By Ian Bickis A historic document that granted the Hudson’s Bay Company control over roughly one-third of Canada is now in public hands. The HBC Royal Charter has been unveiled at the Manitoba Museum in a ceremony with members of Indigenous groups that included a pipe ceremony and the lighting of a traditional Inuit oil lamp. King Charles II issued the charter in 1670 based on the misguided premise that the lands were vacant and free for the taking. Kevin Tacan, who performed the pipe ceremony, said the document will be an important part of teaching history to children, and to ask where the country goes from here. The artifact was sold to the Weston and Thomson families for $18 million last year after the fur-trading-company-turned-department-store’s collapse. The two families…
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