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Exploring Stakeholder: "Government of Canada"
Updates on this page: 55
(Filtered by Theme "Court Cases")
May 2, 2024
‘We are also human beings’: Quebec court authorizes off reserve class-action lawsuit against province, Canada
A lawsuit filed in a Quebec court alleges that Quebec and Canada discriminated against Inuit children in Nunavik’s 14 communities including Kuujjuaq. Photo: APTN. APTN News: After months of waiting, a class-action lawsuit brought by two Inuit women who say they suffered harm in the province’s child welfare system is proceeding against Quebec and Canada....
April 24, 2024
Nunavut court frees defrocked Oblate priest on bail
Eric Dejaeger has been convicted of dozens of sexual offences in Canada, involving children, adults and animals Former Nunavut priest Eric Dejaeger during his trial in Iqaluit. Photo: APTN file APTN News: A defrocked priest convicted of sexually abusing children in Nunavut will be flown to Kingston, Ont., to live in a federal half-way house...
April 24, 2024
Peguis First Nation launches $1B flood damages lawsuit against feds, province and 2 municipalities
First Nation, forcibly displaced in 1907, claims government failed to provide safe place to live CBC News: Peguis First Nation has filed a $1-billion flood-damages lawsuit against the federal government, the provincial government and two municipalities located upstream of the Ojibway and Cree community in Manitoba’s northern Interlake. In a statement of claim filed before...
March 28, 2024
Canada, Manitoba point fingers at each other in response to off-reserve child welfare lawsuit
The Canadian flag flies at the Manitoba legislature in WInnipeg. Photo: Jared Delorme/APTN. APTN News: A class-action lawsuit filed by two First Nations women in Manitoba on behalf of off-reserve survivors of the child welfare system is heading to court with each of the defendants blaming the other. Both Canada and Manitoba are asking for...
March 13, 2024
B.C. judge warns of ‘tsunami’ of Indigenous identity fraud cases
Baptist pastor charged with possessing child pornography claimed Métis status based on great-great-grandparent WARNING: This story contains details of child sexual exploitation and pornography. CBC News: After he was charged with possessing child pornography, Nathan Allen Joseph Legault discovered a figure from his past he hoped might help with his future. The Prince Rupert, B.C., man...
March 11, 2024
Opposition parties call for the day school settlement agreement to be reopened
NDP MPs, Green Party deputy leader want day school survivors to be able to resubmit their claims CBC News: The federal NDP and the Green Party are urging Ottawa to reopen the multi-billion-dollar federal Indian day school settlement agreement. The opposition lawmakers issued the call in response to a CBC News report about day school survivors who...
March 5, 2024
Day school settlement has paid out $5.7B in claims. A Supreme Court petition says survivors were shortchanged
Multibillion-dollar deal was supposed to bring justice but brought more pain for some WARNING: This story contains details of experiences at Indian day schools. Click on the following link to read the original article and view all videos: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/day-school-survivors-supreme-court-1.7132933?cmp=newsletter_Morning%20Headlines%20from%20CBC%20News_1613_1424097 CBC News: A Cree survivor of the federal Indian day school system is asking Canada’s top court to...
February 29, 2024
Proposed class-action lawsuit aims to compensate children of residential school survivors
Lawyer feels it’s time to seek redress for what Indigenous leaders refer to as the ongoing effects of inter-generational trauma. Matthew Brandon (centre) is flanked by his guardians, Chris Gardiner and Shannon Berard-Gardiner. Photo: Submitted A new class-action lawsuit is being proposed to compensate children of residential school survivors for inter-generational trauma, APTN News has...
February 9, 2024
Algonquin Nation nuclear waste site court challenge a ‘litmus test’ for federal United Nations Declaration Act
By Matteo Cimellaro & Natasha Bulowski | News, Urban Indigenous Communities in Ottawa Lance Haymond, chief of Kebaowek First Nation, at the final licensing hearing for the near-surface disposal facility on Aug. 10, 2023. Photo by Natasha Bulowski / Canada’s National Observer Listen to article Canada’s National Observer: An Algonquin Nation is taking Ottawa to court over the approval of a nuclear...
February 7, 2024
Manitoba chief proposes class action against feds over ‘effectively worthless’ $5 treaty payments
Treaty 4 signatories ‘never intended for the annuities to be frozen in time,’ Waywayseecappo chief’s suit says CBC Indigenous: A Manitoba First Nation chief is joining a growing list of Indigenous communities that allege the federal government has violated treaty agreements by not increasing $5 annuity payments to keep up with inflation over the past 150 years. Waywayseecappo First...
