By Ian Bickis A 356-year-old document that granted the Hudson’s Bay Co. control over roughly one-third of Canada is now in public hands. The HBC Royal Charter was unveiled Thursday at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg in a ceremony that was both a celebration of the new life of the document and a reflection on the troubled legacy it created. “In 1670, a king, sitting across the ocean, claimed authority over our lands,” said Ovide Mercredi, former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. “Through the so-called right of discovery, vast territories were granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company, as if our lands and territories were empty. But our lands were not empty, our nations were here.” Canada later bought the lands from the company, without recognizing the ancestors…
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