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Telling Stories about Conflict: Symbolic Politics and the Ipperwash Land Transfer Agreement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2014

Michael Morden
Michael Morden*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
*
Michael Morden, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, Sidney Smith Hall, Room 3018, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, michael.morden@utoronto.ca.
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Abstract

Abstract. Direct protest actions by Indigenous peoples in Canada have rarely yielded the specific gains that were targeted. In the aftermath of conflict, Canadian governments have typically proven to be intransigent. An exception to this general tendency is the Anishinabek occupation of Ipperwash Provincial Park, which began in 1995. In 2007, the government of Ontario agreed to return the parkland to the First Nation, making it an unusually successful instance of direct action. It is argued here that this outcome can best be explained by drawing on the “symbolic politics” theory of intergroup conflict. The Ipperwash inquiry, acting as a post-conflict truth commission, generated a micro-narrative shared by both groups, which altered the political incentive structure and enabled the outlier accommodative outcome.

Résumé. Les actions de protestation directe par les peuples autochtones du Canada ont rarement donné les résultats recherchés. Au lendemain d'un conflit, les gouvernements canadiens se sont généralement montrés intransigeants. L'occupation du Parc provincial d'Ipperwash par les Anishinabek, qui débuta en 1995, représente toutefois une exception à cette tendance générale. Le gouvernement ontarien a accepté, en 2007, de retourner les territoires du parc à cette première nation, ce qui en fait un des rares cas où l'action directe a porté fruit. L'article soutient que c'est en s'appuyant sur la théorie de la politique symbolique des conflits intergroupes qu'il est possible d'expliquer ce résultat. Agissant comme une commission de vérité et de réconciliation, la Commission d'enquête sur Ipperwash a généré un récit commun, partagé par les deux groupes. En changeant la structure d'incitatifs politiques, ce récit explique l'étonnant résultat d'accommodement qui en est ressorti.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 505 - 524
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 2013 

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