February 7, 2024
Kebaowek First Nation launches judicial review of Chalk River waste disposal project
APTN News: An Algonquin community in Quebec is launching a judicial review of a decision by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to allow the disposal of limited kinds of nuclear waste at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories campus in Deep River, Ont., located about 180 km west of Ottawa in Quebec. In its application to...
December 16, 2023
Manitoba First Nation sues feds, alleges unchanged $5 annuity payments violate treaty
Class-action status sought in suit against Ottawa by 36 First Nations in Treaty 5 CBC Indigenous: Fisher River Cree Nation wants class-action status for its lawsuit against the federal government, which alleges the $5 annuities paid to Treaty 5 First Nations over the last 148 years violate the agreement because they don’t keep up with inflation....
December 9, 2023
U.S. Indigenous group in Canada competes for territorial claims against Canadian Indigenous nations
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPEINTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT NELSON, B.C. FOR SUBSCRIBERS The Globe and Mail: PUBLISHED YESTERDAY UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO A U.S. Indigenous group has established a formal presence in British Columbia and is pushing for government recognition and funding, two years after a Canadian Supreme Court ruling declared it “an Aboriginal people of Canada.” The office of the Sinixt...
November 16, 2023
Off-reserve Indigenous children say they’ve been ‘forgotten’ by federal government, seek compensation over child-welfare system
The Globe and Mail: Thousands of Indigenous children who live off reserve have been “forgotten” by the federal government when it comes to acknowledging harms caused by the child-welfare system, the lead representative plaintiff of a class-action lawsuit says. Cheyenne Stonechild, a Cree woman who was taken from her mother at the age of eight...
October 31, 2023
Indigenous staff press ahead with discrimination lawsuit against on-reserve oil and gas agency
Lead plaintiff calls allegations ‘disturbing’ CBC Indigenous: Indigenous civil servants are seeking Federal Court certification for a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging systemic racism and chronic toxicity at the Canadian government’s on-reserve oil and gas agency. The plaintiffs filed a batch of affidavits last month, detailing allegations of pervasive bullying, discrimination, harassment and intimidation at Indian Oil...
October 26, 2023
Government has to ‘keep focused’ and stop discriminating against First Nations kids says Blackstock
Also on the show, a discussion about state support in the face of conflict. APTN News: Canada has the answers to stop discriminating against First Nations children as ordered by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and now is the time to do it says Cindy Blackstock. “They actually have solutions on the books and they’ve...
October 23, 2023
AFN Presents Final Settlement Agreement for First Nations Children and Families to Federal Court of Canada
NationTalk: (Ottawa, Unceded Algonquin Territory, Ontario) – The Assembly of First Nations’ (AFN) legal counsel, along with representatives for class action parties Moushoom and Trout, will appear before the Federal Court of Canada today to seek the approval of the Final Settlement Agreement (FSA) on compensation. This will be final step to ensure First Nations...
October 18, 2023
B.C. imprisons people we should listen to
Swaysən Will George outside the courthouse in Vancouver. Photo by Donna Clark Listen to article Canada’s National Observer: Swaysən Will George’s name in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ means, “When he speaks, they listen.” The B.C. Supreme Court did not seem to be listening well to Tsleil-Waututh member Will George when they sentenced him to 28 days in jail for upholding his sacred responsibility...
September 27, 2023
Aboriginal Rights as a Tool of Colonialism: Part Two: First Peoples Law Report
Aboriginal Rights as a Tool of Colonialism: Part TwoBy Bruce McIvorYou can read Part One of Aboriginal Rights as a Tool of Colonialism here. The Constitution Act, 1982 held the promise of a new day for the recognition of Indigenous rights. Section 35 recognized and affirmed the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of Aboriginal people. But when the...
September 26, 2023
Proposed class-action suit alleges abuse at hands of Quebec youth protection services
Click on thy following link to view the video: Global News: A team of lawyers representing Inuit children and their families in Nunavik and Indigenous children not living on reserves in Quebec are seeking to launch a class-action lawsuit against the provincial and federal governments over discrimination they claim was suffered related to the director...
September 22, 2023
First Nations in northern Ontario seek over $100B to honour treaty promise
APTN News: The Canadian Press -A legal battle playing out in a northern Ontario courtroom this month has seen an alliance of First Nations argue they are owed upwards of $100 billion for the Crown’s failure to honour a 173-year-old treaty promise, while the federal and provincial governments claim they are either owed far less,...
