Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
They have been in North America for at least 15,000 years. They are not immigrants since at the time, most if not all humans, were nomads. Nation states did not exist and neither did the concept of an immigrant.
Look at Europe as an example. A lot of the ethnic groups that settled in the areas where their corresponding nation states exist today, only 1,500 years ago when the Romans collapsed. But we certainly don't refer to them as immigrants.
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Fair enough, but at what point does a group of people cease to be categorized as migrants? Would you still consider Quebecois descendants of the early settles of New France immigrants? They've been here for over 400 years.
In context, the Gov. General's point is fairly innocuous in that all Canadians can trace their history to migration - it's a common thread that unites people (of course you could say this about nearly any place in the world). I'm just having trouble understanding why anyone would take offence to a banal symbolic statement.