THE INFLUENCE OF ABORIGINAL GROUPS ON THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT
This research examines the degree and nature of the influence of Aboriginal groups in the government of Canada. In Canada, the term "First Nations" refers to the aboriginal peoples who inhabited North America before occupation of the continent by Europeans. As an example, the Mohawk people refer to themselves as the Mohawk Nation. The terms "Indians" and "Bands," by contrast, tend to reinforce "the labels provided by others" to Canada's aboriginal peoples.
Many issues are sources of conflict between the government of Canada and the aboriginal peoples in Canada. These issues, however, may be considered largely in the context of three broad areas of concern--the constitutional relationship between the government of Canada and the peoples of the First Nations, land and resources rights, and the place of aboriginal peoples within the Canadian system of laws. This research examines the degree and nature of the influence of Aboriginal groups in the government of Canada within the context of these broad areas of concern.
The "Oka Crisis" in Quebec in 1990 was portrayed in the media for the most part as a dispute over land. The "Oka Crisis," however, was more a dispute over the constitutional relationship between the government of Canada and the First Nations than it was a simple dispute over the right of non Oka people to build a golf course on a specific site. The government of Canada has attempted to recognize the constitutional concerns of First Nations peoples; however, such attempt have never produced much success. The abortive Charlottetown Accord included a self-government clause that recognized the principle of the inherent right of aboriginal peoples in Canada to govern themselves. The right to self-government is an issue on which all First Nations peoples agree. Exactly how such a right of self-government would be applied in practice, however, is...