September 12, 2023
Final arguments begin in a lawsuit that could award Ontario Indigenous groups billions
The Globe and Mail: First published September 11 – It has the potential to be the biggest litigation award in Canadian history and it all hinges on a clause scrawled 173 years ago. First Nations located around the resource-rich northern shore of Lake Superior are asking for $126-billion in compensation for the Crown’s failure to pay...
September 1, 2023
Federal Court rules 2022 elver quota transfer to First Nations fair and reasonable
HALIFAX — The Federal Court has affirmed Ottawa’s move in 2022 to transfer part of the lucrative elver fishery quota in the Maritimes to First Nations fishers. In a written decision dated Aug. NationTalk: Alaska Highway News: HALIFAX — The Federal Court has affirmed Ottawa’s move in 2022 to transfer part of the lucrative elver...
August 18, 2023
Algonquins get green light to sue over recognition of Ontario Métis groups
Province in ‘open water’ on competing First Nations-Métis claims, appeal court holds CBC News: The Algonquin Nation is free to sue the Ontario government over the 2017 recognition of Métis communities on unceded Algonquin territory, the province’s top court has ruled. In a unanimous decision rendered Thursday, the Ontario Court of Appeal rejected a bid...
August 16, 2023
Ottawa won’t regulate how lawyers bill First Nations clients after concerns raised over ‘unfair’ fees
PATRICK WHITE The Globe and Mail: One of Western Canada’s largest law firms has petitioned Ottawa to legislate “unfair and unreasonable” legal fees that it says some rival firms are charging First Nations involved in historic claims against the government. In June, two lawyers from MLT Aikins, which has more than 300 lawyers across Western Canada,...
August 9, 2023
Settlement reached in class-action lawsuit against convicted ex-priest who abused First Nations youth
Ralph Rowe is believed to have abused up to 500 children in northern Ontario, Manitoba WARNING: This article contains details of sexual abuse. CBC News: A multi-million dollar settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit against a former priest convicted of 75 sexual crimes, his employer, the Anglican Church’s Synod of the Diocese of...
June 19, 2023
RCMP says there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to lay charges in SNC-Lavalin affair
Police service confirms it has closed the file CBC News: The RCMP says it found “insufficient evidence” to lay criminal charges related to the SNC-Lavalin affair and confirms it has since concluded its file. It’s the first time the national police force has officially confirmed that it’s no longer probing the political scandal that rocked...
June 13, 2023
Judge reserves decision on motion to extend Indian day school claims deadline
Six Nations chief calls Justice Canada’s arguments against extension ‘a slap in the face’ CBC News: Indian day school survivors who haven’t claimed compensation under a national class-action settlement will have to wait a little longer to learn if they’ll ever get the chance. Federal Court Justice Sébastien Grammond reserved his decision Tuesday after a two-day...
April 26, 2023
Can the Crown make land decisions without First Nations consent? Treaty 9 lawsuit argues no
Lawyer calls lawsuit ‘frontal attack’ on colonial idea governments have ‘supreme right to rule’ CBC News: Several First Nations have announced their intention to take the Ontario and Canadian governments to court, in a lawsuit their lead lawyer says could fundamentally change the way resource and land management decisions are made in the Treaty 9 area. Leaders...
April 26, 2023
10 First Nations sue Ontario and Canada over resource extraction and broken Treaty 9 promises
Arguing that resource extraction has violated Indigenous jurisdiction for over a century, the case could stall the Ontario government’s plans to mine the Ring of Fire The Narwhal: Ten northern First Nations launched a lawsuit against the Ontario and federal governments Wednesday, arguing that resource extraction on their territories has infringed upon their jurisdiction for...
April 25, 2023
This Ojibway man served his sentence, then says the Crown tried to put strict conditions on his release
Case of Shaldon Wabason, who fought and won peace bond attempt, raises concerns involving Indigenous people CBC News: A man from an Ojibway First Nation in northwestern Ontario says Crown lawyers wrongfully tried to impose unnecessarily strict conditions on his release from jail. Shaldon Wabason, who’s from Whitesand First Nation, and his lawyers say prosecutors in...
April 16, 2023
Justice miscarried
Book explores convictions where accused entered false guilty plea EXCERPTED FROM “WRONGFULLY CONVICTED: GUILTY PLEAS, IMAGINED CRIMES, AND WHAT CANADA MUST DO TO SAFEGUARD JUSTICE” BY KENT ROACH. PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER CANADA. COPYRIGHT © 2023. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Toronto Star: Beyond the infamous cases, Canada has a major problem with wrongful convictions, argues...
