall this unique British Columbia birding tour offers the chance to see an incredible array of birds –over 200 species—in addition to some of the world’s best wildlife viewing. British Columbia is a magnificent province that has much to offer the naturalist explorer, from wild Pacific coastline to alpine tundra, and from arid desert to lush rainforest and more.

Meet your RCGS Travel Ambassador: Brian Hodgson

Check out these other upcoming trips:

- Belize and Tikal with Myrna Pearman
- Grizzly Bears of Toba Inlet with Wilson and Charlene Bearhead
- Salish Sea Expedition with Emily Choy