R. V. Sparrow Case Study

R. v. Sparrow is the most famous case in Canadian history, it helped to set up the foundations for future cases involving Aboriginal fishing rights. In the court Sparrow was charged with “fishing with net longer than permitted by band's Indian food, fishing licence - Indian right to fish for food constituting existing aboriginal rights protected by s. 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982 ” (1990 CarswellBC 105), the government forced aboriginals to start getting fishing licenses. This was conflicted by s. 31 of the Constitution Act, which states that aboriginals do not need a fishing license to fish on-season and off-season. But new laws required that everyone needs a fishing license in order to fish. The new laws also banned someway that aboriginals fished such as the use of drift nets which Sparrow was using during the time that he was caught.
Meanwhile the court had determined due the long history since colonial times …show more content…
Due to the fact that you need to get an already existing license from someone else. As the “licenses are issued as communal licenses for Native bands, not to individuals” (McGaw, 2), as well as the fact that only a certain amount of people within the Aboriginal community are able to use the license that is issued to them as a whole. This is not the same for everyone else Canada, as licenses for them are issued according to the vessel or fisher. Meanwhile the government states that through the “terms of an agreement, as understood by the Band, is that a communal licenses is one in which “catches will be the property of the Band, fished from vessels owned by the Band with profits going to the Band for the collective benefit of the [community]” (McGaw, 2). By doing this the government has assured that only a certain amount of Aboriginals will gain access to fishing licenses, which will help different species of fishes from going