Lecture "Philosophy and Aboriginal Rights in Canada"

“In my lecture, I will describe how European nations created Canada on top of Turtle Island without the informed consent of Indigenous Peoples.  Proving Canada is illegitimate according to Western philosophy’s theories of sovereignty, I show Enlightenment philosophers provided content for Great Britain to justify violating Indigenous Peoples’ right sovereignty and occupying their lands. I also show how, in the 21st century, non-Indigenous people, whose education distorts their political reality, are being helped by Indigenous politicians, lawyers, fishers, scholars, and artists to see the systemic injustice colonialism has built into every part of Canada’s institutional structure. Hence, philosophers, grounded in the Canon’s political philosophy, are challenged to decolonize their theoretical structures and follow the lead of Indigenous scholars when a creating new, reality-based account of a just relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canada.”

Sandra Tomsons was born in Nova Scotia, Canada. She defended her doctorate in philosophy in 1988 at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. She taught for a long time at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Winnipeg. She regularly visited Latvia with her husband, Latvian and Canadian philosopher Gunars Tomsons (born in 1926 in Jelgava - died in 2017 in Antigonish, Nova Scotia). The author of many academic articles, together with Lorraine Mayer, she edited the book "Philosophy and Aboriginal Rights: Critical Dialogues" (Oxford University Press, 2013).