But the Inuit brought it back. Or more precisely, have stuck to their tradition of non-confrontational governance.
Take all the aboriginal "nations" that wish to be treated like nations and treat them like nations....in every respect. They will have to have passports to travel outside of their lands. They will not be allowed to partake in Canadian institutions without paying for them...etc.
For those aboriginal groups that choose not to be "nations", we can treat their reservation like any other municipality.
But municipalities on an equal footing? Let's say they decide to adopt their local language as the language of local government administration, making all documents in that language. If we can make our languages official at the provincial and national levels, should they not be allowed to do the same at the local level?
They can do whatever they want at the local level as long as it is in accordance with Canadian law. For example, the could not stop a resident from selling their house or land to me.
That I like. In fact, I woldn't be surprised if alot of First Nations would support that idea themselves. Some, however, might view the reservation as a means of preserving their language and culture, so they could feel threatened by that, considering their percentage of the Canadian population.
But I could see Alberta's education system as a solution to that. In Alberta, public schools are free to teach among a list of languages, including Cree and Blackfoot, as second languages. Let's say Ontario did something similar by adopting the British model and letting schools teach whatever second language they want, be it Cree, Algonquin, etc., then that could help counterbalance the loss of protection on the reservations.
I do care about language and culture because it is often at the root of violent conflict.
It's the root of violent conflict because too many people care about it.
Language is a source of power without a doubt, and so people will naturrally fight for their key to the nation's economic resources, and that's language.
I don't disagree that that is the way it has been. My point is that that approach is flawed because it externalizes the problem. If immigration leads to the point where I can't function easily without speaking Chinese or Newfanese there are two options available. I can learn Chinese or Newfanese or I can fight to retain my the English language and culture in or society. One is an internal choice and one is external. One requires me to adapt and one requires everybody else to adapt. Most of the problems we have in this world are cause by people telling others what they need to do.
How about just making all governmental institutions be required to speak and write in English (or what ever language you prefer) and print out what ever is needed in a secondary or third language for citizens who speak something else so they can function. Point is, you have to simplify. To us for the most part, we do not care what people want to speak. We do make some accommodations for them. There are fringe elements who would like us to speak and have one official language, but they are the fringes on both side.
We have Mexican (Spanish speaking) territory that we conquered, you have French speaking territory procured in the same way, bottom line they both lost and have become part of the U.S. or Canada. Cultures don't have to change, visit Louisiana and you can still hear French spoken and French architecture.