A group of First Nations in Canada is turning to the courts in the hope of securing billions of dollars in compensation, after accusing the government of failing to engage in “meaningful negotiations” for money owed under a 175-year-old treaty.
“The governments’ refusal to come to grips with their treaty obligations has continued 175 years of broken promises, lies and neglect,” Wilfred King, chief of Gull Bay First Nation, said in a statement announcing plans to seek compensation that is “just, liberal, generous and honourable”.
The closely watched case – which could see billions awarded to the 12 nations – centres on a treaty signed in 1850 between the British crown and a group of Anishinaabe nations on the shores of Lakes Huron and Superior.
Known as the Robinson treaties, the agreements, covering 35,700 sq miles (92,400 sq km) of land, included a rare “augmentation clause” that promised to increase annual payments “from time to time” as the land generated more wealth – “if and when” that payment could be made without the crown incurring a loss.
Over the next 174 years, the lands and waters covered by the deal generated immense profits for private companies, and substantial revenues for the province of Ontario. But in 1874, the annuities were capped at $4 a person and never increased.
In July, a scathing and unanimous decision released by Canada’s top court criticized the federal and Ontario governments for their “dishonourable” conduct around the treaty, which left First Nations people to struggle in poverty while surrounding communities, industry and government exploited the abundant natural resources to enrich themselves.
“Today, in what can only be described as a mockery of the crown’s treaty promise to the Anishinaabe of the upper Great Lakes, the annuities are distributed to individual treaty beneficiaries by giving them $4 each,” the court wrote, singling out the “shocking” figure paid to beneficiaries. “The crown has severely undermined both the spirit and substance of the Robinson treaties.”
Twenty-one signatories of the Robinson Huron treaty, a separate agreement also signed in 1850, settled out of court for C$10bn, but the Superior group pushed further through the courts to determine how much the federal and provincial governments owe.
In July, the supreme court ordered Ontario and the federal government to wrap negotiations with the Anishnaabe nations within six months. The deadline for an offer was 26 January.
In a press release, the nations said they had only been offered C$3.6bn, a figure that “ignored the economic evidence about how much wealth Canada and Ontario took from our lands”, said King, the chief of Gull Bay First Nation.
“The [crown] consigned our communities to intergenerational poverty while they appropriated tremendous benefits for themselves. They continue to deny to our communities what we have lost as a result of their breaches,” he said. “Their decision today does not make up for 175 years of refusing to share the wealth of our lands.”
In previous testimony, the Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said the amount due to the nations could approach C$126bn.
“If you’ve owed somebody something, year after year after year, for 170 years, it’s a lot of money,” he told the court in February 2023.
Signatories of the treaty plan say they will ask Patricia Hennessy of the Ontario superior court of justice to determine the amount they are rightfully owed.
Chief Patricia Tangie of Michipicoten First Nation said the fight was about both previous losses and future generations.
“Just as our ancestors in 1850 sought to secure benefits for their descendants, we today also take our role seriously for our next seven generations. We are carrying on with this struggle so that our children and grandchildren do not have to suffer like so many of our people have for more than a century and a half,” she said.
“That suffering continues to include poverty, poor health and shortened life expectancy.”
