The colonial border between the US and Canada dissects Indigenous territories in ways that severs the lifelines between First Nations families, communities, languages, and ceremonies.
Every year thousands of US born First Nations people who are Indigenous to Canada are deny the ability to live and work in Canada because the government refuses to recognize their ancestral rights to do so. Yet through the Jay Treaty, the relatives of these same people who are born in Canada and have Indian Status can live and work in the US. How is it possible that the US, with its extreme policies against immigration, honours the rights of Indigenous peoples regardless of citizenship and Canada does not?
The Jay Treaty was signed in 1794 between the U.S. and the British. It allows status Indians born in Canada, who have 50 per cent blood quantum, to live and work in the U.S.
But Canada never codified the agreement, resulting in a lack of reciprocity.
The Canadian government needs to follow through with their commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation's 94 Calls to Action and UN's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in order to codify the Jay Treaty so that US born First Nations people of Canada are afforded the same rights that their Canadian born relatives with Indian Status have in the US.
Without a reciprocating Jay Treaty, the Canadian government is continuing to perpetrate the cultural genocide that the TRC's findings found it guilty of by denying US born First Nations people of Canada their rights to practice and strengthen their peoples languages, cultures, and ceremonies while living in the country they are Indigenous to.
Sign this petition to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, and the Canadian government, to honour the rights of US born First Nations people of Canada by codifying the Jay Treaty.
