2. • Sechelt Indian Band Self-Government Act - An Act relating to self-government for
the Sechelt Indian Band
• Yukon First Nations Self-Government Act - An Act respecting self-government for first
nations in Yukon
• West-bank First Nation Self-Government - Implement aspects of the inheriting right
of self-government by West-bank First Nation on West-bank Lands based on the
recognition that the inherent right of self-government is an existing aboriginal right
within section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.
• As of 2013, twenty comprehensive self-government agreements had been signed by
the federal government
• Seventeen were part of a comprehensive land claim agreement or modern treaty
What are the current Canadian
Laws relating to your topics?

3. WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE LAWS RELATED TO EACH
TOPIC? PROVIDE THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR EACH
OF THE TOPICS YOU WILL BE EXPLORING.
The Indian Act, 1876 - removed traditional systems of governance and imposed
regulations on Aboriginal people and their communities.
Aboriginal peoples see their rights to self-government recognized and affirmed in
international documents such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(1948) and other UN covenants and by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.
As a part of the 1992 Charlottetown Accord, on amendments to the Constitution Act, 1982
that would have included recognition of the inherent right of self-government for
Aboriginal people. For the first time, Aboriginal organizations had been full participants in
the talks; however, the Accord was rejected in a national referendum.

4. • How did these laws evolve over time? Provide some chronological context, as well as
details on the changes in content within these laws. What METHODS were used to
bring about changes in the laws that you’re exploring.
1969- white paper on Indian Policy proposed abolishing band governments and transferring
the delivery of social programs on reserves to the provincial government.
Federal government had recognized the right of self-government as an existing inherent
Aboriginal right within section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, and outlined self-
government processes that are ongoing
1983- Special Committee of the House of Commons on Indian Self-Government released its
report. Recommended that the federal government recognize First Nations as a distinct
order f government within the Canadian federation and start to negotiate self-government
agreements with Indian bands.
1987- Meech Lake package of constitutional amendments, but they failed to convince the
first minsters to include such provisions
1992- Charlottetown Accord included the recognition of an inherent Aboriginal right to self-
government, this package also failed
1995- Liberal government issued the inherent Right of Self-Government Policy. Required that
individual bands or groups of bands sign modern treaties with the federal government to
be removed from the strictures of the Indian Act.

5. • For the first time, the Court decided that Aboriginal title is a legal right that does not
depend on the Royal Proclamation of 1763
• Calder decision caused the federal government to reassess the policy of refusing
Aboriginal land rights that it had followed since the late 1920s.
• 1997, the landmark Delgamuukw v. British Columbia decision laid down
fundamental principles regarding the nature, content, proof, infringement, and
extinguishment of Aboriginal title.
Who were some of the major figures that emerged as important
in the evolution of these laws? Provide AT LEAST ONE major
case study (per topic) to demonstrate the important people
associated with these laws.
Legal assertion of Aboriginal land rights was initiated by the Nisga’a Nation in Calder
v. Attorney- General of British Columbia, decided by the Supreme Court of Canada
in 1973.

6. LOOK AT ANOTHER COUNTRY’S LAWS RELATED TO
EACH TOPIC. HOW DO THEY DIFFER FROM THE
CANADIAN LAWS?
• About 22% of land in Northern Australia (Kimberley (Western Australia), Top
End and Cape York is now Aboriginal-owned. In the last decade, nearly 200 native title
claims covering 1.3 million km2 of land —
• appropriately 18% of the Australian continent — have been approved.
• In 2013 an indigenous group describing itself as the Murrawarri Republic declared
independence from Australia, claiming territory straddling the border of the states of
New South Wales-Queensland within Australia. Australia's Attorney General's Department
indicated it did not consider the declaration to have any meaning in law
Ever since the British first invaded, Aboriginal peoples have had their land stolen from
them or destroyed. Until 1992, when it was finally overturned, the legal principle
governing British and then Australian law regarding Aboriginal land was that of ‘terra
nullius’ – that the land was empty before the British arrived, belonged to no-one, and
could legitimately be taken over.
Most has still to be returned today, and the loss of their land has had a devastating social
and physical impact on Aboriginal peoples.