In Memoriam: Olive Dickason (1920-2011)

This blog isn't going to become a chronicle of the passing of people who have played roles in my career as a historian, (political blogging will likely resume when the writ is dropped, if not sooner) but it nevertheless came as a bit of a shock for me to learn that path-breaking Métis historian Olive Dickason had passed away last weekend. History blogger Christopher Moore has a nice tribute to her at his site, and there are many other aboriginal and governmental groups who have posted similarly glowing assessments of her life and career.

My own contact with Professor Dickason was rather fleeting, but still important to me. She was an emeritus professor at the University of Ottawa when I was a graduate student in the late-90s, and although she wasn't offering any courses at the time, a friend of mine was starting her PhD work with her. I met her and we had a few brief conversations at various departmental socials. My research does not usually head too far into aboriginal history, but Professor Dickason nevertheless played an important role in my career. Twice in my early teaching career - once at Concordia, and once at Mount Allison - I was asked to teach courses on Canadian First Nations History. Olive Dickason's textbook Canada's First Nations, which is still widely used and now in its fourth printing, was a lifesaver to a young post-doc who was wildly out of his depth. She had a huge impact in the field of Canadian history, especially on aboriginal and Métis history, and will be greatly missed.

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The Politics of Protest - The National Day of Action

As a scholar who sometimes deals with the history of social movements in Canada and who has taught aboriginal history, I've been closely monitoring the build-up to the June 29 National Day of Action being organized by Canada's First Nations. Part of me views this as an academic, who wonders whether the strategy being followed by protestors is a sound one. Part of me views this as a holiday traveller, who planned on driving up to Ottawa on Friday, and is now looking at the possibility of a blockade on the Highway 401.

I can't say that I'm convinced that this strategy is going to produce a constructive response. Certainly, the threat of a major protest, which will shut down holiday traffic, has succeeded in getting a great deal of media attention. In this respect, First Nations' leaders have been quoted about the plight of life on reserves, and thus gained some much-needed attention. What I'm not convinced of, however, is that the negative blow-back from a major obstruction will not overshadow any good will that the media attention may garner. In particular, I'm thinking of the recent train blockade in Eastern Ontario, and the 1990 bridge blockade at Chateauguay, QC. My recollection is that both events spurred a great deal of hostility to the protestors. Was this hostility balanced out by increased sympathy in other quarters, or by sufficient concrete government action to address the concerns of the protestors? That's what I'm not certain about, and currently leaning towards the "no" side, although I'm open to being convinced otherwise.

Another possibility is that the recent rail blockade was a smaller-scale show of force, to make the threat of a larger protest seem viable. Calling off the highway protest in time for holiday traffic to proceed as planned would then make the First Nation at Tyendinaga seem open to dialogue and win greater support. Perhaps that's the plan? Or maybe that's just a little too Machiavellian for Canadian politics...

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