Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 27, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba 190 Raymond Place. Winnipeg, MB *Conditions Apply All Inclusive Retirement Living CHOICE SUITES AVAILABLE - Three full meals per day plus snacks - All amenities included with weekly housekeeping and utilities - Emergency response system inclusive of personal pendants - 24 hour staff on site F I R S T M O N T H F R E E * CONNECT WITH OUR WARM AND INVITING COMMUNITY IN THE HEART OF ST. BONIFACE Call to book your tour today at 204-231-0999 Find us on Facebook, or online at www.catherineplace.com IMMEDIATE AVAILABILITY RAFFLE ASSINIBOINE PARK F U N D R A I S I N G Tickets JUST DRAW DATE AUGUST 28 WIN 1 OF 10 INCREDIBLE PRIZES LGCA 4914-RF-44190 PRESENTED BY THANK YOU TO OUR 2024 ASSINIBOINE PARK GARDEN PARTY SUPPORTERS: SUSAN GLASS & ARNI THORSTEINSON, SHELTER CANADIAN PROPERTIES LIMITED FRANTIC FILMS | BILL & THERESA PARRISH | DASHIR LODGE & SAFARIS | ARLENE & ALLAN WINNIPEG FREE PRESS | THE ASPER FOUNDATION | BIRCHWOOD BMW / LAND ROVER WINNIPEG WIN A FRANCE RIVER CRUISE! A12 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I CANADA SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2024 Crown must settle with First Nations for breaching treaties: SCC OTTAWA — The Crown made a mock- ery of its treaty promise to the Anishi- naabe in Ontario by freezing annual payments to First Nations for 150 years and it now must make things right, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. The top court issued a unanimous decision Friday in the case of the Rob- inson Treaties, ordering the Canadian and Ontario governments to negotiate a settlement with one group of First Na- tions plaintiffs within six months. The two treaties were signed in 1850, ceding more than 100,000 square kilo- metres of land in the upper Great Lakes region to the Crown in return for an- nual payments to the Anishinaabe of Lake Huron and of Lake Superior. The agreements said the payments should increase over time as resources were developed on the land, so long as the Crown did not incur a loss. Chiefs were able to negotiate an increase to $4 per person in 1875. “Today, in what can only be de- scribed 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,” Supreme Court Justice Mahmud Jamal wrote in the decision. The Supreme Court said the Crown had a mandatory obligation to raise that amount when the economic circum- stances warranted and failure to do so undermined the spirit and substance of the treaties. “For almost a century and a half, the Anishinaabe have been left with an empty shell of a treaty promise,” Jamal wrote. The decision noted that the Crown has derived “enormous economic bene- fit” from the land through mining and other activities over the years, while First Nations communities have suf- fered with inadequate housing and boil water advisories. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said people have been living in abject poverty. Representatives from Anishinaabe communities who came to the Supreme Court building in Ottawa to hear the decision hugged and wiped away tears when they heard the result. “I’m happy that today came after 175 years. You know, it’s a long time com- ing, we have suffered all those years, no economic benefits to our commun- ity, and it’s been hard,” said Whitesand First Nation Chief Lawrence Wa- nakamik. The Crown must increase the annual payments but the decision does not say by how much. Instead, the ruling sets a path forward for one of the two plaintiff groups that has not already reached a settlement with the governments. The beneficiaries of the Robin- son-Huron Treaty finalized a deal in February that will see the governments of Canada and Ontario pay $5 billion each to make up for failing to increase the payments since 1875. The two sides are still in negotiations to determine how much the annual payments will be going forward. The Crown has been ordered to nego- tiate a settlement with the beneficiaries of the Robinson-Superior Treaty by Jan. 26 next year. Harley Schachter, the lawyer for the Red Rock and Whitesand First Nations, called the decision a victory for democ- racy and for all Canadians. “Twenty-five years ago when Red Rock and Whitesand took on this case, the governments said there was no obli- gation, there was no treaty right to an increased annuity, there was no right to share the wealth of the treaty terri- tory,” he said. “Today, that is over.” The initial claims in the case were filed in 2001 by the Robinson-Superior beneficiaries and in 2014 by the Rob- inson-Huron beneficiaries. They were later combined. The Ontario government tried to have the case thrown out because of the statute of limitations but the Supreme Court rejected that argument, ruling that treaty rights are constitutional and the statute does not apply. Ontario also argued that it had suf- fered a net loss in developing the region over the years. The federal govern- ment, however, conceded it would owe a considerable amount. At the time the treaties were signed in 1850, there were 1,422 beneficiaries of the