Ambiguity surrounds equality rights clause

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Over the course of the First Ministers' Conference on the Aboriginal rights, the subject of equality rights monopolized much of the discussion. Debate of the issue became complicated when Harry Daniels, vice-president of the Native Council of Canada (NCC), suggested that the issue of equality did not deal exclusively with sexual equality, but also with equality between the different Aboriginal groups.

The NCC position stated that the federal and provincial governments should accept that section 91(24) of the 1867 Constitution Act covers all Aboriginal people, Metis and Non Status included, not just those covered by the definitions contained in the Indian Act.

While there was general agreement that there would not be a second class Aboriginal peoples created by the constitutional process, there was no concensus on this interpretation of section 91(24). Prime Minister Trudeau commented that this interpretation might be considered by the federal government if, in assuming responsibility for the Metis and Non-Status, the federal government would also assume responsibility for a land base reserved for the Metis and Non-Status Indians which would be created from provincial crown lands.

Premier Lougheed of Alberta commented that this province had already provided the Metis with a land base through the Metis Betterment Act. It was provided, not as an acknowledgement of Aboriginal rights, but as a measure developed to assist one portion of the Alberta population. Lougheed conjectured that if the NCC request was recognized constitutionally, it would have the effect of rendering the Metis Betterment Act unconstitutional.

On the issue of sexual equality of Aboriginal people, there was lengthy and emotional discussion. After presentations by New Brunswick's Sandra lovelace amd Mary Simon, President of the Quebec Makivik Corporation, there was an effort to strengthen the existing subsection 35(4) dealing with Aboriginal and treaty rights as they apply to both sexes. Although the federal government and some provincial governments felt that the amendment would be redundant because women's rights are protected under the existing Constitution's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, they said they would agree to it if there was complete agreement among the Aboriginal groups. The Assembly of First Nations did not agree because they were uncertain as to the affect the working of the amendment would have on other perceived Aboriginal rights. The AFN had asked for three weeks grace to study the proposed amendment, after which time they will respond to the federal government