March 26, 2023
My visit with Odelia Quewezance — jailed for a murder she says she didn’t commit — stirs up hope but opens old wounds
Quewezance, convicted with her sister in a killing her cousin confessed to, may be on the cusp of freedom. Why a visit to her home stirred old emotions. The Toronto Star: RHEIN, Sask.—Odelia Quewezance knew she had to stay strong, at least for a few more weeks. The slender 51- year-old Salteaux woman smiled often...
March 14, 2023
First Nations sue Canada over child-welfare system’s destruction of culture, language
Proposed class action seeks collective compensation for community-level harms CBC News: Ten Prairie-based First Nations are suing the Canadian government over the loss of language, culture and tradition inflicted on communities by the modern First Nations child-welfare system. Chief David Crate of Fisher River Cree Nation north of Winnipeg is the lead plaintiff in the proposed class-action lawsuit filed...
March 13, 2023
Years of abuse in Cambridge Bay group home went ignored, lawsuit alleges
Eight people say they were sexually assaulted and beaten by a couple who ran the home in the ‘70s, ‘80s WARNING: This story discusses the physical and sexual abuse of children. CBC News: On a dusty plot of land in the western Arctic community of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, sits a slightly out-of-place modern looking building...
March 7, 2023
Métis Nation B.C. in court after feds say it doesn’t qualify as ‘Indigenous governing body’
Canada sparked dispute by rejecting MNBC bid to opt into Indigenous child-welfare law CBC News: The Canadian government is blocking a bid by the Métis Nation British Columbia (MNBC) to opt into federal Indigenous child-welfare law on the grounds MNBC doesn’t qualify as an “Indigenous governing body,” Federal Court files show. The decision sparked an ongoing...
February 24, 2023
New registry shows Indigenous Peoples largely shut out of wrongful conviction cases
Reporting by APTN News helped inspire new Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions APTN News: A team of Indigenous law students have built Canada’s first registry of wrongful convictions. Their database, which went live this week, confirms that mostly white, middle-class men have been exonerated so far. “It does not reflect the most vulnerable people in...
February 19, 2023
Hereditary Chief refuses to leave job, but band members have voted to oust her
The Globe and Mail: The Chief of a tiny Fraser Valley First Nation is refusing to leave the job her father appointed her to 30 years ago, saying the band’s oral laws mean she is its legitimate leader. But a group of opponents within the Kwantlen First Nation are escalating their four-year fight to fire...
February 8, 2023
They fought for decades to be recognized as Indigenous. Now they want to take the federal government to court
NationTalk: Canada’s National Observer: Daphne Young is Ojibwe. But she grew up in Nipigon, Ont., estranged from her culture and people at Red Rock First Nation. Her family was removed from band lists more than a century ago when her great-grandfather, Frank Hardy, joined the Canadian Armed Forces before the First World War. Like most...
February 8, 2023
Manitoba First Nations man sues federal government for $11B over ‘unfulfilled’ treaty annuity payments
Zongidaya Nelson argues Crown failed to meet treaty obligations with 7 Treaty 1 nations dating back to 1871 CBC News: A First Nations man is seeking $11 billion from the Canadian government on behalf of Treaty 1 status members he argues are owed “full and fair” annual payments promised by the Crown as part of...
February 7, 2023
First Nations owed over $100B under 1850 Ontario treaty: Nobel-winning economist – National Post
Joseph Stiglitz is testifying in a Sudbury, Ont., courtroom why First Nations may have been short-changed under a revenue-sharing treaty signed in 1850 NationTalk: National Post – He is a Nobel prize winner, former vice president of the World Bank and one of the globe’s most famous economists. And this week Joseph Stiglitz is testifying...
February 2, 2023
Ontario says it doesn’t owe First Nations seeking compensation for broken treaty
The Globe and Mail: Indigenous communities are in court seeking billions of dollars in compensation after almost 150 years of receiving small annual payments in return for ceding an area the size of France. But the Ontario government is arguing they are owed nothing, or at most $34-million. The wide divergence in claims was on...
January 26, 2023
Indigenous identity at core of Qalipu membership challenge trial in St. John’s
Final arguments are to be heard next week NationTalk: SaltWire – ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Testimony has wrapped up, but observers across the country are interested to see what comes of a court case in St. John’s involving a group of Mi’kmaw residents whose memberships in the Qalipu First Nation were revoked when a new point system was brought...
