Arthur Manuel (1951 – January 11, 2017) was a First Nations political leader in Canada.
The son of George Manuel,[2] who served as president of the National Indian Brotherhood and of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in the 1970s, Arthur was born into the struggle along with other activist family members.
[3] Manuel attended but did not complete law school in the late 1970s and afterward returned to his community where he was four times elected chief (1995–2003) and three times elected chair of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council (1997–2003).
He also co-chaired the Assembly of First Nations Delgamuukw Implementation Strategic Committee (DISC) that was mandated to develop a national strategy to compel the federal government to respect the historic Supreme Court decision on Aboriginal title and rights.
[4] On the international stage, Manuel participated in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues since its inception in 2002.
From 2003 onward, he served as spokesperson for the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade (INET),[1] a network of indigenous nations working on the international level to achieve recognition of Aboriginal title and rights.
Working through INET, Manuel succeeded in having the struggle for Aboriginal title and treaty rights injected into international financial institutions.
Three of INET's amicus curiae briefs were accepted by the World Trade Organization and one by the North American Free Trade Agreement showing how Canada's failure to recognize and compensate Aboriginal people for the lumber taken off their traditional lands was a form of subsidy to the lumber industry.
These rulings have set important precedents for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada.
[6] Arthur Manuel was also a member of the board of directors of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples[7] and a spokesperson for the Defenders of the Land, an activist network aligned with the Idle No More movement.
[8] His book, Unsettling Canada, A National Wake Up Call, which he coauthored with Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson, won the Canadian History Association Aboriginal Book Award in May 2016.
Indigenous brief to WTO: How the denial of Aboriginal title serves as an illegal export subsidy.