Foreword by Alexandre Bacon / Naomi Klein | Translated from English by Geneviève Boulanger

"I do not wish to celebrate a Canada that steals our lands." So said Arthur Manuel on the eve of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation. This statement is a good illustration of the current Indigenous awakening: it is time to put an end to the colonial nature of the Canadian state.

The result of a unique collaboration between two great defenders of First Nations rights, Decolonizing Canada is first and foremost the story of nearly half a century of Indigenous activism. Narrated in the first person, it traces Arthur Manuel's personal and activist journey and, at the same time, paints a portrait of the renewal of Indigenous struggle movements in the country since the 1970s. From the Paix des Braves to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the patriation of the Constitution and important Supreme Court judgments, this book revisits large sections of recent Canadian history.

For Manuel, the recognition of Indigenous rights is the best way to ensure the defense of our territories against the voracious appetite of private interests seeking to seize our natural resources. In the spirit of the Idle No More movement, he also calls for an end to the apathy and inaction that have characterized relations between the federal government and Indigenous peoples. This book is a vibrant call for resistance, but also a message of openness inviting us to build bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.