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A Vuntut Gwitchin citizen is taking her precedent-setting authorized problem of her First Nation’s residency requirement for councillors to the nation’s highest court docket.
Cindy Dickson filed an software for go away to attraction to the Supreme Courtroom of Canada final month. The court docket opened a file for her case on Oct. 25.
It is the most recent improvement in what’s develop into a years-long battle over the self-governing First Nation’s requirement for all elected councillors to dwell on settlement land, and a case that is compelled courts to look at the intricacies and interplay of Canadian and Indigenous legislation.
Dickson had beforehand tried to run for council however was barred from doing so as a result of she lives in Whitehorse.
“It’s totally tough to go up towards the federal government whenever you really feel that your rights are [being] infringed upon … and it has been arduous on me, however I hold shifting ahead as a result of I actually really feel strongly that we’d like some clarification in order that our residents are all handled equally,” Dickson informed CBC Information Oct. 28.
The First Nation had not filed a response to Dickson’s software as of Oct. 29.
Vuntut Gwitchin Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm declined an interview request. Nonetheless, he previously told reporters following the Yukon Courtroom of Attraction determination that he would convey the problem ahead on the First Nation’s common meeting and permit residents to determine what the following steps, if any, must be.
The Supreme Courtroom of Canada solely hears a small variety of instances yearly; it has but to determine whether or not it is going to hear Dickson’s attraction.
Attraction court docket upheld requirement
Dickson brought a petition to the Yukon Supreme Court in 2019 difficult Vuntut Gwitchin’s residency requirement, arguing that it was discriminatory and violated her equality rights as laid out underneath the Canadian Constitution of Rights and Freedoms.
The First Nation, by the point the petition was heard in court docket, required councillors to maneuver to settlement land inside 14 days of being elected.
The one persistently inhabited place inside Vuntut Gwitchin settlement land is Outdated Crow, a fly-in neighborhood of roughly 260 individuals positioned roughly 800 kilometres north of Whitehorse.
Dickson argued there have been quite a few the reason why Vuntut Gwitchin residents may select or be compelled to dwell exterior of Outdated Crow, together with the extraordinarily restricted housing and entry to healthcare out there in the neighborhood, and that barring them from being on council was discriminatory.
The First Nation argued amongst different issues that it by no means agreed to the Constitution’s functions through the negotiations of its self-government and last agreements, and that the requirement was key in preserving Vuntut Gwitchin tradition and custom.
A Yukon Supreme Courtroom choose dominated that the Constitution utilized to the Vuntut Gwitchin authorities and located that whereas requiring councillors to maneuver inside 14 days was unconstitutional, the requirement for them to dwell on settlement land might stand.
Each Dickson and the First Nation appealed the choice to the Yukon Courtroom of Attraction, with the Lawyer Normal of Canada, Teslin Tlingit Council, Carcross/Tagish First Nation and the Métis Nation of Ontario becoming a member of as intervenors within the case.
The attraction court docket, in a split decision issued in July, discovered the requirement did, in reality, violate equality rights as protected by the Constitution, however that it was shielded in its entirety by one other part of the Constitution — part 25 — that protects the collective rights of Indigenous peoples.
The choice marked the primary time a Canadian court docket examined the intersection of part 25 and the non-public rights of First Nations residents.
8:05Yukon court docket validates First Nation’s proper to require councillors, chiefs, to dwell on settlement lands
The Yukon Courtroom of Attraction launched a choice about Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation’s residency requirement for councillors final week. Elyn Jones spoke with Ryan Beaton, a Vancouver lawyer, who focuses on Aboriginal legislation. He’s intently watching the case. 8:05
‘We must always all be handled equally’
Dickson informed CBC Information she was escalating the case to the Supreme Courtroom of Canada as a result of she did not agree with part 25 getting used as a protect “towards its personal citizen.”
“I imagine that as an Indigenous particular person, I’ve each particular person and collective rights,” she mentioned, sharing a narrative of a cousin who realized find out how to hunt by going out onto the land with totally different individuals and studying totally different methods.
“To me, that is an ideal instance of a collective and particular person proper, as a result of as hunters out on the land, we personal it collectively, that is a collective, however [my cousin] studying find out how to hunt and in his personal methods, [that was] his personal particular person proper,” she mentioned.
Dickson added she was “personally not benefitting” monetarily from the problem, and that whereas she’s obtained messages of help from different residents and First Nations, she’s additionally seen opposition and misunderstandings about her motivations as effectively.
“It’s actually scary, however I simply needed to attempt to do one thing as a result of I simply felt very strongly that we must always be capable of set up our authorities so that each one of our residents have a voice,” she mentioned of selecting to proceed to pursue the case.
“I simply assume that as a result of nearly all of our residents dwell off settlement land for varied causes … we must always all be handled equally and all be heard.”
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