Robinson-Huron Treaty and 1,240 beneficiaries of the Robinson-Su- perior Treaty. It’s believed the Robinson-Huron Treaty beneficiaries now number around 30,000 people who belong to 22 First Nations communities, while there are an estimated 15,000 Robinson-Su- perior Treaty beneficiaries across as many as 12 First Nations. Schachter said his clients believe they are owed more than the $10 billion the Robinson-Huron group agreed to “and that maybe the Hurons are owed more than $10 billion as well.” The Su- perior group asked for more than $126 billion at trial. Jamal wrote that the amount will be substantial. “The Anishinaabe signa- tories cannot now be short-changed by the Crown’s sticker shock, which is solely the result of the Crown’s own dis- honourable neglect of its sacred treaty promises.” — The Canadian Press SARAH RITCHIE Turpel-Lafonde won’t sue CBC over Cree heritage report that took ‘heavy toll’: lawyer THE lawyer for a former judge whose claims to be Cree were questioned in a CBC investiga- tion says his client is not considering legal action against the broadcaster after the Law Society of British Columbia this week backed her claims of Indigenous heritage. Instead, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond wants to “get on with her life,” lawyer David Wotherspoon said Friday, a day after the release of an agreed statement of facts between his client and the soci- ety that said an independent geneticist found she “most likely” had very recent ancestors with sub- stantial Indigenous DNA. It said the DNA test and geneticist’s analysis were provided by Turpel-Lafond. “She’s not interested in looking backwards. She wants to go forward,” Wotherspoon said in a phone interview. He said the accusations against her have taken a “heavy toll.” Turpel-Lafond, a lawyer well known for her work on Indigenous rights, previously served as B.C.’s representative for children and youth and was a recipient of the Order of Canada. She had also worked as the director of the Indi- an Residential School History and Dialogue Cen- tre at the University of British Columbia, where she was a tenured law professor until late 2022. Her Indigenous identity was called into ques- tion in a 2022 CBC News investigation that also found she had misrepresented some of her cre- dentials. After the CBC investigation, Turpel-Lafond was removed from the Order of Canada at her own request, and returned honorary degrees from several universities. Other universities re- scinded their awards. The law society conducted an 18-month inves- tigation culminating in an agreed statement of facts released Thursday. “The DNA test results indicate that genomic markers known to be disproportionately present in Indigenous populations are present in the Lawyer’s DNA sequencing results,” it said in an agreed statement of facts. Aside from the findings on her ancestry, the law society confirmed Turpel-Lafond did misrepre- sent certain credentials, including the length of time she spent as a tenured professor at Dalhousie Law School, and ordered her to pay $10,000 to a non-profit organization that supports Indigenous justice. A CBC spokesman said the law society’s report adds to its original reporting, which the broad- caster stands behind. “CBC News reported that some of Turpel-La- fond’s claims about her Cree ancestry, her treaty Indian status, the community where she grew up and her academic accomplishments are inconsis- tent with publicly available documents,” Chuck Thompson, head of public affairs, said in an email. “Nothing in (Thursday’s) report changes those findings. We welcome new information, which CBC News will examine as we would any new ele- ments of a story that come to light.” Turpel-Lafond’s lawyer said having “her iden- tity stolen from her” based on incorrect infor- mation had affected his client professionally and personally. “Her parents and her grandparents told her that her father was Cree. And she had an excellent ca- reer that was largely focused on doing work on behalf of First Nations, and she’s an expert in that area of the law,” Wotherspoon said. “And then to be wrongly accused of not being Indigenous — just for anybody that would tear at the fabric of who they are. And it’s had a very heavy toll on her.” He said Turpel-Lafond had not yet decided on her next steps. “I can tell you I have encouraged her to get back to practice, because I think the contribution she makes to the legal community is enormous, and it’s missed,” he said. “But I don’t know if she will.” Asked whether Turpel-Lafond would seek to be reinstated to the Order of Canada, Wotherspoon said they had not discussed the issue. “It would certainly be nice if the Order of Can- ada folks recognized that she does deserve the award and voluntarily gave it back to her,” he said. — The Canadian Press PAOLA LORIGGIO Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, a lawyer and former judge whose Indigenous heritigage was questioned by a CBC investigation, will not sue the public broadcaster despite the “heavy toll” the accusations took on her professional life. DARRYL DYCK / CANADIAN PRESS FILES ;