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Keywords: wilderness; conservation; decolonization; Indigenous peoples; Parks Canada; milieu sauvage; décolonisation; Autochtones; Parcs Canada EN wilderness conservation decolonization Indigenous peoples Parks Canada FR milieu sauvage décolonisation Autochtones Parcs Canada 232 249 18 06/04/20 20200601 NES 200601 Introduction: Canada's "wilderness" ethic For better or worse, wilderness has long been emblematic of the Canadian national imaginary (Campbell [13]; Erickson [20]). Canada's assumed legitimacy and authority is based on the racist assumption that Indigenous peoples were too primitive to hold sovereign authority over their lands upon contact with European colonizers (Coulthard [17]). And so when Chief Justice Thomas Berger, the lawyer representing conservation groups and First Nations against the Yukon Government in the Supreme Court hearings, stated that the Peel Watershed "is a wilderness that is sacred to the First Nations" (Berger [4]), the comment is taken in stride, revealing the complex, contentious, and enduring place of the wilderness ethic in the Peel, in Yukon, and in Canadian conservation. Conclusion Although wilderness-thinking continues to structure conservation in Canada in certain problematic ways, the emerging Indigenous-led conservation movement gives us hope for a post-wilderness conservation practice. By critically analyzing the state of wilderness-thinking in present-day conservation in Canada, we are able to better outline the floor for a post-wilderness conservation practice, and hopefully inspire conservationists and critical scholars alike to continue pushing the height of the ceiling. [Extracted from the article]