Aboriginal Bill of Rights being created by Native Council of Canada (Alberta)

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Praise from high places is what the Native Council of Canada (Alberta) received on its initiative to create an Aboriginal Bill of Rights.

The NCC(A) received support from Cecillia Johnstone, president of the Canadian Bar Association, in a letter lauding the endeavour which began in April, said NCC(A) president Doris Ronnenbeg.

Johnstone has asked the National Native Justice Section of the bar association to contact lawyers in Alberta who would be interested in assisting in the development of the bill and to consider incorporating a discussion of an Aboriginal Bill of Rights into the program at its annual meeting, Ronnenberg said.

Her organization wants to develop a first draft of an Aboriginal Bill of Rights that could be put on the table of any constitutional talks the country has in the future. The constitutional issue is sure to be revisited in the coming years, predicted Ronnenberg.

The NCC(A) is in the process of a search, whereby the human rights literature of each province, Canada and the world is collected, she said. This phase should be completed by fall at which time a draft human rights bill will be penned.

The draft will be taken to the national office of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples to be added to and refined. Then it will be ready for the national public stage, said Ronnenberg.

With self-government negotiations in full swing, the NCC(A) thinks something must be in place to protect individual Aboriginal rights.

"We're people like any other and we will have disputes. We need an avenue to settle those disputes," she said.