Customer Acknowledgment

The following products sold in a Mi’kmaw treaty truckhouse or trading post are in accordance with the constitutionally protected Aboriginal and Treaty rights of the Mi’kmaq people. The products from this treaty truckhouse are lawful and regulated through the Micmac Rights Association (MRA), an Indigenous Governing Body. For more information visit www.micmacrights.com. Article 4 of the treaty of 1752 states that “the said Indians shall have free liberty to bring for Sale to Halifax or any other Settlement within this Province, Skins, feathers, fowl, fish or any other thing they shall have to sell, where they shall have liberty to dispose thereof to the best Advantage.” Cannabis is a legal trade good in Canada, and thus fits into the category of an “other thing” that the heirs of the Treaty of 1752 are lawfully entitled to sell to their best advantage. Mi’kmaq Aboriginal and treaty rights are entrenched in the highest laws of Canada as s. 35 of the Constitution provides that “The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.” The Supreme Court of Canada has repeatedly held that this constitutional affirmation is not merely symbolic, but juridical in nature – it gives treaty rights constitutional force and priority in Canadian law. S. 52 of the constitution declares, “The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law of Canada, and any law that is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution is, to the extent of the inconsistency, of no force or effect.” In Canadian law, “Indians and lands reserved for Indians” are federal jurisdiction as per s. 91 24 of the British North America Act. In accordance with s. 88 of the Indian Act, Provincial laws of general application only apply to Indigenous people “subject to the terms of any treaty.” The recent efforts of the Tim Houston Provincial government of Nova Scotia to criminalize Mi’kmaq trade is racist, unlawful, and unconstitutional. The Province has no authority or jurisdiction to infringe on Aboriginal and treaty rights.  The treaty protection of a right to trade is further reinforced by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which is constitutionally entrenched through s. 25 of the Constitution Act, 1982 and serves as a jurisdictional shield. The Proclamation affirms that “the several Nations or Tribes of Indians with whom We are connected, and who live under our Protection, should not be molested or disturbed in the Possession of such Parts of Our Dominions and Territories as, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are reserved to them.” (Royal Proclamation, 1763).  The Proclamation also does “declare and enjoin, that the Trade with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our Subjects whatever” and puts the onus on the “Governor or Commander in Chief of any of our Colonies” to make whatever regulations are needed to manage the trade from the non-Indigenous side. Together, the Proclamation and its governing Instructions constitutionalized not merely a land base but a trading jurisdiction at the highest level of law – through a Royal Proclamation which no province or lower authority was able to override.  The Mi’kmaq nation has never sold or surrendered our lands. Nor have we given up our rights or our sovereignty. We remain here on our lands carrying out trade and commerce as we have since time immemorial. If you are being harassed by the RCMP or provincial agents because you have made a purchase at a Mi’kmaq truck house, we encourage you to contact the MRA legal team. The MRA will assist you in fighting back against the unlawful actions of the provincial government to target Indigenous trade and commerce.