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DEREK BLACKBURN, M .P. BRANT HOUSE OF" COMMONS CANADA February 27, 1981 Dear Members of The Six Nations and New Credit Reserves: ABORIGINAL RIGHTS AND THE NEW CONSTITUTION TELEPHONE OTTAWA (613) 996-7265 BRANTFORD (519) 759-5681 The initial Liberal proposal for a Charter of Rights included the following as its only reference to the collective rights of Canada's native peoples: Undeclared Rights and Freedoms 24. The guarantee in this Charter of certain rights and freedoms shall not be construed .as denying the existence of any other rights or freedoms that exist in Canada, incluging any rights or freedoms that pertain to the native peoples of Canada. The day the proposed Constitutional resolution was introduced Ed Broadbent served notice that his "caucus colleagues are particularly concerned about the rights of native people. I am not going to elaborate on that aspect, but you can be sure that someone in committee will be raising from our point of view our concerns about the inadequacy of the measure as it affects native Canadians". Peter Ittinuar elaborated on the NDP's concerns in the House during a later stage of the same debate. "The aim of the charter of rights and freedoms is to • give individuals and minorities recourse to the courts if these rights and free- doms are violated. This I do not argue with. However, the proposed constitutional resolution omits any reference to the collective rights of aboriginal peoples. Canada's native people have a unique and historic relationship with the federal government, based on their aboriginal rights as the original inhabitants of Canada. Section 24 of the constitutional resolution provides that existing rights and freedoms of native people will not be affected by the rights and freedoms in the charter. I wonder what kind of guarantee this is when native people have been exerting considerable time and effort on the task of changing and improving the status quo. Are we now to be content with the same unsatisfactory status quo?" ... T.he situation is further complica~ed by the tact that an explicit charter of individual rights and freedoms may be used in the courts to argue against the collective rights of native people. A constitution which does not include a clear reference to the aboriginal rights of native people may, in fact, lead to an erosion of existing rights and freedoms. Jim Manly, another NDP member, went on to point out that "the government has argued that we need a charter of rights because we cannot entrust rights to the changing whims of legislatures. I ask you: What people have suffered more legislative infringements on their rights than the Indian people and to remind the House that the Indian people today still remember the 1969 white paper which would have stripped them of all their rights. /2