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Canada Supreme Court grants status to once-excluded aboriginals

Published 2016-04-14, 11:07 a/m
© Reuters. Canada Supreme Court grants status to once-excluded aboriginals

TORONTO, April 14 (Reuters) - Canada's Supreme Court ruled
on Thursday that more than 600,000 aboriginal people previously
denied special legal status by the federal government should
receive it, granting potential access to benefits and services.
The court declared Metis people - those of mixed aboriginal
and European descent - and aboriginals not registered with the
government are "Indians" under the Constitution Act of 1867.
The ruling may give them access to some of the same rights
and benefits as aboriginal people living on reserves, such as
tax breaks and assistance for medication, housing and education.
The case began in 1999, with the Congress of Aboriginal
Peoples and one Metis and two non-status Indians as plaintiffs.
A lower court had initially ruled in the plaintiffs' favor,
but the government raised the case to the Federal Court of
Appeal, which upheld the previous ruling on Metis, but not
unregistered aboriginals, known as "non-status Indians."
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, whose minister was
named in the lawsuit, did not immediately comment on the
lawsuit, though a representative said it would be issuing a
statement later in the day.
According to federal data, the Canadian government spent
C$8.1 billion ($6.32 billion) from 2014 to 2015 on funding for
the roughly 700,000 status Indians. There are more than 400,000
Metis and 200,000 non-status Indians.
($1 = 1.2812 Canadian dollars)

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