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Leading Aboriginal Treaty Rights Cases PDF Print E-mail

Complete .pdf document

A few excerpts:

..."An Indian treaty is unique; it is an agreement sui generis which is neither created nor terminated according to the rules of international laws."...

..."I don't think that we should encourage Indians to feel that their treaties should last forever within Canada."...

..."It must be remembered that a treaty is a solemn agreement between the Crown and the Indians, an agreement the nature of which is sacred."...

..."The treaties, as written documents, recorded an agreement that had already been reached orally and they did not always record the full extent of the oral agreement."...

...In the 1990 Sioui Case the Supreme Court noted that the European powers acknowledged that Aboriginal nations had "suficient autonomy for the valid creation of solemn agreements which were called "treaties" regardless of the strict meaning given to that word then and now by international laws."...

..."I do not think that an interpretation of an event that turns a positive Mi'kmaq trade demand into a negative Mi'kmaq covenant is consistent with the honour and integrity of the Crown."...

..."In approaching the terms of a treaty ...the honour of the Crown is always involved and no appearance of "sharp dealing" should be countenanced."...

..."the generally accepted view that Indian treaties should be given a fair, large and liberal construction in favour of the Indians."...

..."The treaties, as written documents, recorded an agreement that had already been reached orally and they did not always record the full extent of the oral agrement."...

 
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