Tsartlip Indian Band Dispute Analysis

Great Essays
The Tsartlip Indian Band dispute & Provincial Wildlife Legislation.

Summary Aboriginal rights and particularly those assigned by treaties have many times collided with other bodies of law. Aboriginal persons also have much experience of legal and judicial matters decided with inadequate knowledge of their legal particularities or in other ways that act against Aboriginal interests and entitlements. The dispute to which this paper refers offers an anomaly in a case decided in 2006 by the Supreme Court of Canada that served the Tsartlip appellants as individuals, not necessarily their band, and contravened by its conclusion in a majority vote in the Supreme Court a federal Canadian law. Section 27 of the Wildlife
…show more content…
This small detail is interesting to mull over in awareness of the different biographical and intellectual profiles that people bring to the bench in a geographically and socially diverse Canada. Laura Beth Neilsen explained the study of legal consciousness in awareness of law as something that is not autonomous from social life, normative systems, or from social institutions, but has many competing forms that affect and shape social life. Nielsen discussed a totally different area of law in urban matters of public verbal harassment but her points on the instrumental versus constitutive and dynamic nature of law are helpful in understanding the different Supreme Court responses to matters of Tsartlip men night hunting with lamps in British Columbia. A decision-maker needs to study and interpret perhaps several layers of law, and in the Tsartlip case, a perhaps archaic ‘Douglas Treaty’ in the light of everyday custom and experience, and modern day realities, as in an Aboriginal community or reserve jurisdiction. In sum, decision makers must know something of what they are talking about, beyond adherence to law or required …show more content…
Morris one finds a decision in favour of night hunting that reflects a strong effort to respect the North Saanich Treaty, the duty of the federal government to uphold Aboriginal rights in the face of provincial or territorial challenges, and attention to the Charter of Rights & Freedoms of 1982. Obviously, the Supreme Court took the case very seriously with effort made not to diminish a treaty given right. One does wonder however if the modern context of the Tsartlip Indian Band was examined cautiously, seeking opinions from persons familiar with the area or its development through the last decades. The southern tip of Vancouver Island was somewhat different when the Treaty of 1852 was drafted – a factor that makes this case and many others very stimulating to

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    From 1933 to 1948 Newfoundlanders were faced with the possibility of joining the Confederation of Canada. Some historians speculate that Newfoundland was coerced into joining Canada by both Britain and Canada itself because of the financial issues that Newfoundland was facing at the time. Newfoundlanders were concerned about religion, education, and their children. Some Newfoundlanders were debating whether Britain could legally force them to join the Confederation. Newfoundlanders had both positive and negative reactions to the idea of joining Canada in 1948.…

    • 1889 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This paper will review “A Right to Treaty Education by Sheila Carr- Stewart as well as looking at a short article simply entitled “Schools” which was written by the Treaty Seven Elders . Both readings were published within five years of each other (The Treaty Seven Elders in 1996 and Carr-Stewarts’s article in 2001). Although both readings are about the educational systems the government of Canada provided for the indigenous people, one article (A Treaty Right to Education) focuses on the historical documents surrounding the issue of foral education provided by the Europeans. The other article (“Schools”) has a strong focus on the people who survived these schools.…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Charters (or Bills) of Rights and Judicial Review are twinned and often inseparable in the academic controversy surrounding their use and implementation. In Constitutions as Living Trees: An Idiot Defends, Waluchow attempts to defeat critics of Charters and Judicial Review by reframing the desirability of the two concepts in a manner that he argues is compatible with modern democracy. While a broad spectrum of previous conceptions of Charters fail to overcome the arguments set against them by the group Waluchow terms ‘the Critics’, he claims that his argument offers a fresh view of the Charter ― the jumping off point from which he aims to make his defence . He then begins to lay the footwork for his new conception of Charters, covering four…

    • 1773 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    R Vs Sparrow Summary

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages

    This paper analyzes the case, R. v. Sparrow [1990] 1 S. C. R. 1075 from the perspective of the legal positivism theory. As it shall be revealed later in this paper, the case is highly important in the history of Canadian law because it was in it that the Supreme Court of Canada made an important decision concerning the application of the rights of aboriginals, which, for a long time had been and is still controversial. Specifically, the court held that aboriginal rights, for example, fishing, that were in existence before s 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 and that existed before the provincial legislation that regulated aboriginal fishing were protected by the Canadian Constitution and couldn't be infringed unless the government justified…

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court in Canada, the final court of appeal, and the last legal resort for all litigants; therefore, the Supreme Court of Canada decisions are the ultimate expression and application of Canadian law (Supreme Court of Canada tour). The landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Canada in the R v. Keegstra case regarding the freedom of expression portrays the theoretical concepts behind the court’s ruling as it is the job of the court to deliver a fair decision to the parties involved, as well as a decision that maintains law and order in society. The R v. Keegstra ruling contains insights from the consensus theory and the labelling theory, as the decision of the court was in the interest of the public. To better understand a criminal law case and come up with a conclusion, the theory used must have a valid structure and must follow the rules of critical thinking and logic (Boyd, Cartwright and Heidt, 2015: 120). Also, the purpose of the criminal law must be understood as criminal law serves a purpose, which takes into account some theoretical aspects of the consensus theory and…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He argues that the Clarence Clemons case reveals how the West Coast created its human rights community that was similar yet different from Ontario’s. He also argues that ideology and class divided early activists, leading to a weakened ability to fight against racial discrimination together (Lambertson 758). Despite this stimulating argument, the way the support is organized and articulated weakens the argument. The argument is further weakened by loosely related sub-arguments and facts. The first of these is the first three pages of the article discussed above, in which the author gives a broader-than-necessary overview of human rights history in Canada.…

