Aboriginal rights of indigenous peoples who have not signed the James Bay Agreement: the threat of unilateral extinction as a test of fundamental rights

Some indigenous peoples in Quebec who claim aboriginal rights in the territory governed by the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement are not signatories of the latter. However, the federal statute adopted in 1977 to approve and to give effect to the Agreement purports to extinguish the aboriginal land claims, rights and interests, not only of those of the Cree and the Inuit, who have signed and approved the Agreement, but of "all Indians and Inuit" in the territory. The author of this article examines whether this attempt to extinguish the aboriginal rights of non-signatories complies with the Canadian Bill of Rights. He concludes that the federal statute violates the Bill by unjustifiably depriving the members of non-signatory peoples of the right not to be subjected to racial discrimination in the enjoyment of their property.