may 1, 1982 - The Constitution Act, 1982

Description:

The Constitution Act completed the unfinished business of Canadian independence. The law was enacted by the British parliament following months of political negotiation in Canada between the federal and provincial governments about how to "patriate" the country's last British-held powers from London.

The resulting Constitution Act, 1982 made several changes to Canada’s constitutional structure, the two most important being the creation of an amending formula, and the entrenchment in the Constitution of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Reaffirms the existing rights of the Indigenous peoples of Canada, though these are left largely undefined. In addition, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees Indigenous peoples their rights under the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which specified that they would continue to hold all lands they had not ceded or sold.