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This article studies the claims for non-territorial autonomy (NTA) of Canada's francophone minority communities (FMCs)—encompassing the over one million French-speaking citizens that live outside the province of Québec—before the courts since the adoption of theCharter of Rights and Freedoms. The findings show that Canadian courts have sought to apply principles of NTA to accommodate FMCs by extending the Canadian language rights regime in order to apply some principles of non-territorial autonomy, in the form of ‘institutional completeness’. In so doing, the courts have opened the door to a legal recognition of positive group rights for this minority. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper presents a geographical and historical overview of the Territory Nunavut (Canada) established in 1999 and inhabited by a majority of Inuit People. The author outlines the process that led to the conclusion of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and the current structure of the government of Nunavut, which can best be described as a form of Inuit self-government. Th e main objective of the paper consists in an overview and analysis of current socio-economic challenges faced by the government of Nunavut. Based on the visions of the Bathurst Mandate, the author attempts to assess the success of the ‘Nunavut Project’. The author concludes that because of Nunavut's weak economy and fi scal dependency on the central federal government of Canada, the numerous socio-economic challenges have not been resolved. The Nunavut experiment has not yet been proven a success. The prosperous vision, expressed through the Bathurst Mandate, of a viable Nunavut seems for now just an illusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the establishment of Aboriginal self-government in Canada, which constitutes a major piece of unfinished business for the Canadian federation. It examines the four different models of Aboriginal government including the public government federal option, "mini-municipalities," a third order of government institutions, and nation-to-nation relations. Arguments related to the further concurrency of powers and asymmetries in Canadian's intergovernmental relation is discussed.