Canada's Conservatives consider Indigenous policies

Significance

The ruling upholds the right of parliament to pass laws on Indigenous issues and to incorporate Indigenous laws into federal law. The act in question is one of many passed over the last decade since Canada formally adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Impacts

• As economic pressures continue, the attention of Canadian voters is likely to move away from reconciliation in the next few years.
• Protests against the Conservatives are likely if they revisit the Indian Act, first passed in 1876, given the sensitivity of the issue.
• Conservative proposals to allow First Nations to tax resource development projects will split Indigenous communities on the resource issue.