Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The Constitution is the supreme law, and the Charter is a part of that, yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It must be interpreted in light of what is contained in the Constitution, including the Charter and the way in which the Supreme Court has interpreted the Charter. I believe we agree up to that point.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Are you referring to the question that your colleague, Mr. Albrecht, asked?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The problem is that I was asked if the interpretive clause in section 25 of the Charter was enough. I have the impression that I am being asked to defend the argument. If I were before a human rights tribunal, I would tell people to interpret the Canadian Human Rights Act in acc

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We should be associates.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Of course, you realize, if we're talking about decisions by a province or by most private sector employers, we're out of the realm of the Canadian Human Rights Act and into provincial human rights codes. But it's certainly open to give preferences in hiring to aboriginals to reco

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That kind of argument has been made and I don't think it would work. The courts generally haven't seen residence as a source of inequality; people, young offenders, are treated differently in different provinces and the courts have said that's okay. That's just part of living in

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I've worked on human rights files, but it's not my principal area of expertise. I do know that under the Quebec charter, which serves a similar role to human rights codes in other provinces, there was in fact a case that went to the Supreme Court of Canada, where Longueuil, I bel

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That may be, and this lets me answer the question from Ms. Neville that I never got to. There is what's called a bona fide occupational requirement defence for discrimination. It's open to a first nation to say a requirement of such and such a job is that you have to understand,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. I'm sorry, I wasn't answering your question completely. You're right. There's a second thing, which comes under...I'm just going to make sure I don't misinform the committee. Yes, there is also the power to create equity programs, which is in the Canadian Human Rights Act,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I made two points. The first point is to the extent that there are communities that are not under the Indian Act, of which there are quite a few now: the Cree-Naskapi of Quebec, the Nisga'a, Yukon first nations, and Dene and Dogrib of the Northwest Territories, without even goin

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's not a point the Barreau chose to address directly in their letter. As a lawyer in the field, I have a lot of thoughts on it, and I'll try to limit my comments to the Barreau's position. I think the point you made, Mr. Russell, is a good one. Proving a section 35 right is a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll answer the second part of your question first. I don't think an interpretive clause that would work for a large number of different communities is necessarily that difficult, because it could be drafted in a way that would require a certain amount of evidence. You would set

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Like Grand Chief Archibald, I have confidence in parliamentarians.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To answer the first part of your question, though, section 25 is an interpretive provision about the charter. The charter rights are similar to the rights in the Canadian Human Rights Act, but they're not the same thing. If I'm before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, I can't a