Anyone who has visited Canada or Australia in recent years might have noticed an interesting new tradition. This is the trend for issuing a ‘land acknowledgement’ at the start of any public event. Before discussion gets under way, some bureaucrat or other will get up and note that we are all fortunate enough to be on the land of X, and then garble the name of some not-especially-ancient tribe. The moment gives everyone a feeling of deep meaning and naturally achieves nothing.
Even our King indulged in some of this in May when he opened the latest session of the Canadian parliament. Before getting down to the meat of his speech, Charles said: ‘I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people.’ You would have thought that by dint of his being King and addressing a parliament the land had been very much ceded.
A high-stakes lawsuit involving former deputy prime minister Sheila Copps turns on a long-running debate in Ottawa over whether she lobbied during the pandemic without registering — and whether, as a result, a federal contractor is off the hook for tens of millions in allegedly unpaid commissions to her company.
