In the groundbreaking 2020 Frontier Centre for Public Policy piece below, Peter Best argued that Indigenous Land Acknowledgments (ILAs) are problematic, given that they are often factually inaccurate and can have unintended legal consequences. For example, the claim that the Robinson Treaties were about “sharing” land is inaccurate because the treaties explicitly granted the surrender of land to the Crown, as signed on to by both parties.

Best’s claim that this misinterpretation of land surrender agreements and the current proliferation of ILAs could lead to costly legal battles and undermine Crown sovereignty, ultimately harming the public interest, should have been a wake-up call to all Canadians.

Unfortunately, it was not, especially to our political, media, and intellectual elites.