E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.3 page 2 Summary This report is submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 2004/62 and refers to the official visit paid to Canada by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people from 21 May to 4 June 2004, at the invitation of the Government of Canada, where he had conversations with federal, provincial and territorial authorities, representatives of Aboriginal peoples’ organizations, members of the academic world, and members of Aboriginal communities in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba, Ontario and Nunavut. He had previously visited several First Nation communities in May 2003. Based on the information gathered during these visits, he presents the present report on the human rights situation of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Aboriginal peoples, who include First Nations (Indians), Métis and Inuit, represent 4.4 per cent of Canada’s total population of 30 million inhabitants. The Constitution Act, 1982, recognizes their existing Aboriginal and treaty rights that have been subsequently reaffirmed by the courts. In recent years, some Aboriginal nations have negotiated new agreements with the federal and provincial governments concerning land claims and self-government arrangements. In its new Aboriginal policy of 1998, known as “Gathering Strength,” the federal Government has pledged to strengthen the relationship between Canada and the Aboriginal peoples. The Special Rapporteur is encouraged by Canada’s commitment to ensuring that the country’s prosperity is shared by Aboriginal people, a goal to which the federal and provincial governments of Canada devote an impressive number of programmes and projects and considerable financial resources, as well as by Canada’s commitment to close the unacceptable gaps between Aboriginal Canadians and the rest of the population in educational attainment, employment and access to basic social services. Economic, social and human indicators of well-being, quality of life and development are consistently lower among Aboriginal people than other Canadians. Poverty, infant mortality, unemployment, morbidity, suicide, criminal detention, children on welfare, women victims of abuse, child prostitution, are all much higher among Aboriginal people than in any other sector of Canadian society, whereas educational attainment, health standards, housing conditions, family income, access to economic opportunity and to social services are generally lower. Canada has taken up the challenge to close this gap. Ever since early colonial settlement, Canada’s indigenous peoples were progressively dispossessed of their lands, resources and culture, a process that led them into destitution, deprivation and dependency, which in turn generated an assertive and, occasionally, militant social movement in defence of their rights, restitution of their lands and resources and struggle for equal opportunity and self-determination. Aboriginal peoples claim their rights to the land and its natural resources, as well as respect for their distinct cultural identities, lifestyles and social organization. Current negotiated land claims agreements between Canada and Aboriginal peoples aim at certainty and predictability and involve the release of Aboriginal rights in exchange for specific compensation packages, a situation that has led in several instances to legal controversy and occasional confrontation. Obtaining guaranteed free access to traditional land-based subsistence activities such as forestry, hunting and fishing remains a principal objective of Aboriginal peoples to fully