Sovereignty
I want to thank my friend Janice Switlo for this post.
"The Crown asserts sovereignty - the Indigenous nation exercises it. That's the problem when people try to use terminology that applies to a different legal situation. Indigenous nation begins with it - can use it or lose it - so exercising it. The Crown tries to get sovereignty lawfully in place by asserting it - saying, I have it, I am using it and since these other guys never had it to begin with or gave it up or handed it over to me, should be mine. To say "assert" is to for the Indigenous nation to be seen to not already having (what they do indeed have) and just trying to "get sovereignty". Exercise, enforce, use, remind that it continues to exist. Nothing here to be construed as as against what is going on but compelled to correct the language given the seriousness of the implications - another example of how one word can make a huge difference."