The 1670 royal charter signed by King Charles II establishing Hudson's Bay, is shown on display at the Manitoba Museum where it was loaned to be displayed alongside its permanent collection of Hudson's Bay artifacts, in this 2020 handout photo.HO/The Canadian Press
A line repeated throughout the Indiana Jones film franchise has the fictional archaeologist exclaiming “it belongs in a museum” when an artifact is in danger of falling into the wrong hands.
If the character were real, he’d probably crack his whip at the Hudson’s Bay Company for trying to sell its royal charter. This piece of Canadian history dates to 1670 and granted the company quasi-governmental rights over all the territory whose waters flowed into Hudson Bay.
The vast tract of land – nearly 40 per cent of the modern country – became part of Canada two centuries later.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to Canada’s economy and sovereignty have reminded many Canadians that they live in a great country, and have a history worth fighting for. The HBC charter is a vital part of the history of the country that they’re rising up to defend. It must not be allowed to leave Canada.
The charter should be on display at either Parliament or the Canadian Museum of History.
To underscore the absurdity of the current situation, consider that four original copies of the Magna Carta, a first step toward reining in English royal power, are available for public viewing in the United Kingdom. A permanent exhibition in Washington displays both the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation, which extended the ideals of the revolution to enslaved people and set the country on a course toward racial equality.
Canada has no equivalent.
The fathers of Confederation didn’t sign anything in Charlottetown to mark their deal. The 1867 royal proclamation that created Canada is likely in Britain’s archives, according to several constitutional scholars. The rain-spattered paper Queen Elizabeth signed in 1982 to patriate the Constitution is tucked away in Canadian archives.
It is no stretch to say that, without the Bay, Canada in its current form may never have existed.
The company was a physical presence in a vast land that worked to deter competing national claims. Their reliance on Indigenous traders interwove the fortunes of settlers and First Nations across much of the country. These ties were later replaced with the treaties that still underpin the country’s complicated relationship with Indigenous peoples.
Company employees mapped the west, helping to open it to settlement. HBC forts and trading posts became cities.
The company sold its land to Canada in 1870 in one of the biggest real estate transactions in history. This immensely increased the size of the newly confederated country and created a bulwark against U.S. expansion – which can make the purchase seem prescient now.
As historically important as the charter is, few Canadians have seen it. The company donated most of its archives to Manitoba in 1994. But it kept this one back, saying the document was still in active use as a corporate record – and perhaps cognizant of its unique value.
Now the Bay is hoping to auction it off as the company struggles with financial difficulties. It has made vague noises about the sale recognizing the importance of the charter, while not explaining exactly what that would mean.
A private buyer could hypothetically purchase the charter and donate it to an institution, reaping a generous tax credit for doing so. But they might have other plans. They could try to move it out of the country, or sequester it in private hands.
This is too much of a gamble. The safest bet would be for the government to buy the document so it can be put on display for all Canadians to see.
Acknowledging the Bay‘s charter as a prominent part of Canada’s history is not to whitewash the company’s past.
The British aristocrats running the company were colonial exploiters who claimed control of land inhabited by Indigenous nations, based on the racist argument that it was empty of “civilized people.” Christian missionaries followed trading routes in search of converts, leading eventually to the residential schools that are a blot on Canada’s soul.
But the dark moments of history don’t make its milestones any less meaningful. More than four centuries after the first permanent European settlement, in Acadia, Canadians have built the second biggest nation in the world. It stretches between three seas and is proudly independent.
The royal charter was a key step along that journey. As the fictional Dr. Jones would say: It belongs in a museum.