Abstract
This chapter argues that the self-determining status of Indigenous peoples represents a challenge to claims of Canadian sovereignty. This challenge troubles the settler state’s dream of maintaining conditions of territorial integrity and economic security. Accordingly, the settler state seeks to identify and manage Indigenous peoples and their activities that are perceived to contradict its interests. The surveillance apparatus is fundamental to this governing project and forms the focal point of this chapter. Within this paradigm, assertions of Indigenous self-determination and jurisdiction are commonly conceptualised as threats to critical infrastructure. The expanded potential of Canada’s surveillance apparatus to capture assertions of self-determination is real. To illustrate, we detail recent institutional mutations and surveillance activities currently taking place.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Coon Come, M. Statement Made Before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, [Concerning Bill C-36], Thursday, November 1, 2001. Online at: http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Pub=CommitteeMeetingEvidence&Acronym=JUST&Mee=41&Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=37&Ses=1.
- 2.
Bellegarde, P. Statement Made Before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security [Concerning Bill C-51], Thursday, March 12, 2015. Online at: http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=7876601&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=2.
- 3.
The AFN is a national advocacy organisation representing First Nation citizens and communities (http://www.afn.ca/index.php/en/about-afn/description-of-the-afn).
- 4.
Settler states are colonial formations that assert territorial and political sovereignty through the expropriation of land and the suppression of Indigenous peoples and their social-political formations.
- 5.
Coon Come, M. Statement Made Before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, [Concerning Bill C-36], Thursday, November 1, 2001.
- 6.
The concept of situational awareness first became popular in the context of air safety. It has typically implied perception of spatial and temporal elements in the physical environment. With Hier and Walby (2014), and others, we are primarily interested here in its recent problematic application to crowd management and emergency response.
- 7.
The 29 June 2007 National Day of Action was organised to raise awareness. Over 50 demonstrations (among other events) occurred across Canada, including five blockades not endorsed by the AFN.
- 8.
‘Indian Affairs’ refers to the institutional bureaucracy established by the federal government to ‘manage’ Indigenous peoples. This bureaucracy has been renamed several times. It is currently called Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. At the time of writing it was called Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC).
- 9.
See, for example: http://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/.
References
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. 2011. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) National Emergency Management Plan. Ottawa: Public Works and Government Services Canada.
Agamben, Giorgio. 2005. State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Alfred, Taiaiake. 2005. Wasáse: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom. Peterborough: Broadview Press.
Chase, Steven. 2014. Prime Minister Labels Shootings as ‘Terrorist’ Acts. The Globe and Mail, October 22. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/in-national-address-prime-minister-labels-shootings-as-terrorist-acts/article21252133/#dashboard/follows/.
Conklin, Alice L. 1997. A Mission to Civilize. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Cowen, Deborah. 2014. The Deadly Life of Logistics: Mapping Violence in Global Trade. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Craik, Brian. 2004. The Importance of Working Together: Exclusions, Conflicts and Participation in James Bay, Quebec. In In the Way of Development: Indigenous Peoples, Life Projects and Globalization, eds. Mario Blaser, Harvey A. Feit, and Glenn McRae, 166–186. Ottawa: Zed Books.
Dafnos, Tia. 2013. Pacification and Indigenous Struggles in Canada. Socialist Studies 9(2): 57–77.
———. 2015. First Nations in the Crosshairs: As Canada Moves to Protect Resource Exploitation, Agencies Accelerate Spying on Indigenous Activist. Canadian Dimension 49(2). https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/first-nations-in-the-crosshairs.
Deloria, Philip J. 2004. Indians in Unexpected Places. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
Diabo, Russell, and Shiri Pasternak. 2011. First Nations Under Surveillance. The First Nations Strategic Bulletin, January–May. http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/FNSB%20Jan%20May%2011.pdf.
Dunn Cavelty, Myriam, and Kristian Søby Kristensen. 2008. Securing ‘the Homeland’: Critical Infrastructure, Risk and (In)security. New York: Routledge.
Furedi, Frank. 1993. Creating a Breathing Space: The Political Management of Colonial Emergencies. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 21(3): 89–106.
Government of Canada. 2004. Securing an Open Society. Public Safety Canada. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/ntnl-scrt/scrng-eng.aspx.
Grant, George. 1890. Canada and the Canadian Question: A Review. Toronto: Imperial Federation League in Canada, C. Blackett Robinson.
Hier, Sean P., and Kevin Walby. 2014. Policy Mutations, Compliance, Myths, and Redeployable Special Event Public Camera Surveillance in Canada. Sociology 48(1): 150–166.
Hobson, J. 2005. Imperialism: A Study. New York: Cossimo.
Hussain, Nasser. 2003. The Jurisprudence of Emergency: Colonialism and the Rule of Law. Ann Arbour, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. 2010. Final Report—Evaluation of the Emergency Management Assistance Program. http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100011392/1100100011397.
