What rights do Metis have?
Metis have historically asserted that they have Aboriginal rights equivalent to their Indian relatives and as distinct indigenous peoples of Canada. In 1979 CAP (under its former name the Native Council of Canada) publicly released a document which laid the basis for the inclusion of Metis in the patriation of the Constitution of Canada in 1982. Since then courts have upheld that Metis, as a constitutionally recognized Aboriginal people, do have whatever Aboriginal and Treaty rights are recognized and confirmed in Section 35. The difficulty is, none of those right are specifially described or defined in the Constitution for any of the Aboriginal peoples. The relatively recent Powley decision of the Supreme Court of Canada confirms the principle that Metis have hunting and fishing rights at least in those areas where Metis practised those rights prior to the assertion of British sovereignty. Considering that British sovereignty was established gradually in Canada over some two centuries
