Friday, September 14, 2007

A document Canada couldn't sign; The UN's declaration on aboriginals is incompatible with our constitution

Canada has always been an advocate for the rights of Indigenous people. Whether it regards education, family welfare, clean drinking water, or land claims for the past 20 years Canada has been 100% behind their advancement of human rights.
This week the UN made a decision to adopt declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Canada, however, voted not to adopt this declaration in its current form. It is not because Canada suddenly changed its view of Aboriginals human rights. They have just reason for such a decision. Canada proclaims that this document, as it currently is, is incompatible with their constitution. While they do want to advance the rights of Indigenous people they also much take into account the welfare of others and their human rights.
There are places in the declaration that are ambiguous in their guidelines for implementation. It states, for example, that Indigenous people have the right to all land they have owned or occupy. This could lead to the reopening of historic and current day treaties which have already been settled. Another problem is Article 19 which implies that government cannot act on some matters without the consent of aboriginal people even when they affect indigenous and none indigenous people. Potentially, this could mean Aboriginals would have the power of veto over just about any legislative or administrative matter.
Canada is not giving up it's position in aiding the rights of Indigenous people. They will still remain 100% supportive of the goal and are sorry the declaration created by the UN was insufficient.

I, for one, think it would be really funny if the Aboriginals took over the Canadian government. "Canada has been overthrown by Indigenous peoples" sounds like an interesting headline to me. No, it would not be a good idea. But certainly amusing thought. Why shouldn't Indigenous nations reclaim what was originally theirs? Anyway, the declaration did seem to pose some potential threats to the Canadian government. It is important that everyone's welfare is accounted for when creating such a piece of legislation. This is just another example of how important proper wording is. Just simple little words can alter the entire meaning of a sentence. It is the difference between a functional Canadian government and a frustrated Canadian government.

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