Aboriginal peoples in Canada

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Aboriginal peoples in Canada are Indigenous Peoples recognized in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, sections 25 and 35, respectively, as Indians (First Nations), 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 popuation.^[1] 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, and in the view of Statistics Canada, Aboriginal peoples are not considered members of a visible minority.^[2]

1 Native languages
2 Capitalization
3 See also
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Native languages

Today, there are more than 50 different languages spoken by Native 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 Native 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. It also allows their use in the Legislative Assembly of Northwest Territories.

[edit] 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".

To many people in the U.S. the capitalized term Aboriginal suggests the native people of Australia, who are elsewhere known as "Aborigines"; whereas the uncapitalized common adjective aboriginal simply means "indigenous", or as a noun refers to any indigenous person.