This book provides a critical look at Canada's Aboriginal policies that will allow us to see the political and social advances made by Aboriginal peoples over the past decades, but also the limits imposed by the Canadian state, which are all aporias. There is thus a contradiction between the recognition of the status of "nation" and the right to self-government and the willingness of the federal and provincial governments to set significant limits to this right, leaving little room for manoeuvre for the expression of indigenous sovereignty. To address these paradoxes, after a presentation of the history of Canada's relations with Aboriginal peoples and the state of Aboriginal law, this book examines the different Aboriginal policies of Canada and the provinces as well as some experiences in the implementation of political autonomy. Finally, a comparison of these policies with those of three countries with similar colonial and legal traditions, the United States, New Zealand and Australia, provides a perspective.
This book will give readers an opportunity to become more familiar with Aboriginal policies and to better understand the evolution of Canadians' relationship with Aboriginal peoples who were their first allies and partners and who, after more than 150 years of submission policies, are trying to renew these old alliances but often remain unknown, creating not two, but multiple solitudes within Canada.
*In French only