The systematic forced removal of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit traditional governance structures by successive governments in colonial and post-Confederation Canada continues to shape the current realities of Indigenous peoples in this country. First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals and communities face fundamental questions about how they can renew their relationship with governments in Canada and reaffirm their own governance structures.

Questions related to colonial legacies, Indigenous rights, self-determination, sovereignty/self-governance, reconciliation, justice, equality, land claims, cultural traditions, economic development, and land use are all fundamental to the subject of governance. This course provides students with an overview of these and other issues related to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit governance in Canada. Students explore current realities related to law and governance and their historical roots. The course covers a range of issues, ideas, and developments, from precontact governance structures to contemporary effects of colonization and various processes and strategies for reconciliation. Students investigate the legacies of colonialist policies, legislation, and case law as well as changes that have occurred since the recognition of Aboriginal rights in the Constitution Act and the interpretation of these rights by courts in Canada. Students examine issues related to self-governance, self-determination, and sovereignty, including traditions, values, principles, responsibilities, and strategies that are associated with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit self-determination. Through their investigations, students identify cultural factors that have contributed to existing Indigenous governance structures and give consideration to elements that may improve the effectiveness of these structures. Learning about the changing relationships between Indigenous peoples and colonial, federal, provincial, and territorial governments in Canada, from early treaties and land claims to calls for renewal of a nation-to-nation relationship, will help students develop a deeper understanding of the current realities facing Indigenous people in the pursuit of self-determination in Canada.

This course has four strands. Strand A, which focuses on the legal studies inquiry process, is followed by three content strands, which are organized thematically. The four strands are as follows:

A. The Legal Studies Inquiry Process and Skill Development

Students learn how to use the legal studies inquiry process as well as the concepts of legal thinking to guide their investigations into issues, events, developments, and ideas. Although the inquiry strand is presented separately from the content strands (strands B–D), in practice students constantly apply the skills, approaches, and concepts included in strand A as they work to achieve the expectations in the content strands.

B. The Historical Context

Students explore the historical foundations of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit governance. They develop their understanding of the scope and intent of treaties and land claim agreements between Indigenous peoples and colonial and federal governments. They also analyse colonial, federal, and provincial policies, legislation, and judicial decisions prior to the 1980s and the impact they have had on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals and communities and on their relationship with governments in Canada.

C. Support for and Challenges to Indigenous Rights

Students focus on developments since 1982, with a particular emphasis on the recognition of Aboriginal rights in the Constitution Act, 1982, and the implications of this recognition for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit and their changing relationships with governments in Canada. Students explore Indigenous rights and how they have been affected not only by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and by post-Charter laws and jurisprudence but also by activism on the part of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals and organizations.

D. Self-Determination, Sovereignty, and Self-Governance

Students examine various issues related to Indigenous self-determination, sovereignty, and self-governance in Canada. Students develop their understanding of principles and responsibilities related to sovereignty and self-governance, the importance of land-based issues and how they relate to self-determination, and ways in which various First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals and organizations in Canada have advocated for self-determination and reconciliation. Finally, students compare issues affecting First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities in Canada with those facing Indigenous peoples in the rest of the world.

Educators are encouraged to refer to the general discussion of the research and inquiry process that appears in the Curriculum Context section Research and Inquiry: A Shared Process for necessary information relating to all First Nations, Métis, and Inuit studies courses. What follows is a brief discussion of the legal studies inquiry process, and the concepts of legal thinking, in the context of the present course. For further information on these topics, teachers may wish to consult The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: Canadian and World Studies, 2015, p. 510.

In this course, students use the legal studies inquiry process to investigate issues, events, and developments related to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit governance in Canada; to gather, analyse, assess, and evaluate evidence from a wide variety of sources, including Indigenous knowledge sources; to make informed judgements and reach viable conclusions; and to communicate those judgements and conclusions effectively.

As in all courses that consider events, developments, and issues from a legal perspective, it is crucial that students not simply learn various facts but that they develop the ability to think and to process content in ways that are most appropriate to the material. To that end, this course focuses on developing students’ ability to apply the following concepts of legal thinking:

• legal significance
• continuity and change
• interrelationships
• legal perspective

In the context of the present course, the concept of legal significance requires students to consider the impact of treaties, land claim agreements, legislation, court decisions, and legal/political structures on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals and communities. Students also apply this concept to help them analyse the importance of legal principles, case law, and social forces in the evolution of laws affecting Indigenous peoples in Canada. The concept of continuity and change is also relevant to investigations into the evolution of laws, as students determine how and why laws, legal structures, and legal issues relating to Indigenous governance have changed, as well as what issues remain unresolved and why. When students apply the concept of interrelationships, they consider how laws have affected and continue to affect Indigenous peoples in Canada and how Indigenous peoples have affected and continue to affect laws. In addition, they focus on interactions between First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals and communities and colonial, federal, provincial, and territorial governments. Finally, the concept of legal perspective requires students to consider key legal principles, including those related to self-determination, sovereignty, and self-governance, land claims, Crown duties, reconciliation, and Aboriginal rights under the Constitution Act. Students are encouraged to consider the perspectives of different stakeholders – First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals and communities as well as federal, provincial, and territorial governments – on issues relating to Indigenous governance.

It is important to note that, although students use the concepts of legal thinking to guide and structure the inquiry process in this course, the topics they investigate are not only legal but also political, economic, social, and cultural. Any study of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit perspectives and realities must acknowledge the interconnected nature of many of the issues that are of great significance to Indigenous peoples. For example, the assertion of the right of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities to sovereignty/self-governance involves the wish to have both legal and political autonomy but also the autonomy to make economic decisions and develop social institutions that reflect Indigenous beliefs and values. Similarly, the relationship between land-based issues, Indigenous rights, and self-determination encompasses not just legal issues, but also social, political, cultural, economic, and environmental ones.