The Medium is the Message: How Referendums Lead us to Understand Equality

Abstract

In 1998, the provincial government of British Columbia completed negotiations and signed a treaty with the aboriginal Nisga’a people that established limited self-government for the Nisga’a and recognized their claim to a portion of their traditional lands.¹ The treaty generated an enormous amount of attention and controversy in the province. Some non-Nisga’a Aboriginal peoples opposed it because, they argued, it accepted the Nisga’a claim to land claimed by other Aboriginal groups and because it established an unacceptable template for future treaty negotiations. Some non-Aboriginal people opposed the treaty because it created ‘special rights’ for Nisga’a people, and because it limited the rights of non-Nisga’a people living on Nisga’a lands. Some of these opponents called for a referendum on the Nisga’a agreement. This call drew enthusiastic support mostly from those in the province who were already eager to hold referendums whenever possible.²