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Indigenous peoples in Canada

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An Aboriginal leader at the 13th Annual Canadian Aboriginal Festival.

Aboriginal people in Canada are people who belong to recognized groups in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, sections 25 and 35, respectively as Indians, Métis, and Inuit. They are often incorrectly referred to by the title of Indians. It is also not uncommon for these indigenous people, and those of Indian extraction, to take mild offence at the usage of the term when it is extended beyond the constitutional nomenclature. The confusion can likely trace its lineage to the European explorer Christopher Columbus who was thoroughly convinced that he had discovered a new route to India - a country roughly on the other side of the planet to where he was in actuality. It also refers to self-identification of Aboriginal People 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 People 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 terms "First Peoples" and "First Nations" have also been used synonymously, and are occasionally used as descriptive terms by U.S. Native Americans in solidarity with their Canadian relatives. As of the 2006 Canadian Census there are over 1,172,790 Aboriginal people in Canada, 3.8% of the country's total population.[1] This comprises 698,025 people of First Nations descent, 389,785 Métis, and 50,485 Inuit. National representative bodies of Aboriginal people in Canada include the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Métis National Council, the Native Women's Association of Canada, the National Association of Friendship Centres and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. These bodies however are not recognized by some Indigenous People in Canada as representing their interests. Some such Indigenous People 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. However, many recommendations made by RCAP have not been implemented by the federal government to date.

Under the Employment Equity Act, Aboriginal peoples are a designated group along with women, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities.[2] They are not considered a visible minority under the Act and in the view of Statistics Canada.[3]

Native languages

Main article: Indigenous languages of the Americas

Today, there are more than thirty different languages spoken by First 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 That there are over fifty different languages: Dene Suline, Cree, English, French, Gwichʼin, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktan, 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.

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 and only used as an adjective, not a noun,[4] and it is capitalized in the Canadian Hansard, the transcript of parliamentary debates which is considered to reflect good Canadian English style.[5] Canadian Oxford Dictionary gives capitalized "Aboriginal" as a headword entry—signifying that it "represents the most common form in Canadian usage"—and provides "aboriginal" as a variant spelling.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ Aboriginal peoples - 2006 Census, Statistics Canada
  2. ^ Employment Equity FAQ at the Canadian Human Rights Commission
  3. ^ Definition of "Visible Minority" at Statistics Canada
  4. ^ Aboriginal people(s) in the Terminology Guide, Indian and Northern Affairs
  5. ^ [NatNews-north] CAPITALIZED: "Aboriginal peoples in Canada"
  6. ^ The Canadian Oxford Dictionary also capitalizes the word within its entries, when mentioning Aboriginal peoples, Aboriginal people, Australian Aboriginals, Aboriginal inhabitant, Aboriginal and European descent and Aboriginal plant or animal.

References

  • Katherine Barber, editor (2004). The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition. Toronto, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-541816-6.
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