Planning as Property: Uncovering the Hidden Racial Logic of a Municipal Nuisance By-law

In her landmark essay, Whiteness as Property, Cheryl Harris powerfully demonstrates how racial identity and property claims are co-produced in law. Through a genealogy of law starting with American slave law, Harris reveals how whiteness has evolved from a form of racial identity into a legally acknowledged and protected form of property. In this article I apply Harris’ framework to an analysis of two by-laws passed by the City of Brantford (Ontario) in 2008, in order to reveal a hidden racial logic within the statutory powers vested in municipalities. By analyzing these by-laws, as well as the litigation which followed, I demonstrate how the regulatory and enforcement powers of municipal planning processes can authorize settler colonial claims to property, while at the same time conferring upon municipalities the power to criminalize Indigenous assertions of territorial authority. Ultimately, the planning powers vested in municipalities are shown to play an important role in affirming the sovereignty claims of the settler state, while diminishing the sovereignty claims of Indigenous peoples

Rejecting the False Choice: Foregrounding Indigenous Sovereignty in Planning Theory and Practice

During the latter half of the 20th century, the term sovereignty has become a pivotal concept for describing the political goals of Indigenous movements. The term has come to stand for the general rights of Indigenous peoples to be self-governing and describe efforts to reverse and resist processes of ongoing colonization, dispossession and assimilation. The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold. First, it explores the role of planning in the erosion of Indigenous sovereignty and the creation of conflicts over urban land use and development. More specifically, it examines the role of planning in the project of securing, aggrandizing and normalizing Canada’s sovereignty claims, and illustrates how the idea of sovereignty influences the configuration of relations between Canada and Indigenous peoples. While the concept of sovereignty is not commonly discussed in planning literature or planning policy, it is argued that concepts such as property, jurisdiction, and Aboriginal rights serve as a cipher for sovereignty in the context of planning. This dissertation research finds that the practices and principles of planning aid in the narration of a political imaginary and the creation of a legal geography which affirms Canada’s territorial and moral coherence. This examination of planning is placed against the backdrop of broader historical tendencies in Canadian Aboriginal policy. The second purpose of this dissertation is to consider how taking Indigenous political authority seriously can present new ways of thinking about both planning and sovereignty. It is argued in this dissertation that Indigenous understandings of sovereignty originating in Indigenous law and Indigenous interpretations of Canadian law must be placed in the foreground in planning theory and practice. In the past, the interventions and alternatives advocated by planning both theorists and policy makers to improve the position of Indigenous peoples in planning processes have largely emphasized the recognition and inclusion of Indigenous peoples and reduced Indigenous struggles over territory to the realm of identity politics. As an alternative, foregrounding Indigenous political authority can present new ways of thinking about both planning and sovereignty.Ph

Rejecting the False Choice: Foregrounding Indigenous Sovereignty in Planning Theory and Practice

During the latter half of the 20th century, the term sovereignty has become a pivotal concept for describing the political goals of Indigenous movements. The term has come to stand for the general rights of Indigenous peoples to be self-governing and describe efforts to reverse and resist processes of ongoing colonization, dispossession and assimilation. The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold. First, it explores the role of planning in the erosion of Indigenous sovereignty and the creation of conflicts over urban land use and development. More specifically, it examines the role of planning in the project of securing, aggrandizing and normalizing Canada’s sovereignty claims, and illustrates how the idea of sovereignty influences the configuration of relations between Canada and Indigenous peoples. While the concept of sovereignty is not commonly discussed in planning literature or planning policy, it is argued that concepts such as property, jurisdiction, and Aboriginal rights serve as a cipher for sovereignty in the context of planning. This dissertation research finds that the practices and principles of planning aid in the narration of a political imaginary and the creation of a legal geography which affirms Canada’s territorial and moral coherence. This examination of planning is placed against the backdrop of broader historical tendencies in Canadian Aboriginal policy. The second purpose of this dissertation is to consider how taking Indigenous political authority seriously can present new ways of thinking about both planning and sovereignty. It is argued in this dissertation that Indigenous understandings of sovereignty originating in Indigenous law and Indigenous interpretations of Canadian law must be placed in the foreground in planning theory and practice. In the past, the interventions and alternatives advocated by planning both theorists and policy makers to improve the position of Indigenous peoples in planning processes have largely emphasized the recognition and inclusion of Indigenous peoples and reduced Indigenous struggles over territory to the realm of identity politics. As an alternative, foregrounding Indigenous political authority can present new ways of thinking about both planning and sovereignty.Ph

Between concept and context: reading Gilles Deleuze and Leanne Simpson in their in/commensurabilities

After centuries of ignoring and discounting Indigenous epistemologies, geographers and other scholars rooted in Western intellectual traditions have recently displayed a new curiosity about the insights offered by Indigenous intellectual traditions. In this article, we reflect on the ethical challenges that accompany reading Indigenous philosophy as scholars trained primarily in the Western tradition. Reading a set of texts by Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, we argue that reading practices can serve as either enactments or refusals of colonial relationships, and provide an account of the development of reading practices that seek to find meaning in the in/commensurablity of these texts, rather than by seeking only similarities or differences. Thus, we advocate for a political approach to reading Indigenous philosophy that respects the sovereignty of the text

Public Transit and Equity-Deserving Groups: Understanding Lived Experiences

There has been significant work on transportation equity over the past 40 years, often prioritizing quantitative and modelling approaches. In contrast, this study draws on research on lived experiences, with a focus on equity-deserving groups. We find that the lived experiences of equity-deserving groups are well documented, in both the academic literature, and in work by community-based organizations, non-profits and advocacy groups. Four cross-cutting themes were observed across equity-deserving groups: poor or absent transit service; unaffordability of transit fares; policing and enforcement; and safety. The research demonstrated that poor and unaffordable transit impacts equity-deserving groups in wide-ranging ways, such as restricting access to healthcare, education and employment; limiting support for people experiencing domestic violence; and, reducing the ability of people to access social services, visit with family and friends, and participate in cultural activities.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; Infrastructure Canad