MARTYN: No apologies. Canada was built, not stolen

MARTYN: No apologies. Canada was built, not stolen

If Canada is ‘stolen,’ then so is every inch humanity has ever walked.

A Canadian flagWS file photo

Western Standard Guest Columnist

Published on: 

29 Dec 2025, 9:30 am

Kurtis Martyn works in the construction industry in Calgary. 

I am Canadian, born in an icy metropolis where the winters are worse than a bad hangover and the summers tease you with false promises. I have the proof of my travels, stamped with poutine grease and hockey bruises. But recently, this country has become a therapy session that has gone wrong, where every flag wave comes with an apology.

“Stolen land,” is the war cry, like a chant for the forever offended. I do not agree. Canada was not stolen. It was made. It was hammered together from treaties, sweat, and, yes, some ugly parts that history likes to turn into villainy tales. And if that makes me the jerk at the party, then so be it.

Humans didn’t grow out of the tundra like weeds. All of us have come here. Indigenous people came across from Asia 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, hunting mammoths and looking for better weather, just as the Europeans later went for beaver pelts and empire dreams. It’s the never-ending shuffle of humanity; conquer, adapt, or die. No one has clean hands in that game. The Iroquois and Huron were enemies long before Columbus got lost. Small-scale wars, of course, but wars nevertheless, land passing from one hand to another through blood and bargains.

After that, the Crown came not with fire and brimstone, but with ink and promises. More than 70 treaties. Just the Numbered Treaties from 1871 to 1923 alone covered areas larger than your ego after three Tim Hortons double doubles. Land given in exchange for reserves, annuities, and hunting rights.

Very legal according to the laws of that time. In BC, where the plot is the hottest, only 7% of the land is treaty land, but what about the rest? They were considered Crown lands when they joined Confederation in 1871, alliances, purchases, very few direct confrontations.

However, the critics shout, “Coercion! Starvation! Disease!” Yes, of course. Buffalo herds were annihilated, populations were wiped out by smallpox and bad deals. The Indian Act of 1876 was a breakup act; it banned rituals, forced people to live on reserves while settlers built railroads and cities. Residential schools? A national wound; the death rate was higher than the trenches of World War I. I’m not here to whitewash the rot.

It’s the kind of institutional crap that needs to be ripped open and exposed, but labeling it all as “theft” is a sign of laziness, like blaming your ex for every bad thing since. Treaties were done, under pressure, of course, but they were done. Oral promises broken? Definitely. But here we are, investing $32 billion yearly in programs for the indigenous people, which is three times the amount in 2014. That is 882% growth per person since 1947, way ahead of the rest of us.

Reforms in child welfare under Bill C92, fixing the water, $10 billion in loan guarantees for energy projects. Is it money soaked in blood? Perhaps. But it is reciprocity at work, giving back those dusty treaty vouchers while the rest of us are paying taxes and pretending to be saints.

The fight in BC is more painful than the wait in a Canadian hospital. Tara Armstrong’s slogan, “Canada was built not stolen”, is very impactful; it has 1.2 million views. OneBC party is urging petitions to do away with Truth and Reconciliation Day, calling out Premier Eby’s UNDRIP actions that may give veto powers over pipelines and mines. Critics deny the allegations and refer to unceded lands and genocide. They have got their facts right; 95% of BC is under claims according to the recent Cowichan decision. However, vetoes? That is not fairness; it is the breaking up of territories like a bad divorce.

A 2025 Leger poll shows that 52% of the people do not believe in the “stolen land” narrative. Is it a generational thing? Of course, the children are more woke, but the older Canadians remember the times when this country was built out of the wild and made into a welfare state.

So, why all the guilt? It is today’s confessional, where admitting “theft” saves you from actually fixing things. Canada’s no heist movie. It was forged in the muck of migration, treaties twisted by power, and now, billions in make-goods. We built it, railroads over bones, cities from forests, a social net that catches more than it drops. Own the ugly parts, but ditch the stolen myth. It’s time to build forward, not kneel in the past. Because if everything’s stolen, nothing’s worth saving. And forget that, I’m Canadian. Pass the beer.

Kurtis Martyn works in the construction industry in Calgary.