Artifact #1: Native Issues Knockout Meech Lake Accord

Artifact Citation: 

Anderson, David. Native Issues Knockout Meech Lake Accord. Cartoon. Toronto: Toronto Sun, 1990. Box number: 10506. Archives / Collections and Fonds, Archives Canada. https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?app=FonAndCol&idNumber=2961076&ecopy=e010950697-v8. Accessed November 2024.

Artifact Label: Following the Constitution Act of 1982, the Canadian federal government made a promise to the Indigenous groups of Canada that the next round of constitutional decision making would be about Indigenous issues. The Meech Lake Accord was agreed to by the First Ministers of Canada, but required all legislatures/parliament to each pass the accord. Prime Minister Mulroney gave the provinces a 3 year window to do so. Because Manitoba did not try to pass the accord until the last minute, it required a unanimous vote to supersede the regular agenda for passing the accord. Indigenous MLA Elijah Harper of Manitoba stood up in opposition to the accord, quashing the unanimous vote because the federal government failed to discuss Indigenous issues in this round of constitutional decision making. Thus, the Meech Lake Accord did not pass. This image is a political cartoon of Elijah Harper rejecting the Meech Lake Accord, although it had the support of almost every other province and the federal government. 

Bibliography of Secondary Sources:

Peach, Ian. 2011. “The Power of a Single Feather: Meech Lake, Indigenous Resistance and the Evolution of Indigenous Politics in Canada.” Review of Constitutional Studies 16 (1): 1–29.

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