Know your history

A comment posted on the story regarding Couchiching placing a tollbooth on the highway generated a very important comment; “Know your history!”. History has shown that over millenniums, lands and people have been conquered, reconquered, and freed.
If I were to examine my history, my ancestors all Scots managed to hold off the Romans as they set about conquering Britain. Beginning in AD 122, the emperor Hadrian began building a wall across northern Britain to keep the Scots out of the rest of the Britain. It was built as much for economic reasons as to create stability as it was for protection.
It also served the purpose of collecting taxes and revenues for people wishing to trade or travel into the area occupied by the Romans. Eventually the Roman Empire left England and retreated all the way back to Italy, but they left behind roads, bridges and aqueducts
In 1746 at the Battle of Colloden, the British defeated a Scottish Army lead by Charles Edward Stuart who was fighting to reestablish the House of Stuart to the British Throne. The result of the battle was that the British exiled many Scottish people to America, and Australia. The Scots were forbidden from wearing the kilt, which was a symbol of their Clan. Other penalties were introduced to integrate Scotland into Great Britain, and civil penalties were introduced to weaken Gaelic culture and language.
At the same time, with religious persecution, many other groups left Europe seeking to find peace where they could practice their religion without state influence.
As the colonies grew, and new settlers arrived, the groups began pushing inland finding agriculture lands for raising crops, often displacing peoples who had already settle in those areas. Many of those immigrants pushed peoples who were using those lands away. It happened across the world on every continent.
It was no different than earlier civilizations pushing people off their lands for their own use.
My grandparent’s parents immigrated to Canada from England and homesteaded in the prairies. My grandmother lived in a sod hut as here family broke the soil and began farming. They left the family farm and moved to a more urban area where greater opportunities were available.
Many first nations people have left their communities to move to urban areas where more opportunities exist. It is no different today with many of our youth leaving the Rainy River District to pursue jobs and careers elsewhere around the world. Every nation in the world is becoming more urbanized.
The movement of people from rural Canada to urban Canada continues today. It is where job opportunities exist. Rural communities decline and where once a thriving rural community existed in Saskatchewan, today it has disappeared with only a place name on a map to be remembered by.
Until 1965 Fort Frances was not connected to the rest of the province. People from Mine Centre, which at the turn of the nineteenth century was bigger than Fort Frances had to come by train. Seine River, Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nations people only had access to Fort Frances by boat. The highway connecting Atikokan to Fort Frances made road access to those two communities available.
Road access to Lac La Croix did not come until much later.
The roads helped everyone. They opened crown land to development. Roads made it possible for youth to be bussed to schools instead of being billeted. The roads provided a means to reach medical care much more easily year round regardless of the weather. We all benefitted as the province built and improved roads across Ontario. It created new economic opportunities.
In Canada, first the French and later the English made agreements with those peoples that they came in contact with as the European founding nations pushed west. During the American Revolution, the British made deals with the Iroquois to help them fight the American Independence fighters and in return provided those Iroquois nations with land in Canada.
As immigrants moved westward across Canada, other agreements were reached between the Canadian Government and First Nations. Over time those agreements and documents have been reviewed and in review, many discrepancies have been discovered and the First Nations are seeking compensation for those discrepancies and wrong doings.
Rights granted to Canadians were not given to First Nations people until challenged in the courts. The most blatant was the right to vote.
And often, the governments have looked at the meaning of what was implied 100 years ago and today are applying today’s standards to the text.
As Canadians we like to whine about other regions and other ethnic groups having advantages. Governments are constantly trying to balance every region and group to encourage growth across the nation. They seek to create equal opportunity for everyone.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher