FREDERICTON, New Brunswick — Aboriginal leaders in Atlantic Canada are rejecting Ottawa’s plans for revamping the Indian Act and instead will set up their own consultation process on the issue of self-determination.
Lawrence Paul, a Mi’kmaq chief from Nova Scotia and co-chair of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs, said Friday the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet people of Atlantic Canada are deeply suspicious of the federal government’s motives in overhauling the act.
Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault has proposed a summer-long review of the Indian Act, with hearings in aboriginal communities. Nault wants to introduce legislation in the fall to amend and update the more than 100-year-old act.
Paul said native leaders suspect Ottawa wants to undermine treaty rights and eventually get rid of special status for First Nations people.
He said the Atlantic chiefs believe the federal government is unhappy with the way courts have interpreted and recognized aboriginal treaties.
Aboriginal people in Atlantic Canada felt empowered by the 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision in the Donald Marshall case which recognized a treaty right for Mi’kmaq and Maliseet people to earn a living from fishing, hunting and gathering.
