Factum of the Intervener: Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (“FSIN”) submits that the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth, and families, SC 2019, c 24 (“the Act”) is constitutional and that the vast majority of the findings of the Quebec Court of Appeal are correct. [...] The purpose of these arguments is to underline the real-world consequences of the positions adopted by the parties, and to ensure that the outcome of this Appeal provides First Nations with a meaningful opportunity to address the needs of children and families in their communities. [...] The AGQ argues that the failure of the constitutional conferences and proposed amendments of the 80s and 90s demonstrates that no Indigenous right to self-government exists in the Canadian constitution.22 This is not the case: the failure to adopt the various proposed amendments does not mean that the right to self-government is not recognized in the constitution; rather, it demonstrates that the. [...] The concept of “actual conflict” is part of the “operational conflict” arm of the paramountcy analysis, which requires, for a provincial law to be rendered inoperative, that there be conflict so marked that “one enactment says ‘yes’ and the other says ‘no’, such that ‘compliance with one is defiance of the other.’”34 Under the Court of Appeal’s approach, the burden of demonstrating this conflict w. [...] Pursuant to subsection 42(3) of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Canada, the FSIN makes no statement with respect to the outcome of this appeal.