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38 Can. J.L. & Soc. 1 (2023)

handle is hein.journals/cjls38 and id is 1 raw text is: Crisis, Colonialism and Constitutional Habits: Indigenous jurisdiction in times of emergency Emma Feltes, Jocelyn Stacey and the Tsilhqot'in National Government* Abstract The Tsilhqot'in Nation has had ample experience exercising its laws and jurisdic- tion to manage emergencies during record-breaking wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the Nation's unique opportunity to formally describe and advance its jurisdiction through its landmark Aboriginal title declaration and beyond, in these crises, Crown actors have defaulted to well-worn patterns of colonialism. Through a detailed analysis of recent Tsilhqot'in experiences of emergency, we argue that provincial and federal responses to these extreme events reveal constitutional habits: patterns of decision-making that emerge in the imme- diate response to an emergency, so as to appear automatic. Crown emergency responses assume exhaustive Crown jurisdiction and its corollary erasure and dispossession of Tsilhqot'in jurisdiction. Fortunately, however, habits can change. We show how Tsilhqot'in responses to emergency reveal alternate constitutional possibilities: habits of coordination, which, through their attention to responsible relationships, build capacity to respond to emergencies and, more broadly, a changing world. Keywords: Indigenous laws, Aboriginal law, Settler colonialism, Disaster studies, Constitutional law, Indigenous jurisdiction, Emergency * Emma Feltes is a Fulbright Scholar and SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University. Jocelyn Stacey is an associate professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law (University of British Columbia, unceded Musqueam territory). The Tsilhqot'in National Government represents the six Tsilhqot'in communities and is introduced in the text below. Co-authorship is a reflection of our strong research partnership and the fact that all authors contributed to all stages of the research process. The authors would like to thank Crystal Verheaghe, from ?Esdilagh, for her work on emergency management. Thank you to all the Tsilhqot'in leaders, citizens, and staff who offered their precious time and knowledge to this project. Thanks to Lerato Chondoma, UBC's Indigenous Research Support Initiative and all those we have worked with in support of the Tsilhgot'in National Government's partnership with UBC. Thanks to Darlene Johnston and Robert YELKATTE Clifford for comments on an earlier draft and to Kate Samuels (Allard JD '22) for research assistance. Thanks to two anonymous reviewers for their clarifying questions and to Thomas McMorrow for excellent editorial suggestions. This research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et Sociiti, 2023, Volume 38, no. 1, pp. 1-22. doi: I © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Canadian Law and Society Association. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence ( ), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. 1