Canada is sleepwalking into a land acknowledgment trap

Land acknowledgments began as a gesture of respect but now risk undermining equality and national unity

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It’s become almost routine. Public meetings, university lectures, business conferences, even police updates on missing children now begin with an Indigenous land acknowledgment. In Nova Scotia recently, RCMP officers opened a press conference about two missing children not with urgent details of the search, but by declaring they stood on unceded Mi’kmaq territory.

This isn’t a harmless ritual. Land acknowledgments have taken hold in Canada with astonishing speed. They are presented as a simple act of respect. But we need to ask: what are they really accomplishing, and at what cost to Canadian unity?

The answer matters because this practice is about far more than polite words. Many acknowledgments go well beyond courtesy, invoking claims of “unceded territory”—land never formally surrendered to the Crown by treaty—and Indigenous sovereignty. Those phrases carry serious legal and political implications that most Canadians don’t fully grasp.

History tells us nations thrive when all citizens are equal under the law. Canada’s founders understood this. Confederation was built on a vision of one country where people from diverse backgrounds could live free and strong under common institutions. Land acknowledgments, however, risk eroding that shared foundation by dividing Canadians into categories of special and ordinary citizens.

Consider British Columbia’s treaty process, which has dragged on since 1991. Despite billions spent, few treaties are settled. Now, Premier David Eby has gone even further, granting Indigenous groups new authority over Crown lands without full legislative debate. This effectively gives some First Nations the power to veto development projects across vast tracts of B.C., including lands most Canadians assumed were under provincial jurisdiction.

It’s a clear example of how words that once seemed ceremonial are now driving real power shifts with profound consequences for Canadian sovereignty and economic growth. It amounts to a shakedown: a prelude to rent demands and endless legal disputes, enriching lawyers and consultants while doing nothing for the Indigenous families still living in poverty.

New Brunswick has recognized the danger. The province instructed its institutions not to use official land acknowledgments, citing the risk of legal consequences. They saw that once governments declare their land is not truly theirs, it can be used in court to undermine Crown sovereignty.

Even more troubling is how acknowledgments are now being pushed. At one post-secondary institution, faculty were asked to write and read their own personalized acknowledgments. Refusing means risking career damage. That is not respect—it is coercion.

Canadians should remember that the Supreme Court has already ruled against imposing religious observances in public institutions. Compelling ideological statements is no different.

Let’s be clear. Studying Indigenous history and culture is good and necessary. Respecting the contributions of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people enriches us all. But acknowledgments, as practiced today, do not help vulnerable Indigenous Canadians. They do not bring clean drinking water, reduce youth suicide, or address the crisis of fetal alcohol syndrome. They don’t create jobs or opportunities. They simply signal virtue while entrenching division.

Polls confirm that most Canadians are skeptical. A recent Leger survey found that a majority reject the idea that they live on “stolen land.” The older the respondent, the less likely they were to agree. Yet governments, universities and public institutions continue to push the practice, largely without debate.

This isn’t about denying history. It’s about how we move forward as a country. We face economic stagnation, growing debt, and rising division. Canada cannot afford to Balkanize itself into competing ethnic sovereignties. We need policies that unite us, not rituals that question our legitimacy as a nation.

The path forward requires courage. Citizens must speak up and reject compelled speech, whether in classrooms, workplaces or public meetings. Leaders must have the backbone to say that one law must apply to all Canadians equally—no exceptions. And we must focus resources not on lawyers and symbolic plaques, but on solving the real problems Indigenous communities face: education, health, infrastructure and opportunity.

Canadians deserve honesty. Land acknowledgments, however well-intentioned, are not the solution. They are a distraction from the hard work of reconciliation, and if left unchecked, they risk tearing at the very fabric of our country.

The choice is ours: will we remain strong and free under one flag, or fragment into competing claims of sovereignty that leave us weaker, poorer and more divided?

David Leis is President and CEO of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and host of the Leaders on the Frontier podcast.