Artifact #6: Elijah Harper and Meech Lake

Artifact Citation:

Glowacki, Wayne; photographer. “NDP MLA Elijah Harper sits in the Manitoba Legislature holding an eagle feather for spiritual strength as he continues to delay the house debate”. Photograph. Winnipeg: Winnipeg Free Press Archives, June 19, 1990.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/eharper01.jpg?w=1920. Accessed November 2024.

Artifact Label:

This photograph depicts MLA Elijah Harper sitting in the Manitoba Legislature, holding an eagle feather as he killed the Meech Lake Accord by refusing to give consent to hold a vote on a resolution to pass the Accord. This photograph showcases Indigenous opposition to the Meech Lake Accord. One of the main reasons for Indigenous opposition to the Accord was because while five years of constitutional discussions with Indigenous people and the federal government gained no ground for Indigenous issues, the First Ministers involved in the Meech Lake Accord were able to agree on a set of constitutional negotiations in one day. Furthermore,  the potential changes that came with the Meech Lake Accord threatened recently recognized Aboriginal rights because granting Quebec a distinct status in society could potentially hinder Indigenous rights to sovereignty. Indigenous did get one win from the Meech Lake Accord, however. Public displays of Indigenous opposition to the Meech Lake Accord helped bring public attention to Indigenous issues, especially this moment in the Manitoba Legislature.

Bibliography of Secondary Sources:

Bruyere, Louis. 1988. “Aboriginal Peoples and the Meech Lake Accord”.  Canadian Human Rights Yearbook 1988 Can. Hum. Rts. Y.B. (1988). 

https://login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/login?url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/canhry1988&i=57 

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.