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The Supreme Court of Canada is notified in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on November 4, 2019.
Chris Helgren / Reuters
Rick Desautel comes from a long line of members of the Sinixt tribe living in southern British Columbia.
He lives in Washington state in the Colville Indian Reserve, as did thousands of Sinixt members, many of whom were forced to leave their ancestral lands in Canada decades ago.
Desautel then sought to open a discussion on this subject. Then, years ago, he went hunting north of the border where he shot down a ceremonial impulse. Desautel was not licensed to do so, but claims that, like him in Sinixt’s classic hunting ground, he does not oppose the law. .
Related: Police beating against Aboriginal people fuels Canadian protests against racism
Desautel was acquitted of the fees in the case in 2017, but the appeals took him to the Canadian capital, Ottawa, for the Supreme Court hearing last Thursday.
Rick Desautel, flanked by his daughter and wife, Linda (right), celebrates his acquittal of illegal outdoor hunting fees at the Nelson Provincial Courthouse in British Columbia in March 2017.
Emily Schwing / PRI
For Desautel, getting the momentum out is an act of protest. It needs Canada to open its ancestral lands to hunting and fishing “and to the other rights and things we have in our classic territory for the long generations of the Sinixt people,” he told the newspaper. Palace of Justice last week.
Discussion is under discussion if Sinixt members in the United States have rights in Canada. The final resolution in this case can set a precedent for the country’s tribal reconciliation and sovereignty.
Canada’s Sinixt tribe is officially extinct, which the federal government declared after the death of the last Canadian member in 1956, but thousands of Sinixt descendants like Desautel still cross the border in Washington state.
At the beginning of the Supreme Court hearing in the case, which concerned face-to-face appearances in court and others provided via video, due to the pandemic, Judge Malcolm Rowe summarized the factor at the center of Desautel’s struggle.
Related: Canada’s Aboriginal teams struggle to stay closed as restrictions fall
“Isn’t it simple what the BC Court of Appeals said?” asked Rowe at the hearing, addressing prosecutor Glen Thompson.
“The communities and nations found through the Europeans in contact had rights. . . and they are in every aspect of the border, they are successors and as successors they have the rightsArray. Is it more confusing than that?
“Communities and nations found through Europeans in contact had rights . . . and they are in any aspect of the border, they are successors and as successors they have the rightsArray . . . Is it more confusing than that? Judge Rowe said.
“The factor is not whether Sinixt exists or has rights in Canada,” Thompson said. “The question is whether Washington’s Lake Lake State in the United States has constitutional rights despite transparent words that recognize and affirm Array. rights of canada’s Aboriginal peoples. “
The rights granted to the Aboriginal peoples of Canada were established in segment 35 of 1982 of the Canadian Constitution.
“Attorneys general representing five Canadian provinces and one territory argue that because existing members of the Sinixt tribe live in Canada, they have no rights over it.
Christopher Rupar, who represents the federal government of Canada, said that to be identified under Canadian law, a member of a tribe not only has Canadian roots, but members are also living in the country lately.
“The individual has to say it’s the ancestral network, and it’s the new network and I have a connection with both,” Rupar explained. “In this Array you have the participation of the new network in its rights under segment 35. treaty. “
The defense suggests that Mark Underhill said that regardless of whether other people like Desautel are Sinixt in Canada or members of the Lake Tribe in the United States, if they do not have access to their classic hunting grounds, they are simply separated from their cultural identity.
“To be Sinixt and to be able to practice your culture, they will have to be able to hunt in Canada.
“To be Sinixt and practice their culture, they want to hunt in Canada,” Underhill said.
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British Columbia has argued in the afterlife that the Sinixts left Canada to move to agriculture in Washington, but beyond decisions in the case, it did not make this claim.
Underhill told the judges that the Sinixt were unlikely to leave Canada voluntarily. He stated that the argument had no position in Canadian law: “Because what it does is absolutely erase the concept of Aboriginal identity that is connected to the position and therefore recommend that a Movement would never be voluntary, that an Aboriginal would abandon its identity. “
A dozen First Nations voted in Desautel’s favor.
“They clearly perceive this case to be about how nine non-Aboriginal judges interpret 4 words: Aboriginal others in Canada,” Williams told the judges in a video call to the convention from their home in Ontario.
Williams is the leading negotiator of the Peskotomuhkati Nation for negotiations with the Crown on Aboriginal rights and treaties and the name of land in Canada.
“Either those words recognize the eternal connection between some other Aboriginal people and their land in Canada, or the word” of “is a possessive term, a word that allows Crown governments to distinguish between “our Indians” and “the Indians of another person. “”” “
“Either those words recognize the eternal connection between an Aboriginal and his land in Canada, or the word” of “is a possessive term, a word that allows Crown governments to distinguish between “our Indians” and “another person’s Indians. “”” “
In the United States, the Sinixt are also known as Arrow Lakes, or simply Lake Tribe. They speak a dialect of Salish. Puti kwu ala7 means “We’re still here,” a word Shelly Boyd says has been around a lot lately.
Puti Kwu ala7 We ARE ALWAYS HERE!
Boyd was broadcasting on Facebook live from a hotel room in Ottawa for a short break.
Boyd and many Sinixt members from Washington traveled to the border on Thursday to display their data for Desautel. Due to COVID-19, they may simply not enter Canada.
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“I’m an Arrow Lakes Indian and I’m leaving,” Boyd told his phone camera Thursday morning.
A final ruling is expected in the case for at least six months.
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