Injustices Inflicted on the First Nation People of Canada

2727 Words6 Pages

Although the Canadian government has done a great deal to repair the injustices inflicted on the First Nations people of Canada, legislation is no where near where it needs to be to ensure future protection of aboriginal rights in the nation. An examination of the documents that comprise the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms reveal that there is very little in the supreme legal documents of the nation that protect aboriginal rights. When compared with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples it is clear that the Canadian Constitution does not acknowledge numerous provisions regarding indigenous people that the UN resolution has included. The most important of these provisions is the explicit recognition of First Nations rights to their traditional lands, which have a deep societal meaning for aboriginal groups. Several issues must be discussed to understand the complex and intimate relationship all aboriginal societies have with the earth. Exploration into the effects that the absence of these rights has had the Cree of the Eastern James Bay area, will provide a more thorough understanding of the depth of the issue. Overall, the unique cultural relationship First Nations people of Canada have with Mother Earth needs to be incorporated into the documents of the Canadian Constitution to ensure the preservation and protection of Canadian First Nations cultural and heritage rights.s Canadian Constitutional Aboriginal Rights and the UN Declaration The Constitution Act, 1876 and the Constitution Act, 1982 are the two official documents that comprise the Constitution of Canada and are the supreme source of law in the nation. According to Craik & Forcese these documents together rep... ... middle of paper ... ...ern quebec agreement. Arctic, 52(4), 395. Public law : Cases, materials, and commentary In Forcese C. (Ed.), . Toronto: Toronto : Emond Montgomery Publications, 2006. Rynard, P. (2001). Ally or colonizer?: The federal state, the cree nation and the james bay agreement. Journal of Canadian Studies, 36(2), 8. Sioui, G. E. (2008). In Giroux D. (Ed.), Histoires de kanatha - histories of kanatha: Vues et contées - seen and told. Ottawa: Ottawa University of Ottawa Press. Sioui, G. E., 1948-.For an amerindian autohistory an essay on the foundations of a social ethic. Montre??al, Que.; Montre´al: Montre??al, Que. : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992. United nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples In United Nations. General Assembly, United Nations. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (Eds.), . New York: New York : United Nations, 2008.

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