"The plan (Charlottetown Accord) would have recognized aboriginal rights to self-government and Quebec as a distinct society, among many other things, but was voted down in a national referendum."

Sure glad to see that I'm not the only one who remembers that. In BC, 68% of BC voters said no to the idea of creating another level of government.  62% of on reserve aboriginal people also said no to self government, the majority of those aboriginal women. Unfortunately though, within days of the vote NDP leaders in both BC and Ontario jumped up and claimed that they would fully support the right to self government, exactly what their constituents had just said no to. So off we went on a political and legal gong show that has now gone on for 25 years and has solved nothing.