The Sto:lo world view and the individualism of Canadian law

The goal of this study is to determine how the individual rights, particularly those enshrined in civil law and the Charter of Rights affect the holistic aspect of the Sto:lo winter dances. The Thomas v. Norris court case is the case study. This court case provides an example of a Canadian court that ruled in favour of individual rights, via civil law, in a case that involved the longhouse of an Aboriginal nation. Eight members of the Sto:lo Nation were interviewed for this study. The role of the Charter of Rights in Aboriginal communities is also included in this study to provide another example of individual rights in Canadian law and to determine the opinions of the interviewees regarding the Charter of Rights. This study describes the holistic nature of the winter dances, including six descriptions of the holism in winter dances by Sto:lo interviewees. Of the four Sto:lo interviewees asked, four agreed that Canadian law has the potential to affect the holistic nature of the winter dances. When asked if the Charter of Rights should be the law governing the Sto:lo longhouses, none of the five Sto:lo interviewees felt that it should be applicable. There was an array of answers from the six interviewees asked whether the Charter of Rights should apply to the Sto:lo Nation as a whole community. This difference in responses between the disapproval of the Charter of Rights being the law that governs the longhouses and the mixed responses given with regard to the Charter of Rights applying to the Sto:lo Nation community suggests that there is a difference in context between the applicability of the Canadian laws to the Sto:lo longhouses as opposed to the Sto:lo Nation community.