ALL INDIGENOUS DESCENDANTS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR SECTION 35 RIGHTS! LET NO ONE TELL YOU OTHERWISE!

There is now sufficient court precedence to support the identity and inherent rights of all indigenous descendants:

LEGISLATION:

• Steve Powley and Roddy Charles Powley vs Canada (Interveners et al) - on appeal from the court of appeal for Ontario. ( judgement - 2003)
• Harry Daniels (et al) vs Canada (&interveners), (judgement - 2016)
• Keith Boucher vs The Province of New Brunswick, (On appeal from a decision of the Court of Queen’s Bench: October 10, 2018), (judgement - 2022)
• Supreme Court of Canada - Province of New Brunswick leave to appeal the Keith Boucher case ( judgement 2023)

JUDICIAL HISTORY:

The Powley brothers were charged with possession of an out-of-season moose carcass . The judge concluded that since the brothers were descendants of a community of people who were historically mixed, (those who were mixed European and First People before effective European control), they qualified for inherent section 35 rights passed down from their "Metis" community ancestors. From this precedent, the "Powley test" distinction for Metis identity was established as follows:

1. Identify as a Métis descendant.
2. Be an accepted member of a present-day Métis community.
3. And have an Ancestor from an historic Métis community before European control.

https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100014413/1535468629182#:~:text=identify%20as%20a%20M%C3%A9tis%20person,to%20a%20historic%20M%C3%A9tis%20community

Thirteen years later in 2016, the Harry Daniels vs Canada Supreme Court decision, set the following precedence:

1. Metis and non-status Indians are "Indians" under the Canadian constitution.
2. Metis identity is not limited to the Powley decision such that Metis community cultural identities are distinctly different across Canada.
3. Metis identity can also be defined as anyone with native ancestry.

In 2010, another out of season moose kill infraction occurred in New Brunswick. Keith Boucher, (who identified himself as Indigenous), presented to the court his activity and relationship with a local First Nation community as proof of inherent entitlement to hunt game out of season for food. 

In 2018 the judge decided that Boucher did not have sufficient evidence to justify indigenous hunting privileges. 

But in 2021, Boucher appealed his case sighting inadequate representation and entered into evidence crucially overlooked genealogical evidence of his Indigeneity, namely, data that proved native ancestry!

After reviewing all new and old evidence the judge concluded that Keith Boucher passed the Powley test and was entitled to section 35 rights! This was supported by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2023!

Significantly, the Powley test in the Boucher case was modified to add a First Nation origin as an accepted historical reference modifying the Powley test as follows:

1. Identify as an Indigenous descendant.
2. Be an accepted member of a "present-day" Indigenous community.
3. Have an ancestor who resided in an historic Metis  or First Nation community before European control.

In this case arguments that the modern community must be a present day First Nation community to qualify for section 35 rights is ludicrous and discriminatory. 

Keith Boucher's ancestry was six (6) generations from his Indigenous historic First Nation community. He had no close Indigenous blood relatives on the First Nation reserve he frequented; nor was he a registered citizen-----he had only a willingness to share with people he considered kin. 

Indigenous organizations and communities that have formed in Canada over the past 100 years are a result of the influence of Canada's early colonial genocidal legislation, purposely designed to eliminate Inherent rights. 

This repatriation effort by Indigenous descendants is directly related to the historical loss of community before European control. 

The Metis Nation of Ontario (MNO) and the Ontario Coalition of Indigenous Peoples (OCIP) are examples of modern community development--that are a continuity of their historical communities!

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Indigenous descendants have an inherent right to identify and be accepted in a community of choice------in a community actively repatriating inherent historical rights and culture!

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