286 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 80 PART 2 MARCH 2022
colonial government. Under the
United Nations Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide, the term “genocide”
includes “causing serious
bodily or mental harm to members
of the group” or “deliberately
inflicting on the group conditions
of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or
in part”. Although there is no evidence
that smallpox was deliberately
introduced into blankets
offered in trade, there is nevertheless
a reasonable basis for the
widely held belief that the actions
taken by the colonial government
at the time in relation to Indigenous
people constituted genocide.
The essential facts are not seriously
in dispute. When two smallpox
infected passengers arrived
from California, the European settlers
in Victoria immediately took
appropriate steps to protect themselves.
Vaccination and quarantine
were both known to be effective
measures, and both measures were
swiftly adopted by and for the settlers.
Within two weeks, the local
newspaper reported that fifty per
cent of the European settlers had
been vaccinated. Yet very few vaccinations
were provided to the
local Indigenous people or to those
from up north, such as the Haida,
who had set up trading camps outside
of Victoria. Instead, as the illness
spread rapidly through their
camps, the colonial government
Newfoundland, along with Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, the Union
of South Africa and the Irish Free
State, were all recognized legally
by the British Parliament as fully
self-governing dominions and
not Crown colonies. Now, it is
true that as a result of its fiscal
bankruptcy the Dominion of New-
foundland around 1935 had its
government go into commission
and have temporary restoration of
direct British government control
and governance, but it never lost
its dominion status—it was only in
abeyance. So when it joined Canada
in 1949, it joined in that full legal
capacity. If some member of the
Newfoundland and Labrador bar
finds out about this inaccurate
characterization, there could be
hell to pay!
In any case, thank you again for
republishing this intriguing and
revealing article.
Best regards,
Mike Donison
Kelowna
Dear Editor,
Re: David Roberts, Q.C., “Legal
Anecdotes and Miscellanea”
(2022) 80 Advocate 131
I read with interest the account
in “Legal Anecdotes and Miscellanea”
by David Roberts, Q.C.,
concerning the introduction of
smallpox to the Haida in 1862 and
the discussion as to whether this
involved an act of genocide by the