by Zabrina Whitman, KMKNO

Consensus is a term commonly used when discussing decision-making, especially when people want to make sure that everyone is in agreement before moving forward on an issue. But what do we mean by the word “consensus” and how can consensus work for the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia in the 21st century? What are the viewpoints and considerations that we must take into account in order to make this philosophy work on the ground as it does in theory? These are the topics to be discussed by the Mi’kmaq of Nova Scotia.

In recent months, the Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office (KMKNO), on behalf of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs, has begun to hold community sessions as a means to get feedback on the creation of a community decision-making process for any potential issues or decisions coming out of the Made-in-Nova Scotia Process. One of the subjects discussed has been “voter threshold”. Voter threshold is the term used to describe the percentage of “YES” votes needed for a decision to be accepted. In our conversations with community members, we have asked things like, when voting on an issue, how many votes are needed to decide if a vote is passed? AND how can we be sure that a decision has the support of the people?

In most voting processes, the acceptance of an issue requires some type of majority, such as “50% + 1”. For example if 100 people voted, 51 of those people must vote “YES” for the decision to be considered supporte ...