Seeing Differences Differently: Peter Best and Morally Relevant Differences

Recently, I benefited from reflecting on Best’s arguments in There is no Difference. Accepting his argument chain to establish that there is no difference between individual Indigenous personsand European persons, we agree that Indigenous persons and Europeans have the same humanity, moral worth and individual moral human rights. Hence, we agree that Indigenous persons in Canada should legally have equal human rights. The moral difference Best sees, and I no longer see, is between Indigenous nations and European nations. For Best, differences between nations can make one nation superior to another. Challenging Best’s superior-inferior-nation hierarchy, I argue that liberal theory assigns normative status to a difference between Canada and Indigenous Nations which justifies Best’s normative judgment, “The nation-to-nation treaty relationship is a fiction.” However, I show that the nation in the nation-to-nation relationship is Canada.