January 24, 2023
Métis survivors sue Saskatchewan, Canada over residential school
Class-action suit launched over the Île-à-la-Crosse school in northern Saskatchewan after Métis were left out of previous settlements. Toronto Star: For survivors of one of the oldest residential schools in Canada, it’s been a long time coming. Métis survivors who attended the Île-à-la-Crosse residential school in northern Saskatchewan have launched a class-action lawsuit against the...
January 16, 2023
Qalipu First Nation enrolment controversy reaches ‘pivotal point’ as court challenge begins
Group wants 2013 supplemental agreement abolished CBC News: The long-simmering fight over membership in Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation is entering a new chapter Monday, as a group of people rejected in a controversial enrolment process head to court. The Friends of Qalipu Advocacy Association is challenging a 2013 supplemental agreement between the federal government and...
December 21, 2022
Indian Day School (IDS) Survivors Demand Fair Timeline to Seek Compensation
NationTalk: SIX NATIONS OF GRAND RIVER, ON, Dec. 21, 2022 – Legal action has been launched against the federal government over a class action Settlement Agreement (The Agreement) providing compensation for systemic abuse suffered by First Nations children attending government-run IDS. The Six Nations of the Grand River Elected Council (Six Nations) and class member Audrey Hill (Ms. Hill) assert...
June 21, 2022
Off-reserve Indigenous children’s class-action approved
Toronto Star: The Federal Court of Canada has certified a class-action lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of off-reserve Indigenous children who were taken from their families and placed in non-Indigenous care. In a decision released online Monday, Federal Court Judge Michael Phelan ruled the class period will cover from Jan. 1, 1992 to...
December 17, 2021
Incarceration rates of Indigenous people
Correctional Investigator – The Correctional Investigator, Dr. Ivan Zinger, released new data that shows that the proportion of incarcerated Indigenous women has continued to increase unabated, and is nearing 50% of all federally-sentenced women. On January 21, 2020, the Office of the Correctional Investigator reported that the proportion of Indigenous men and women in federal...
January 12, 2021
Custody Rating Scale lawsuit
Globe and Mail – A class-action lawsuit filed in federal court challenges the Custody Rating Scale, a 12-question risk assessment tool developed by Correctional Services Canada in the 1980s and in widespread use. The suite is file on behalf of tens of thousands of inmates over systemic bias in its security classifications which affect inmates’...
September 25, 2020
MMIWG Class Action Lawsuit
Southern Chiefs Organization – Strongly disagrees with the federal government’s arguments that Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people do not face a “special threat from a special source” and are not unique victims of criminal violence. SCO believes they fly in the face of the findings of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous...
September 21, 2020
Supreme Court on Indigenous laws
Clarification and validation of Indigenous rights and treaty as asserted by the Supreme Court of Canada in Delgamuukw, 1997. Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) – AMC will be intervening at the Supreme Court of Canada…to argue that First Nation constitutional orders are distinct but equal to Euro-Canadian laws. The Court will address the most fundamental...
July 2, 2020
Supreme Court: Trans Mountain Pipeline appeal
BIV – Business in Vancouver – The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear an appeal of the federal government’s approval of the $12.6 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which is already under construction. The Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish First Nations and Coldwater Indian Band had appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada to hear...
October 6, 2019
Federal Government asks for Judicial Review of CHRT decision
The federal government has asked for a judicial review of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) decision to award $2B in damages to approximately 53,000 Indigenous children and youth wrongly removed or denied essential services. The CHRT panel found that the government racially discriminated against First Nations children in care in a willful and reckless manner. As a result, the CHRT ordered...
September 6, 2019
Federal Government asks for Judicial Review of CHRT decision
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal Citation: 2019 CHRT39, File No.: T1340/7008 We believe that the Creator has entrusted us with the sacred responsibility to raise our families…for we realize healthy families are the foundation of strong and healthy communities. The future of our communities lies with our children, who need to be nurtured within their families...
October 11, 2018
Duty to Consult vs Indigenous laws and treaties
The Conservation – Mikisew Cree First Nation v. Canada Supreme Court Decision ruling on the application of the Duty to Consult doctrine and if it can be applied to the federal legislation-making process. The case originates from Mikisew Cree First Nation’s challenge of the 2012 Omnibus bills introduced under the previous federal government that made...