Press Release: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF JAPANESE CANADIANS
November 18, 1991
NAJC WANTS CONFISCATED RESERVE RETURNED TO NATIVES
The National Association of Japanese Canadians today urged
all Canadians to support a call by Native Canadians to the
federal government to return the Stoney Point Indian Reserve to
its rightful owners. In 1942, the Canadian government
confiscated a small Stoney Point Indian reserve on the shores of
Lake Huron for an advanced infantry training camp. The residents
of the reserve were forcibly removed and dispersed to a
neighbouring reserve and to towns and cities in southern Ontario.
When the Canadian government took the reserve, it promised
to return if after the war when the Department of National
Defence had no further use for it. But today, almost 50 years
later, DND still occupies the Stoney point Reserve, which it
calls Camp Ipperwash. DND uses Camp Ipperwash for only six weeks
of the year. Every summer, for six weeks, teenage cadets play
soldier among the sand dunes and in the burial ground of the
Stoney Point Reserve.
"The injustice suffered by the Stoney point Natives
parallels injustices suffered by japanese Canadians during the
same period," Art Miki, President of the NAJC said. "Both the
natives and Japanese Canadians were uprooted from their homes,
stripped of their property and dispersed. They were both victims
of the War Measures Act," Miki continued.
"Our research suggests that the motivation for the taking
the Stoney Point Reserve was the same as the motivation for
abusing Japanese Canadians: a mixture of racism and
administrative convenience," added Sachiko Okuda, Chair of the
NAJC Human Rights committee. "Taking the Stoney Point Reserve
appears to have been a cheap and easy way to acquire a training
camp without expropriating white-owned farms or recreational
land.
The advanced Infantry training camp, for which the reserve
was confiscated, closed on May 31, 1946. While DND continues to
occupy Camp Ipperwash, the dispossessed Natives continue to live
in substandard housing on the neighbouring Kettle Point reserve
or have been forced to leave that reserve to find housing.
The Natives have repeatedly asked DND to return the Stoney
point Reserve. Their requests have always been rejected. "DND
appears indifferent to the rights of the Stoney Point Natives and
to the government's moral and legal obligations to protect Native
property acquired by treaty," Ms. Okuda noted.
"It appears that the Stoney Point Natives have suffered two
wrongs: (1) the taking of their reserve by DND under the War
Measures Act and (2) the continued occupation of the reserve by
DND," Ms. Okuda explained. "We are advised that the confiscation
of the Stoney Point reserve in 1942 was probably illegal. And
the continued occupation of the Stoney Point reserve by DND is
clearly illegal and a patent breach of the Crown's obligation to
protect the interests of Native peoples."
"There are two important differences between the treatment
accorded Japanese Canadians and that accorded the Stoney Point
Natives," Mr. Miki noted. "The exile of Japanese Canadians ended
on April 1, 1949, while the Exile of the Stoney Point Natives
continues today. The wrongs done the Stoney Point Natives
continue. Fifty years is too long to wait for justice."
Art Miki, President, NAJC
For further information and documentation , please contact
Sachiko Okuda, Chair NAJC Human Rights Committee, 1678 Alta Vista
Drive, Ottawa, K1G 0G5, (613)733-8022 or Ann Sunahara, 112 Huron
Avenue N., Ottawa, Ontario, K1Y 0W2, (613)728-9691.