The University of Canada North, 1970-1985
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LAKEHEAD UNIVERSITY THE UNIVERSITY THAT WASN'T: THE UNIVERSITY OF CANADA NORTH, 1970 - 1985 A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF ARTS AND SCIENCE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY © AMANDA GRAHAM doi: 10.13140/2.1.3043.2320 (issued by ResearchGate, 20 December 2014 WHITEHORSE, YUKON SUBMITTED FEBRUARY 1994 COMPLETED APRIL 1994 DEGREE GRANTED 23 NOVEMBER 1994 PDF version May 2000 Note that the page numbers in the PDF version of this document do not correspond to the submitted version of this thesis. Citations of this document should be to the PDF Edition, 2000. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of Yukon College, of the Dean of Academic Studies, Mr. Aron Senkpiel, and of Lakehead University Centre for Northern Studies for supporting this project, and of the Northern Sciences Training Program for grants that permitted travel to Inuvik and Yellowknife to examine archival materials and personal files of some of those involved and to conduct interviews. The author would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Ernest Epp, Lakehead University, Department of History and Dr. Brent Slobodin, Yukon College, for their comments on earlier drafts of this thesis. She would especially like to thank Dr. W. R. Morrison for his guidance and for putting up with her odd ideas and interpretations these last few years. Thanks are also due to Garth Graham (Ottawa), Richard Rohmer (Toronto), Arnold Edinburgh (Toronto), Dick Hill (Inuvik), Nellie Cournoyea (Yellowknife), Ron Veale (Whitehorse), W. Peter Adams (Peterborough), John Hoyt (Whitehorse), Frank Fingland (Whitehorse), Renée Alford (Whitehorse), YTG Department of Education and Julie Cruikshank (Vancouver) among others for sharing their files and/or their recollections of their UCN participation. Thanks also to the staff of the Resource Centre at Yukon College, of the Yukon Archives and of the Northwest Territories Archives. iii DEDICATION For my mother, Charlotte Mary Keens Graham, my sister, D. Victoria, my brother, Jeremy and In memory of my father, Alan Murray Graham, and of my friend, Stephen S. Papazian; Unconditional supporters all. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................... iii DEDICATION ............................................................... iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................... viii Chapter Page INTRODUCTION .......................................................1 1. SOCIAL PRECONDITIONS TO THE UCN, 1965-1970 .........................5 Territorial Society 1965-1970 The Territorial Governments The Northwest Territories The Yukon Education in the Canadian North The Northwest Territories The Yukon Providing For Post-Secondary Education 2. THE PROMISE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE NORTH: VARIOUS PROPOSALS FOR A NORTHERN UNIVERSITY .................. 23 The University of the North at Dawson City The Mackenzie Institute at Inuvik An Arctic University in the Canadian North The University of the Air A Northern University Education, National Interest and Northern Development 3. UCN, FROM IDEA TO REALITY: JULY 1970 TO MARCH 1971 ............... 33 Rohmer, Mid-Canada Development and a Northern University The Incorporation Documents Incorporation and Reaction v 4. PLANNING THE UCN: THE FIRST SEVEN MONTHS ...................... 49 Further Reaction to the Incorporation of the UCN The First Interim Executive Committee Meeting, Inuvik First Nations' Reaction The Second Interim Executive Committee Meeting, Yellowknife The First Nations' Inuvik Meeting The Third Interim Executive Committee Meeting Towards the Concepts Conference 5. RE-EXAMINING THE UCN IDEA: THE CONCEPTS CONFERENCE, INUVIK, NOVEMBER 1971 ................ 70 The Conference Format The Panel Discussions 1971 Annual General Meeting and Directors' Meeting Initial Public Assessment and Reaction 6. RETHINKING THE UCN: DIFFERENT VISIONS, DIFFERENT PATHS 1972-1975 ..................... 89 Rohmer's Revised UCN Concept The NWT Division's College North Project The Yukon Higher Education Project Other Directions for the Yukon Division A New Yukon Division Directorship The Action Conference and Beyond 7. DIVERSIFICATION AND DISSIPATION: 1976-1985 .......................110 Diversification Discussing a Land Claims Forum, 1976 Ted Parnell and the UCN Research Division The Land Claims Information Forum, November 1977 Northward Looking: Renewed Interest in a Northern University Research and Films, 1978 Dissipation Towards Yukon College, 1979-1983 Search for a UCN Successor, 1983-1985 8. THE UNIVERSITY OF CANADA NORTH: INSTITUTION AND INDICATOR .......................................127 vi APPENDIX I: UCN Incorporation Documents ...................................133 APPENDIX II: Concepts Conference Participants ................................134 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................... 