In 1982, Prime Minister Trudeau presided over the signing and repatriation of Canada's Constitution, which included recognition of aboriginal and treaty rights. We want you to preserve our aboriginal rights and to restore them to us. Our answer is no. We can't recognize aboriginal rights because no society can be built on historical 'might have beens. The Constitution, a set of laws which ensures that everyone in Canada is treated fairly, talks about aboriginal rights.
Aboriginal rights are rights for aboriginal people, guaranteed by the Constitution.
These are rights that usually have to do with hunting, fishing, or any activity that aboriginal people have always maintained to survive. It is important to understand that aboriginal rights are inherent rights. They are not given to aboriginal people by the government, but are recognized. The government is saying that they know that those rights have always been there, because aboriginal people have always hunted and fished and governed their own communities in their own ways. Canada did not give those lands to us because the land was not Canada's to give.