R v. Powley is a Supreme Court of Canada

Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...

 case defining Métis

Métis people (Canada)

The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...

 Aboriginal

Aboriginal peoples in Canada

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....

 rights under section 35(1)

Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982

Section thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982 provides constitutional protection to the aboriginal and treaty rights of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The section, while within the Constitution Act, 1982 and thus the Constitution of Canada, falls outside the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms...

 of the Constitution Act, 1982

Constitution Act, 1982

The Constitution Act, 1982 is a part of the Constitution of Canada. The Act was introduced as part of Canada's process of "patriating" the constitution, introducing several amendments to the British North America Act, 1867, and changing the latter's name in Canada to the Constitution Act, 1867...

.

Facts and Procedural History

A Sault Ste. Marie father and son, Steve and Roddy Powley, were charged in 1993 with possession of a moose they had shot out of season and without a licence. The pair pleaded not guilty on the grounds that, as Métis, they had an Aboriginal right to hunt that was unjustly infringed by Ontario game laws. The Ontario Court of Justice

Ontario Court of Justice

The Ontario Court of Justice is a Provincial Court for the Canadian province of Ontario. This court oversees matters relating to family law and criminal law....

 agreed and dismissed the charges. The Ontario Attorney General

Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 appealed that decision to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice

Ontario Superior Court of Justice

The Superior Court of Justice is the superior court of general jurisdiction for the Province of Ontario, Canada. It is the successor to the former Ontario Court of Justice , and was created on April 19, 1999...

, which upheld the acquittals and denied the appeal. The Ontario Attorney General

Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 then appealed that decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal

Ontario Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal for Ontario is headquartered in downtown Toronto, in historic Osgoode Hall....

 which also upheld the acquittals and denied the appeal. Finally, the decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada

Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...

, where a unanimous court upheld the decisions of the lower courts and defined a ten-step test for Métis rights based on modified tests from the previous Indian Aboriginal

Aboriginal peoples in Canada

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....

 rights decisions in R. v. Sparrow

R. v. Sparrow

R. v. Sparrow, [1990] 1 S.C.R. 1075 was an important decision of the Supreme Court of Canada concerning the application of Aboriginal rights under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982...

 and R. v. Van der Peet

R. v. Van der Peet

R. v. Van der Peet, [1996] 2 S.C.R. 507 is a leading case on aboriginal rights under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. The Supreme Court held that aboriginal fishing rights did not extend to commercial selling of fish. From this case came the Van der Peet test for determining if an...

.

Aftermath

In order for this ruling to apply to specific Métis people, they have to show that the practice in question relates to the practice of a rights-bearing Métis community prior to European political and legal control, and that they are members of the corresponding modern Métis community.

This means that as long as a Métis group of people established a rights-bearing community that was distinctive from any Indian or Inuit Aboriginal groups

Aboriginal peoples in Canada

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....

 they descended from, then the practices that community exercised prior to European control may be Section 35(1)

Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982

Section thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982 provides constitutional protection to the aboriginal and treaty rights of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The section, while within the Constitution Act, 1982 and thus the Constitution of Canada, falls outside the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms...

 rights.

See also

• The Canadian Crown and First Nations, Inuit and Métis
  The Canadian Crown and First Nations, Inuit and Métis
  The association between the Canadian Crown and Aboriginal peoples of Canada stretches back to the first interactions between North American indigenous peoples and European colonialists and, over centuries of interface, treaties were established concerning the monarch and aboriginal tribes...
  
  

Canadian Aboriginal case law

• Numbered Treaties
  Numbered Treaties
  The numbered treaties are a series of eleven treaties signed between the aboriginal peoples in Canada and the reigning Monarch of Canada from 1871 to 1921. It was the Government of Canada who created the policy, commissioned the Treaty Commissioners and ratified the agreements...
  
  
• Indian Act
  Indian Act
  The Indian Act , R.S., 1951, c. I-5, is a Canadian statute that concerns registered Indians, their bands, and the system of Indian reserves...
  
  
• Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982
  Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982
  Section thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982 provides constitutional protection to the aboriginal and treaty rights of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The section, while within the Constitution Act, 1982 and thus the Constitution of Canada, falls outside the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms...
  
  
• Indian Health Transfer Policy (Canada)
  Indian Health Transfer Policy (Canada)
  The Indian Health Transfer Policy of Canada, provided a framework for the assumption of control of health services by Aboriginal Canadians and set forth a developmental approach to transfer centred on the concept of self-determination in health. Through this process, the decision to enter into...