Land Claims Agreement Research Articles

New National Parks in the Canadian North

The creation of new national parks in the Canadian North over the past 25 years is discussed against the background of significant changes taking place in the region's economic, social and political character. The importance of the parallel processes of Aboriginal land claims and political evolution with the creation of the new territory of Nunavut is explored. New northern parks can only be created on the successful completion of the land claims Process, and the largest claims settlement, the Nunavut land Claims Agreement of 1993, laid down the details for three new national parks in the new territory. The system of Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreements is discussed in relation to these three new parks. The management of northern parks is considered, and compared with that of southern national parks.

Aboriginal rights to cultural property in Canada

This article explores the rights of Aboriginal peoples in Canada concerning movable Aboriginal cultural property. Although the Canadian constitution protects Aboriginal rights, the content of this protection has only recently begun to be explored by the Supreme Court of Canada in a series of important cases. This article sets out the existing Aboriginal rights regime in Canada and assesses its likely application to claims for the return of Aboriginal cultural property. Canadian governments have shown little interest in attempting to resolve questions concerning ownership and possession of Aboriginal cultural property, and there have been few instances of litigation. Over the last decade a number of Canadian museums have entered into voluntary agreements to return cultural objects to Aboriginal peoples' representatives. Those agreements have often involved ongoing partnerships between Aboriginal peoples and museums concerning such matters as museum management and exhibition curatorship. A recent development has been the resolution of specific repatriation requests as part of modern land claims agreements. The compromise represented by these negotiated solutions also characterizes the legal standards being developed to reconcile existing Aboriginal rights and the legitimate policy concerns of the wider Canadian society.

Affirmative Action and Aboriginal Government: The Case for Legal Education in Nunavut

AbstractThe Nunavut Land Claim Agreement commits federal and territorial governments to the recruitment and training of Inuit for positions throughout government. In the justice sector, there is currently a major shortage of Inuit lawyers or future judges. However, there also appears to be a fundamental mismatch between what existing law schools offer and what Inuit students are prepared to accept. A northern-based law school might remedy some of these problems. However, support for a law school requires un-thinking certain key tenets of legal education as we know it in Canada. In particular, it may require a step outside the university-based law school system. Universities appear to be accepted as the exclusive guardian of the concept of academic standards. Admission standards, in particular, serve as both a positivist technology of exclusion, and a political rationale for the persistence of majoritarian institutions as the major means of training members of disadvantaged communities. Distinctive institutions – eventually working with university-based law schools – have the potential to help bridge the education gap between Inuit and other Canadians. In so doing, they have the potential to train a critical mass of Inuit to meaningfully adapt the justice system to become a pillar of the public government in the Inuit homeland of Nunavut.

Land allocation in comprehensive land claim agreements: The case of the Yukon land claim

Attempts to settle outstanding land claims through the negotiation of comprehensive land claim agreements have been under way in Canada for the past 20 years. A critical component of settlements is the allocation of land between First Nation members of a negotiating group. Although treaty negotiations date back some 200 years, there are no systematic precedents for land allocation and a variety of approaches characterize contemporary negotiations. The problem can be characterized as a location-allocation problem, with the added constraint that the methodology should be transparent and easily understood at the community level. Development of such an approach for the Yukon land claim is described and its possible application to other comprehensive claim negotiations critically reviewed.

Protecting the land under modern land claims agreements: the effectiveness of the environmental regime negotiated by the James Bay Cree in the James Bay and Northern Quebec agreement

Signed in 1975, the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement was the first modern land claims agreement under the new Canadian federal policy of addressing outstanding native land rights. Although both native groups and governments have been quick to deny that the James Bay Agreement represents a model for other settlements, there are lessons which can be learned from it—lessons not only about content but also about implementation. Powers and jurisdiction on paper have little meaning if they are not put into practice. The objective of this paper is to describe the Cree approach to using a land claims agreement to protect the lands which form the basis of their hunting economies, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the agreement in meeting these objectives.

Recognition of native rights in Northern Quebec: Settlement of comprehensive claims, constitutional protection and economic development

In order to allow for hydro development in Northern Quebec, it was necessary for the federal and provincial governments to negotiate conditions of settlement with the tree and Inuit people. These negotiations resulted in the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975. A process to define aboriginal rights was established when the Canadian Constitution was repatriated in 1981–1982. In 1983, the Constitution was amended to recognize, among other things, rights or free ‐doms acquired by way of land claims agreements, as well as existing aboriginal and treaty rights. However, after a series of constitutional meetings, participants did not agree on an amendment to entrench the right to self‐government. In the context of future development and actual practices, the exercise of rights is also extremely crucial; and, indeed, it is only through practice that those rights can be measured.

Property as Sharing: A Reflection on the Nature of Land Ownership among the Cree of Eeyou Istchee after the “Paix des Braves”

Since the “Paix des Braves,” a renewed land claim agreement signed in 2002, the Cree of Eeyou Istchee (James Bay, Quebec) are facing a new wave of change. While that agreement allowed for the damming of the Eastmain and Rupert rivers, it ensured a greater integration of the Crees in the economic boom resulting from resource exploitation. Central to this new partnership, the Cree family hunting territories have been invested with a new set of meanings and practices in which the tallymen have become entrepreneurs. Reflecting back on the debated question of the very nature of this land tenure, this article describes the complex entanglements resulting from the attempts to further develop and privatise Cree lands. In doing so, it demonstrates that these property relations have also been reinvented by the Cree land users to fit their own territorial model, in which stewardship and sharing remain essential.

Finding Voice in a Changing Ecological and Political Landscape—Traditional Knowledge and Resource Management in Settled and Unsettled Claim Areas of the Northwest Territories, Canada

The Traditional Knowledge Policy (1994) of the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) provides the First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples of the NWT with a useful basis for influencing the management of land, water, wildlife, and other valued resources. The mechanisms of such influence are not always clear, however, particularly for those unfamiliar with the details of the bureaucratic process. This paper developed around the question, “what ecological and social (institutional) factors affect how, when, and to what extent Traditional Knowledge holders have voice in decisions about key resource management issues?” More specifically, does the ecological scale of the resource management problem and the settlement of Comprehensive Land Claim Agreements matter? Using forest fire management, non-renewable resource development, and climate change as case studies, the paper identifies a diversity of institutional arrangements in settled and unsettled land claim areas of the NWT by which Traditional Knowledge can have significant influence over resource management decision-making.