Integrated Threat Assessment Centre [ITAC]. n.d. About ITAC. http://www.itac.gc.ca/bt/index-en.php.
Integrated Threat Assessment Centre [ITAC]. 2007. Threat Assessment: Aboriginal Protests—Summer 2007 (07/30). Obtained through ATI request 117-2008-123, May 11.
———. 2010. Canada: Biannual Update on the Threat from Terrorists and Extremists (10/151-E). Obtained through informal ATI request 117-2012-95, December 30.
Millar, Matthew. 2013. Harper Government’s Extensive Spying on Anti-Oilsands Groups Revealed in FOIs. Vancouver Observer, November 19. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/harper-governments-extensive-spying-anti-oilsands-groups-revealed-fois?page=0%2C0.
Monaghan, Jeffrey, and Kevin Walby. 2012a. ‘Making Up ‘Terror Identities’: Security Intelligence and Canada’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre. Policing & Society 22(2): 133–151.
———. 2012b. ‘They Attacked the City’: Security Intelligence, the Sociology of Protest Policing, and the Anarchist Threat at the 2010 Toronto G20 Summit. Current Sociology 60(5): 653–671.
Monahan, Torin, and Priscilla M. Regan. 2012. Zones of Opacity: Data Fusion in Post-9/11 Security Organizations. Canadian Journal of Law and Society 27(3): 301–317.
Morgensen, Scott L. 2011. The Biopolitics of Settler Colonialism: Right Here, Right Now. Settler Colonial Studies 1: 52–76.
Murphy, Nicole. 2014. RCMP Critical Infrastructure Intelligence Team: An Overview. IR3: Infrastructure Resilience Risk Reporter 1(1): 7–11. http://carleton.ca/irrg/wp-content/uploads/IRRR-Vol1Issue1-April2014.pdf.
Natural Resources Canada. 2014. Key Facts and Figures on the Natural Resources Sector. http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/key-facts/16013.
Neocleous, Mark. 2008. Critique of Security. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
———. 2010. War as Peace, Peace as Pacification. Radical Philosophy 159: 8–17.
Palmer, Darren, and Chad Whelan. 2006. Counter-Terrorism Across the Policing Continuum. Police Practice and Research 7(5): 449–465.
Parliament of Canada. 2007. Proceedings of the Standing Committee on National Security and Defence. Issue 17 – Evidence – Meeting of June 18. http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/SEN/Committee/391/defe/17evb-e.htm.
Pasternak, Shiri. 2013. The Economics of Insurgency: Thoughts on Idle No More and Critical Infrastructure. The Media Co-op, January 14. http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/economics-insurgency/15610.
Public Safety Canada. 2009. National Strategy for Critical Infrastructure. Ottawa: Government of Canada.
Pugliese, David. 2014. Government Orders Federal Departments to Keep Tabs on All Demonstrations Across Country. Globe and Mail, June 4. http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/government-orders-federal-departments-to-keep-tabs-on-all-demonstrations-across-country.
Rifkin, Mark. 2009. Indigenizing Agamben: Rethinking Sovereignty in Light of the ‘Peculiar’ Status of Native Peoples. Cultural Critique 73: 88–124.
Roach, Kent. 2003. September 11: Consequences for Canada. Montreal, Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police [RCMP]. 2007. Briefing Note to Deputy Commissioner, 4 June 2007. Obtained through ATI request GA-3951-3-00060.
———. 2009a. RCMP Criminal Intelligence: Aboriginal Joint Intelligence Group. Aboriginal Communities, Issues, Events and Concerns 2009/10. Obtained through ATI request A-2011-06291.
———. 2009b. NAPS 2009 POWPM. Obtained through ATI request GA-3951-3-03434/11, March 3.
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. 1996. Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Ottawa: The Commission. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/webarchives/20071115053257/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sgmm_e.html.
Simpson, Audra. 2014. Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Valverde, Mariana. 2006. ‘Peace, Order and Good Government’: Policelike Powers in Postcolonial Perspective. In The New Police Science: Police Power in Domestic and International Governance, eds. Markus D. Dubber and Mariana Valverde, 73–106. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Williamson, Tara. 2009. The Edges of Exception: Implications for Indigenous Liberation in Canada. Appeal 14: 68–83.
Young, George. 2005. Can Warrior Societies Survive in a Post 9/11 World? Windspeaker 23(6): 28. http://www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/can-warrior-societies-survive-post-911-world-0.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dafnos, T., Thompson, S., French, M. (2016). Surveillance and the Colonial Dream: Canada’s Surveillance of Indigenous Self-Determination. In: Lippert, R., Walby, K., Warren, I., Palmer, D. (eds) National Security, Surveillance and Terror. Crime Prevention and Security Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43243-4_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43243-4_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43242-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43243-4
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)