Section 35 # (1) The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed. (2) In this Act, “aboriginal peoples of Canada” includes the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. (3) For greater certainty, in subsection (1) “treaty rights” includes rights that now exist by way of land claims agreements or may be so acquired. […] ...
Lamer C.J.C – # II. Facts # A. The Claim at Trial # This action was commenced by the appellants, who are all Gitksan or Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, who, both individually and on behalf of their “Houses” claimed separate portions of 58,000 square kilometres in British Columbia. For the purpose of the claim, this area was divided into 133 individual territories, claimed by the 71 Houses. This represents all of the Wet’suwet’en people, and all but 12 of the Gitksan Houses. ...
[This case concerns the lease of reserve lands situated within the geographical boundaries of the City of Vancouver. In 1957, members of the Musqueam Indian Band voted to surrender 162 acres of their reserve lands to the federal Crown on the understanding that these lands would in turn be leased by the Crown to the Shaughnessy Heights Golf Club for use as a golf course. Rents and other benefits from this lease were to be paid to Band. ...
And whereas it is just and reasonable, and essential to our Interest, and the Security of our Colonies, that the several Nations or Tribes of Indians with whom We are connected, and who live under our Protection, should not be molested or disturbed in the Possession of such Parts of Our Dominions and Territories as, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are reserved to them, or any of them, as their Hunting Grounds,–We do therefore, with the Advice of our Privy Council, declare it to be our Royal Will and Pleasure, that no Governor or Commander in Chief in any of our Colonies of Quebec, East Florida, or West Florida, do presume, upon any Pretence whatever, to grant Warrants of Survey, or pass any Patents for Lands beyond the Bounds of their respective Governments, as described in their Commissions: as also that no Governor or Commander in Chief in any of our other Colonies or Plantations in America do presume for the present, and until our further Pleasure be known, to grant Warrants of Survey, or pass Patents for any Lands beyond the Heads or Sources of any of the Rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the West and North West, or upon any Lands whatever, which, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us as aforesaid, are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them. ...
Background to the Case # For more than a hundred years after it was enacted, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 stood as the British Crown’s most authoritative statement on Aboriginal title. But during this period the Proclamation itself received little to no scrutiny in the common law courts. This changed dramatically when the Chancery Division of the High Court of Ontario issued its decision in St. Catherine’s Milling and Lumber Co. ...
McLachlin C.J.C. — # I. Introduction # What is the test for Aboriginal title to land? If title is established, what rights does it confer? Does the British Columbia Forest Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 157, apply to land covered by Aboriginal title? What are the constitutional constraints on provincial regulation of land under Aboriginal title? Finally, how are broader public interests to be reconciled with the rights conferred by Aboriginal title? ...