    • 1132 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Australian Legal System

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Legal systems can be dated back to the ancient peoples. There are many different legal systems that have evolved in other parts of the world. There are two types of legal system, the secular and religious legal system. It is argued that the Australian legal system is radically different to other legal systems. This, however, is not the case through findings and comparison with the Madayin legal system and Talmudic Jewish legal system.…

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Indigenous peoples have been resisting against the colonial drawn borders in both parts of the world. This resistance is seen physically on reserves as well as in legal battle against the powerful federal, states and corporate nexus in North America. While the tribal governments’ regulations to protect their environment from “fracking” are strict, maintaining “separateness” is mounting challenge to fundamental spatial, cultural, economic and political sovereignty. In the context of environmental protection, sovereignty is fundamental to establish environmental standards as they have been recognized as legitimate and that are enforceable. However, the federal and state institutional structure considers “sovereignty” as a non-Native, which fails to reflect indigenous values; therefore, it is an inappropriate political goal for Native Americans to legally defend their sovereignty at the US Supreme Court, which defined Native peoples as “domestic dependent nations”.…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The interviewees often thought of themselves as coming “before the law,” and in an oppositional relationship in which they were in a bureaucratic, definitional remove, with no ability to affect the law, nor did they have the aptitude to define its meaning purpose, or ends. This is the most original to traditional notion of the law as well as being objective, and as an external apparatus operating on society and individuals. The Rule of law is seen as a buffer between the individual and their society. This is law and society- life definition in the formal sense, and not a legal consciousness or…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A “State of Crisis” was found and it concluded that conflict exists between the CJS and traditional Aboriginal approaches (Griffiths, 2011). The plight of Aboriginal women being discriminated against is rising as the numbers of missing and murdered Aboriginal women drastically increases. According to Human Rights Watch (2011), “the failure of law enforcement authorities to deal effectively with the problem of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada is just one element of the dysfunctional relationship between the Canadian police and Indigenous people” (p.140). The amount of discredited women in the files of the RCMP displays their absence in the cases of the missing Aboriginal women and girls. “The Native Women’s Association of Canada estimates that there were 582 cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal Women and girls – while RCMP places the number at less than 100” (Griffiths, 2011).…

    • 1027 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Indian Act Essay

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The act also gave the government the power to remove Aboriginal peoples from reserves near towns with more than 8,000 people, and the power to seize parts of the Indigenous reserves for roads, railways, and other forms of public works (Jhappan, 22). The first time any real violence broke out as a result of land claims, was in 1990, when the municipal council decided to expand a golf course on land owned by the Mohawks as sacred territory. This led to an armed standoff between Mohawk warriors and the Quebec provincial police, in which one police offer was killed (Cochrane et al. 78). Bonspiel argues that Indigenous peoples do not have true sovereignty over their territory, because the power of the land still rests highly in the hands of the Crown. This issue proves that Indigenous rights and land claims are very closely intertwined; thus, making it evident that the appropriation of their land was a result of discrimination and lack of sovereignty during the pre-confederation…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The supreme court of Canada exists to provide an unbiased body ensuring that the laws of the land uphold the rights and freedoms of the Charter. Though the Supreme Court acts as a system of checks and balances on the executive power of Canada, at what point does the system of the court give the judiciary too great a level of power? When acknowledging the constitutions and legislature in which the Supreme Court justices gain and hold their power, s. 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the lack of equal representation in the court, it is indisputable that the highest court in Canada is overly powerful. It is evident through the examination of court rulings and the systemic practices of the judiciary that the Supreme Court of…

    • 1470 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Based off the history of indigenous peoples in Canada, one thing is for certain; discriminatory and inhumane acts by European conquest, towards a unique culture has altered the Aboriginal way of life we see in Canada today. While the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), has been evolving and developing for multiple years, these 94 recommendations give important insight and suggestions in how the nation of Canada can move away from this unjust history, reconcile and work towards becoming a stronger nation. While it may seem that reparations are impractical from the devastations of such events as the Indian residential schools, the TRC has been a timely process with the intent to restore an altered Aboriginal life and strengthen ties with…

    • 1149 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Canadian history is still impacting the Aboriginal population, including the missing and murdered Aboriginal women, and the discrimination in government and law. Some may argue that all discrimination against Aboriginal people has dissipated over the past decade or so, but many incidents and studies show that this discrimination is alive and…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    According to Aristotle “Rule of law is better than rule of any man”. The rule of law is fundamental to a well-functioning society. It ensures fairness in society and formal equality for all its citizens. In Canada, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Any laws or actions of government not in accordance with the constitution are unlawful.…

    • 2382 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays