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BRANTFORD, Ont. — An emotional dispute over a family’s decision to pull their cancer-stricken daughter out of chemotherapy ended Friday with a potentially far-reaching constitutional decision, as a judge ruled First Nations’ people have a legal right to seek out traditional native remedies.

That right under the Constitution extends to eschewing modern medicine in the process, suggested Ontario Justice Gethin Edward.

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He rejected a request by the hospital that had been treating the 11-year-old girl to force the local children’s aid society to apprehend her so she could resume chemotherapy. Doctors have said her kind of leukemia has a 90% cure rate with modern treatment, but is an almost certain death sentence without it.

Earning applause from many in a packed courtroom Friday, the judge said traditional health care is an integral part of the family’s Mohawk culture and therefore protected by the Constitution. He cited Section 35(1), a provision that recognizes “existing aboriginal and treaty rights,” but is more often associated with native fishing and hunting practices than treatments for deadly diseases.