The 1982 Constitutional Act facilitated the restructuring of Canada's traditional and regional political identities to that of a community of rights-bearing individuals
"The concerns of citizens groups brought into the constitution by the Charter and aboriginal clauses go beyond the narrowly instrumental to encompass issues of personal identity, symbolic considerations, and one's relative place in the constitutional hierarchy. The differences that shape their constitutional claims are defined by sex, ethnicity, indigenousness, race, disabilities, and so on, all of which now have a constitutional dimension. It is therefore not surprising that these groups, defined non-territorially, do not see themselves as adequately represented in closed session by government whose national bent is to defend territory [and] strengthen jurisdiction..."
History: Colonial relationship – pre-Confederation and post-confederation
o Royal Proclamation 1763
o 1867 Confederation – BNA Act
o 1876 Indian Act
Response
o The Legal Route – Drybones & Lavell and Bedard
o Land Claims
Self – Government
o 1982 Constitution Act
o Federal Government position
o Nunavut
o Nisga’a
1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal People
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The following is one of the better sites for information on Aboriginal land claims in Canada. It has been compiled by a research librarian at the University of Alberta. Check it out.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~esimpson/claims/claims.htm