The Infested Blanket: Canada's Constitution - Genocide of Indian Nations

Stafford Johnston was a freelance reviewer living in Mitchell, Ontario.

The title is derived from the authors’ belief that Canadian authorities in colonial times deliberately arranged to supply Indians with blankets that were infected with smallpox. The metaphor of the title is carried through the text: “During early colonialism, Canada is trying to blanket the First Nations with the 1982 Canada Act.”

Leaving aside a quibble about the use of infested tomean infected, the metaphor itself has a weak basis in history. Robinson and Quinney offer proof of their infected-blanket reading of Canadian history only by looking across the border to an item published in 1880 in a newspaper in Fort Benton, Montana, in which it was reported that an American wolfer had sent a cartload of blankets, infected with smallpox, to the Blackfoot Indians.

The two authors are leaders among the Cree people of Manitoba and have been active in organizations lobbying for Indian rights. It is unfortunate that they have overstated their case by their choice of a title and theme for this book, which is a useful explanation of the Indian viewpoint with respect to Canada’s new constitution. The book reviews the efforts made by the Assembly of First Nations, the National Indian Brotherhood, and other Indian organizations to have protection for Indian rights written into the constitution while it was being negotiated between federal and provincial levels of government. Robinson and Quinney state clearly the conviction of Indian leaders that land-surrender treaties negotiated with the Crown, before Canada became self-governing, are a legal commitment binding on the government at Ottawa, to which the provincial governments are not parties.