Overview

Based on extensive fieldwork and oral history, The Terms of Our Surrender is a powerful critical appraisal of unceded indigenous land ownership in eastern Canada. Set against an ethnographic, historical and legal framework, the book traces the myriad ways the Canadian state has successfully evaded the 1763 Royal Proclamation that guaranteed First Nations people a right to their land and way of life. Focusing on the Innu of Quebec and Labrador, whose land has been taken for resource extraction and development, the book strips back the fiduciary duty to its origins, challenging the inroads which have been made on the nature and extent of indigenous land tenure—arguing for preservation of land ownership and positioning First Nations people as natural land defenders amidst a devastating climate crisis. It offers a voice to the Innu people, detailing the spirituality practices, culture and values that make it impossible for them to willingly cede their land. The text is intended to bridge the gap in knowledge between legal practitioners and those working at the intersections of human rights, social work and public policy. The book offers a potent template for how we can use the law to fight back against the indignities suffered by all indigenous peoples.

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9781912250455

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Reviews

Joining together robust historical and socio-legal research with an activist spirit, 'The Terms of Our Surrender' brings fresh understanding to ongoing colonialism in North America. The scrupulous documentation and argument in this book will help correct any misapprehensions about the benign nature of Canada's treatment of indigenous peoples. -Professor Colin Samson (author of The Colonialism of Human Rights: Ongoing Hypocrisies of Western Liberalism)

Author Information

Elizabeth Cassell is a lawyer, a former university lecturer and practitioner in Property & Trusts law who has travelled extensively in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic and who believes that the law is not enough to reconcile the issues of indigenous land rights in Canada. Through oral history, she gives voice to those deeply affected by the Canadian land claims process.

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