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(Redirected from Aboriginal people in Canada)

'Aboriginal people in Canada' are Indigenous Peoples recognized in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, sections 25 and 35, respectively as Indians, Métis, and Inuit. It also refers to self-identification of Aboriginal Peoples who live within Canada, but who have not chosen to accept the extinction of their rights of Sovereignty or Aboriginal Title of their lands. These Indigenous Peoples who assert that their Sovereign rights have not been extinguished point to the Royal Proclamation of 1763 which is mentioned in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, Section 25, as well as to the British North America Act and the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties to which Canada and Great Britain are signatories, in support of this claim.
The term '"First Peoples"' has also been used synonymously, and is occasionally used as a descriptive term by U.S. Native Americans in solidarity with their Canadian relatives. As of the 2001 Canadian Census there are over 900,000 Aboriginal people in Canada, 3.3% of the country's total population.Aboriginal peoples of Canada - 2001 Census, Statistics Canada This includes approximately 600,000 people of First Nations descent, 290,000 Métis, and 45,000 Inuit. National representative bodies of Aboriginal peoples in Canada include the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Métis National Council, the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. These bodies however are not recognized by some Indigenous Peoples in Canada as representing their interests. Some such Indigenous Peoples prefer to rely upon their traditional laws and governance and pick their representation accordingly.
The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was an important commission undertaken by the Government of Canada in the 1990s. It assessed past government policies towards Aboriginal peoples, such as residential schools, and provided many policy recommendations to the government. Of the many recommendations made by RCAP, not one has been implemented by the Federal Government of Canada to date.
Under the Employment Equity Act, Aboriginal peoples are a designated group along with women, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities.^[1] They are not considered a visible minority under the Act and in the view of Statistics Canada.^[2]

Contents

Native languages

Canada's apartheid

Capitalization

References

See also

External links

Native languages

Today, there are more than fifty different languages spoken by Indian peoples, most of which are spoken only in Canada and are in decline. Among those with the most speakers include Ojibwe and Cree, together totalling up to 150,000 speakers; Inuktitut, with about 29,000 speakers in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), and Nunatsiavut (Northern Labrador); and Mi'kmaq, with around 8,500 speakers, mostly in Eastern Canada.
Two of Canada's territories give official status to Indian languages. In Nunavut, Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun are official languages alongside English and French, and Inuktitut is a common vehicular language in government. In the Northwest Territories, the ''Official Languages Act'' specifies no fewer than eleven official languages: Dene Suline, Cree, English, French, Gwichʼin, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tåîchô. However besides English and French, these languages are not vehicular in government; official status entitles citizens to receive services in them on request and to deal with the government in them.

Canada's apartheid

Canada's treatment of its native peoples has been described as "Canada's Apartheid".^[3] In 1966, Thomas Berger stated:

The history of the Indian people for the last century has been the history of the impingement of white civilization upon the Indian: the Indian was virtually powerless to resist the white civilization; the white community of B.C. adopted a policy of apartheid. This, of course, has already been done in eastern Canada and on the Prairies, but the apartheid policy adopted in B.C. was of a particularly cruel and degrading kind. They began by taking the Indians' land without any surrender and without their consent. Then they herded the Indian people on to Indian reserves. This was nothing more nor less than apartheid, and that is what it still is today.^[4]

In the 1980s, the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, formed in 1975 by a group of concerned
Toronto citizens, compared Canada's practices to Apartheid, and stated "Perhaps the most severe and yet overlooked example of discriminatory practices towards Canadians is to be found in the treatment of our own indigenous people, the Native Canadians".^[4] Canada's citizenship laws (described as "apartheid laws") did not grant full citizenship to native peoples until 1985.^[6] An op-ed by the same organization argued that "South Africa is not the only country where the Native population has been set apart legally, geographically and economically on a purely genetic basis," and maintained that Canadian state policies towards its indigenous people were similar in kind though not degree to those of apartheid South Africa :

For those who shy away from the suggestion that parallel exist between conditions in Canada and South Africa, it is important realize [''sic''] that "simply because the framework of apartheidism is not written into a constitution does not mean that it is not a component nor a reality nation." Although the laws and policies of the two countries are not the same as the existence of racial repression which allies them, and not the degree or extent to which it occurs. [''sic''] While the intensity of personal oppression varies considerably, the result is the same as in South Africa: "The native population has been herded on to reduced territories in order to make way for others."^[7]

Even in the 21st century, according to Canada's ''Globe and Mail'' newspaper, "Economically, socially, politically, culturally, we have come to accept a quiet apartheid that segregates, and thus weakens, native and non-native society",^[3] and in 2004 the Canadian Taxpayers Federation described Canada's Indian Act, and reserve system for native Indians, as "Apartheid: Canada's ugly secret".^[9]

Capitalization

Policies regarding the capitalization of "Aboriginal" differ from organization to organization. The Government of Canada's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs advises that the term should always be capitalized ^[1]. However, the ''Canadian Oxford Dictionary'', Official Dictionary of the Canadian Press (ISBN 0-19-541816-6), instructs that the term should not be capitalized when used as an adjective. Some proponents of capitalization argue that "Aboriginal" should always be capitalized just as other ethnic terms are, such as "Japanese", "Irish", or "German".
Indeed, even the term "Aboriginal" stirs some controversy, as some argue that no people are actually indigenous to North or South America - having immigrated from the old world - some groups were simply first to immigrate.

References

1. Employment Equity FAQ at the Canadian Human Rights Commission
2. Definition of "Visible Minority" at Statistics Canada
3. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/series/apartheid/stories/introduction.html
4. http://collections.ic.gc.ca/magic/mt3.html
5. http://collections.ic.gc.ca/magic/mt3.html
6. http://www.danielnpaul.com/Col/1994/RegisteredIndianCitizenship.html
7. "The Segregation of Native People in Canada: Voluntary or Compulsory?", written by Michèle DuCharme. From: ''Currents''. Summer, 1986, pp. 3-4. Accessed on July 22nd, 2007.
8. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/series/apartheid/stories/introduction.html
9. http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/events/files/Apartheid%20Study.pdf

See also

★ First Nations

★ Inuit

★ Metis people

External links

★ Aboriginal Canada Portal

★ Comprehensive Claims (Modern Treaties) in Canada - Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

★ ''Aboriginal Perspectives'' educational Web site

★ Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

★ Naming guidelines of the Government of Canada's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs

★ Map of historical territory treaties with Aboriginal peoples in Canada

★ CBC Digital Archives - The Battle for Aboriginal Treaty Rights

★ Collection of Historical Images of the Canadian kwakiutl Natives

★ A History of Aboriginal Treaties and Relations in Canada This site includes links to digitized primary sources and summaries of primary source documents, such as treaties.

★ Chart of Aboriginal population according to their percentage of the total population in Canada, provinces and territories - 2001 Census, Statistics Canada

★ First Nations Studies Essays

★ First Nations Seeker