140 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACND Advisory Committee on Northern Development ANSI Association of Non-Status Indians (Yukon) AUCC Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation COPE Committee for Original Peoples' Entitlement CYI Council for Yukon Indians DCF Donner Canadian Foundation DIAND Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development DNANR Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources ExCom Executive Committee (Yukon Territorial Government) GNWT Government of the Northwest Territories IBNWT Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories; the Dene Nation NAC National Archives of Canada NANR Northern Affairs and National Development, Department of UCN The University of Canada North YA Yukon Archives YNB Yukon Native Brotherhood YTG Yukon Territorial Government viii INTRODUCTION The creation of The University of Canada North, by federal letters patent in 1971, marks the beginning of a revealing episode in northern Canadian history that spans almost fifteen years. The brain-child of Toronto lawyer Richard Rohmer and thirty residents of the two territories, The University of Canada North (UCN) appeared to provide suitable and useful post-secondary education to all northerners regardless of ethnic background,1 to control and contribute to northern research, and, by its very existence, to grant northern society a cachet of stability that it did not yet appear to have. The fact that it was initiated not by government, but by a group of interested individuals placed the UCN both in an emerging northern practice of attempting to find northern solutions to northern problems and in the growing northern rejection of its traditional colonial relationship with the South. The growing strength of the territorial governments and northern First Nations organisations was reflected in northern society by a popular sense of pride and an unwillingness to continue in the established colonial relationship with the federal government. This attitude resulted in an intense and widespread desire to wrest control of day-to-day living and governing from the distant hands of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Different groups in the North responded in different ways. The First Nations established organisations to address their concerns. Non-Aboriginal northerners responded by creating societies to provide local solutions and local voices to the insufficiencies they saw. The territorial governments expanded their jurisdictions through a series of transfer agreements with the federal government. The UCN, too, was a response. The UCN founders, however, faced the difficult question of whose vision of the North would be institutionalized in the new university. There were no precedents for inter-ethnic discussion of the question. There were no guidelines for reaching a consensus on the shape and essence of northern society and culture. Thus, from its founding 1 I use this term to refer generally to residents of the northern territories. There is a great deal of debate about what the term means exactly, to whom it applies, and whether there is some kind of unspoken residency requirement. 1 2 the UCN directors were faced with reconciling the many different opinions about the nature, form and purpose of their new institution.2 The planners first tried to cope with the problem by employing organisational measures. They recognized that the two territories were vastly different because of population composition and distribution, geography, governmental sophistication, general levels of educational attainment in the population and underlying social goals. Thus, from the start, they adopted an administrative structure for the UCN that would allow the directors and members in each territory to form separate divisions.3 The very social and political conditions, however, that led to the creation of The University of Canada North all too quickly became serious obstacles. The relative maturity of the two territorial governments, the interest of the federal government, the lack of consensus about the vision of northern society, and the growing Native activist movements ensured that the university did not become the kind of institution its founders had envisaged. The university ultimately became the victim of its organizers' own confusion about its role in northern society. This statement should not be taken as denigrating the efforts of the UCN supporters. The UCN would not have survived as long as it did without their continued advocacy. In truth, the story of the UCN is the story of many vitally-concerned individuals,