Atlantic Canada: Terra Nullius and Terraforming

Atlantic Canada: Terra Nullius, Terre-Neuve, and Terraforming

• The goal is to understand and make sense of Atlantic Canada
• This involves multiple materials, matters, and meanings
• It also involved unpacking + interrogating the normative 'mythologies'

Terra Nullius

• Directly translates to "nobody's land", it is relevant to the study of Atlantic Canada
• It is linked to terraforming as a means to justify claims, jurisdiction, violence, dispossession, and expulsion/expropriation
• First, indulgence in the fantasy of raw, empty, wilderness that is depopulated and uninhabited must occur
• Then work to 'clear the land' in order to remake it commences
• The Vatican issued two important papal bulls to justify Christian-Catholic domination which became the basis of internatinal law
• Pope Nicholas V issued Dum Diversas (1452) and Romanus Pontifex (1455) to root out, vanquish, and destroy non-Christian people and the "enemies of Christ" and grant the Portuguese a monopoly of trade with Africa and authorizes the enslavement of local people
• Pope Alexander VI issued Inter Caetera (1493) to justify European commercial + territorial claims for any land/water/resource "discoveries" under the sign of Spain and Portugal "spreading Christianity" ('civilization' + 'religion')
• It facilitated the assertion of European sovereignty via terra nullius coupled with the doctrine of discovery
• Delgamuukw v British Columbia (1997) + Tsilhqot'in Nation v British Columbia (2014) addressed the doctrine of terra nullius
• It was determined that the doctrine of terra nullius never applied to Canada, as confirmed by the Royal Proclamation (1763)

Terre-Neuve

• Refers to Newfoundland, crucial for understanding Atlantic Canada
• From the Newfoundland Acts the study notes mention:
  • An Act to Encourage the Trade to Newfoundland, known as King William's Act or Newfoundland Act, in 1699 established a "garrison government" with fishing admirals and naval convoy commodores, and triggered 105 years of war from 1710-1815
  • The Reform Bill in 1832 introduced representative government
  • The Newfoundland Act saw the establishment of houses of assembly in 1847
  • Under the Newfoundland Act, Britain suspends the dominion's constitution in 1933 to avoid bankruptcy
  • Newfoundland officially joined Confederation as the 10th province of Canada in 1949
• The Dialect Atlas of Newfoundland and Labrador registers the relational isolation + integrity through language as archive, time capsule, vehicle, institutional practice that is wildly arbitrary
• Relational place names exist, especially along the coast, like "Blow Me Down" and "Come By Chance"

Terraforming

• Terraforming is the concept of transforming a planet to be earth-like and inhabitable
• Canada is a shell company that is a subsidiary on the imperial edge
• This "fakeness" of Canada involves social, cultural, territorial, governmental construction
• Leads to capitalism with accumulation by dispossession
• Private property is created + the 'territorialization' of enclave as well as aggressive extraction of resources
• Aggressive resource extraction is indexed to 'state sovereignty'

State-Corporate Fusion

• Hudson's Bay Company gains a Royal Charter in 1690 because the French fur traders aimed to aggressive commodify and speculate on prices beyond New France (in Boston)
• The company gains autonomy/monopoly over Rupert's Land, the area that drains into Hudson's Bay(de facto governing force in 'Canada')
• Accumulation of territory occurs by dispossession, expulsion, elimination, and expropriation
• The Hudson’s Bay Company operated as the de facto government in large portions of what is now Canada for nearly 200 years between 1670-1869
• The eventual formation of Canada as “Canada” came about in the late 1800s for economic reasons
• This was primarily to benefit the companies and conglomerates that were trading Canadian natural resources with the British

Current Political Issues

• There is the question of what the Assembly of First Nations is suggesting in this process
• Dismantling a legal fiction used to justify de facto seizure of lands and resources
• Even the Government of Canada recognizes this legal firstion as "racist, historically false, and legally invalid, morally condemnable, and socially unjust" (APTN, 29 July 2022)
• It has been denounced by the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and ratified by Canada but is slowly being eroded (CANDRIP)
• The goal should be that "Everyone must recognize that Indigenous Peoples in sovereign nations occupied the land before contact. Settlers are not expected to surrender occupation of lands they live on and return to their ancestral countries of origin. We are all here and must live together." (AFN 2018: 5)

The Future

• Key is understanding is the legacy + precedent of empty land, 'new land', and 'discovery'
• There are also the terraformed climate disasters we're all living in in differential ways
• There are gas and diesel refineries and importers that need to cut GHG/carbon emissions
• A federal carbon tax has also come into effect
• As of July 2023, a family of four will receive $184 in New Brunswick, $240 in Prince Edward Island, $248 in Nova Scotia and $328 in Newfoundland and Labrador
• There was a NS Power rate increase on 1 January 2024 that will see a 6% increase in price

Inventory

• Inventory of topics includes symbolic, epistemological, social, cultural, historical, economic, political, and institutional items
• There is also the necessity of the geographical, territorial, infrastructural, geological, environmental, ecological, climatological, and marine/nautical contexts that shape other concerns

An examination of Atlantic Canada through the lens of 'Terra Nullius' and terraforming. It explores the concept of 'nobody's land' and its implications for claims, jurisdiction, and dispossession. Also examines papal bulls issued to justify Christian domination.