''R v Pamajewon'',
996
Year 996 ( CMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Japan
* February - Chotoku Incident: Fujiwara no Korechika and Takaie shoot an arrow at Retired Em ...
2 S.C.R. 821, is a leading
Supreme Court of Canada decision on
Aboriginal self-government under
section 35(1) of the ''
Constitution Act, 1982
The ''Constitution Act, 1982'' (french: link=no, Loi constitutionnelle de 1982) is a part of the Constitution of Canada.Formally enacted as Schedule B of the ''Canada Act 1982'', enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 60 of t ...
''. The Court held that the right to self-government, if it exists, is subject to reasonable limitations and excluded the right to control high-stakes gambling.
Background
The
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
of
Shawanaga and
Eagle Lake Eagle Lake may refer to:
Cities, towns, townships etc. Canada
* Eagle Lake, Haliburton County, Ontario
* Eagle Lake, Parry Sound District, Ontario
* Eagle Lake 27, Ontario (Indian reserve)
* Eagle Lake, Kenora District, Ontario
United States
* ...
passed laws enabling high-stakes gambling to take place on the reserves. The laws were not validly enacted under the ''
Indian Act'', however, the bands justified the laws as an exercise of their power of self-government. The bands were charged for keeping a common gaming house under the ''
Criminal Code
A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
''.
The issue before the Court was whether the right to control high-stakes gambling was protected under section 35(1) of the ''Constitution Act, 1982''. The claimants argued that gambling was a part of their distinct identity in a similar way as fishing and hunting. The Court of Appeal disagreed with the bands and found that the right to gambling was not protected under section 35(1) because it failed to meet the criteria set forth in the ''
Van der Peet'' test.
Opinion of the Court
Chief Justice Lamer wrote for the majority. He stated that "assuming without deciding that s. 35(1) includes self-government claims", the existence of a right to gambling must be analysed using the test from ''
R v Van der Peet
''R v Van der Peet'', 9962 S.C.R. 507 is a leading case on Aboriginal rights under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. The Supreme Court held that Aboriginal fishing rights did not extend to commercial selling of fish. From this case came t ...
''.
996
Year 996 ( CMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Japan
* February - Chotoku Incident: Fujiwara no Korechika and Takaie shoot an arrow at Retired Em ...
2 S.C.R. 507 Lamer decided against characterizing the right as the right to "manage the use of their lands", but rather as the right to "participate in, and regulate, gambling activities on their respective reserve lands".
According to ''Van der Peet'', the right must have existed prior to contact and must have been an integral part of their distinctive culture. There was evidence that the
Ojibwa band gambled prior to first contact, but was not on any large scale, nor was it significant to be an integral part of the distinctive cultures of the bands. Consequently, Lamer found that there was no right to high-stakes gambling under the Aboriginal power of self-government.
See also
*
The Canadian Crown and First Nations, Inuit and Métis
The association between the Canadian Crown and Indigenous peoples in Canada stretches back to the first decisions between North American Indigenous peoples and European colonialists and, over centuries of interface, treaties were established c ...
*
Canadian Aboriginal case law
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
*
Numbered Treaties
The Numbered Treaties (or Post-Confederation Treaties) are a series of eleven treaties signed between the First Nations, one of three groups of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the reigning monarch of Canada (Victoria, Edward VII or George V) ...
*
Indian Act
*
Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982
Section 35 of the ''Constitution Act, 1982'' provides constitutional protection to the indigenous and treaty rights of indigenous peoples in Canada. The section, while within the Constitution of Canada, falls outside the ''Canadian Charter of Rig ...
*
Indian Health Transfer Policy (Canada)
The Canadian Indian Health Transfer Policy provides a framework for the assumption of control of health services by Indigenous peoples in Canada and set forth a developmental approach to transfer centred on the concept of self-determination in hea ...
Notes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pamajewon
Canadian Aboriginal case law
Canadian constitutional case law
Supreme Court of Canada cases
1996 in Canadian case law
Gambling in Canada