Celebrating Canada’s National Aboriginal Day with a New Addition to the Indigenous Law Portal

June 21^st is National Aboriginal Day in Canada, and in celebration of this event, we are proud to open the Canadian portion of the Indigenous Law Portal. This new segment of the portal expands our coverage for the first time beyond the United States.

The Canadian portion of the Indigenous Law Portal is divided into three regions: Eastern, Western, and Northern Canada.  These regions closely follow the recently updated K Class - Law Classification.  In addition to the regions, you can browse the legal information by province or alphabetically.  There are some interesting anomalies. For example, while the Nunavik area is part of the Quebec province (in the Eastern region), the people fit better into the Northern region, as they are culturally similar to those in the Inuit Nunangat.

National Aboriginal Day began in 1996. A Proclamation declaring June 21 of each year as National Aboriginal Day made the summer solstice, June 21^st, a day to recognize the heritage, culture, and achievements of the aboriginal peoples. This includes the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. National Aboriginal Day is the first of four celebrations known collectively as “Celebrate Canada.” Following National Aboriginal Day are Saint Jean-Baptiste Day (June 24^th), Canadian Multiculturalism Day (June 27^th), and Canada Day (July 1^st).

In celebration with Canada and especially National Aboriginal Day, we are proud to announce the availability of the Canadian portion of the Indigenous Law Portal. Thanks to Tina Gheen, Jolande Goldberg, and all the interns who helped make this a reality! I hope you will find it as useful as the other portions of the Indigenous Law Portal.

We welcome your feedback and look forward to sharing our next expansion: Mexico.

Update: This was originally published as a guest post by Jennifer González. The author information has been updated to reflect that Jennifer is now an In Custodia Legis blogger.