Canadian First Nations finally reunited under the rule of law of Canada

For many years, Métis and other non status and off reserve Aboriginals had been separated by from Inuit and status and on reserve Indians in so far as constitutional rights, freedoms and entitlements were concerned, despite a cultural link together as one nation united since its origins in time. Yesterday, this supposed fact of life began to change after an almost decade and a half Supreme Court of Canada fight, started by the late Harry Daniels and his Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, came to a decision against the federal government, granting those Aboriginal peoples on the outside the same status as those Aboriginal peoples already inside, allowing for more than half a million added under the federal Constitution Act of 1867. Thus gaining rights, freedoms and entitled legal access to health care, education and employment, taxation benefits, as well as one collective seat at future negotiation rights in land claims, treaties and agreements towards self governance, which has eluded the Aboriginal peoples of Canada since the beginning of the Dominion and beyond.

Ottawa must now realize that Section 91(24) had always subconsciously denied the Dominion its purported two nations idea from Lord Durham, John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, and his infamous Durham Report on the Affairs of British North America, which basically was a royal commission looking into why the rebellions of 1837 began, what caused them and exactly how they affected the future of the Dominion. With his Magna Carta like decision made, Lord Durham was soon replaced by Lord Sydenham and Toronto, Charles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron Sydenham, who came in and started the union of the provinces into one United Province of Canada and became its governor from 1841 to 1867, but all of this still ignored the reality of the ignored third, or better known today as Canadian First Nations. But as Canada moves forward into the 21st century recognizing its responsibility to restore the rights to its Indigenous citizens delayed and denied their culture, hertiage and birthright as if they were citizens of a second class, or in this case third, its federal government fought hard tooth and nail to keep from having to do so, wishing not to exercise that responsibility and not wanting to involve themselves with the future plight of the new Indians.

Even if the federal government, which under the Stephen Harper Conservatives attacked the former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin's private member's Bill C-292 An Act to Implement the Kelowna Accord in June 2006 without any clear alternative to replace it, refuses to move forward on this new development, stalling it for the remaining days of its majority, into a minority and eventually government defeat, the future allows for progress on this file. The support for the bill by Liberal, New Democrats and Bloc Québécois members in the March 2007 vote still remains, has not changed and will rule the day once again, once more allowing Aboriginals to patiently wait for their wave, in the much needed areas of safe, secure and suitable living conditions towards higher quality of life standards, health care, education and employment, health care and taxation benefits, negotiation of land claims, treaties and agreements towards self governance for Aboriginal peoples from sea to sea. As one can now see, the Aboriginal First Nation is more than a movement like Idle No More, is more than a squalor like Attawapiskat and Kashechewan, is more than a protest like Caledonia and Ipperwash, or even more than a conflict like Oka, it is a community of communities through cooperation with one another between all Canadians, Aboriginal, English, French and other newcomers to the Dominion, one united whole that is greater than the sum of its supposedly disparate parts, which is something we should all strive to be more of and not less.