by Daniel N. Paul, CM, ONS, Mi’kmaw Elder & Historian

The following revelations for younger First Nations readers will probably seem unbelievable and incredible, however, along with many other legislated indignities, that provided Registered Indians with apartheid legal treatment, it was part of our lives until relatively recent times.

Throughout their existence, and well into the 1950s and most of the 1960s the RCMP strictly enforced Sections 94 to 100 of the Indian Act, which governed the use and possession of liquor by Registered Indians. These were the sections that had made it illegal for Registered Indians to enter places that served liquor or sold it, or to be in possession of alcohol, either externally or internally. It was paternalistic racist based white supremacist legislation that humiliated the First Nations People of Canada, it was finally repealed in 1985.

I personally was charged under the Sections on several occasions and on three of them refused to pay the fine and spent 10 day stretches of my vacations as a guest of the Colchester County Jail in Truro. Actually, we got a laugh out of some of the shenanigans by law enforcement officials that happened during these indignities, the following are a few.

One evening Steve Maloney Sr. and his brother Alonzo and I and my brother Bob were at a friend’s house having a few beer. When finished with socializing we left to go to our homes. As we were walking along the road toward them RCMP Constable Gallagher came along in his cruiser, pulled over ...

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