Current Problems: Treaties and Land Claims
Exploring Theme: "Land Claims"
Updates on this page: 47
October 7, 2024
Indigenous groups in U.S. and Canada clash over cross-border land claims
Globe and Mail: One of the most powerful Indigenous alliances in Canada is opening a new campaign to sideline a tribal group in the U.S. that has claimed the right to influence development and resources in a large swath of British Columbia. The Okanagan Nation Alliance, the group in Canada, says governments and industry need...
August 22, 2024
Feds warn Ontario Algonquins not to ‘usurp’ own organization’s modern treaty talks
Some Algonquin nation members say Crown concerns are contradictory, colonial CBC Indigenous: Federal officials warned Ontario Algonquin leaders not to “usurp” their own organization’s modern treaty talks, amid a political restructuring that has paused the potentially billion-dollar negotiations, a newly released document says. In a March 8 memo for the minister, Crown-Indigenous Relations officials say “although a key...
August 20, 2024
$46M land claim vote delayed: Walpole Island may be entitled to much more, researchers say
Walpole Island community’s vote on a $46-million land claim offer has been delayed. First Peoples Law Report: Chatham Daily News – WALPOLE ISLAND – This First Nation community’s vote on a $46-million land claim offer has been delayed, and two residents say it’s a chance to substantiate that the community may be entitled to a...
August 19, 2024
Meet some of the first residents living on Caldwell First Nation
New residents eager to pass on and learn Caldwell traditions from each other CBC News: On the day Darrelle Vaughan was moving herself and her young twin girls to Caldwell First Nation, she arrived outside of their new home just before sunrise. Vaughan and three other families — who are the first to live on...
August 2, 2024
‘We didn’t sign that treaty’: in Canada, the Anishinaabe fight for land they never gave up
While Indigenous nations fight the crown for compensation owed from an agreement signed in 1850, one nation fights a different battle. Chief Duncan Michano of the Pic River First Nation stands on the now forested site of the former community of Heron Bay South last year. Photograph: David Jackson/The Guardian Leyland Cecco in Biigtigong Nishnaabeg First Peoples...
July 30, 2024
Mi’gmaq communities file notice of action against New Brunswick to assert their land rights
The group says it wants Crown lands on their territory transferred to Mi’gmaq nations. A map of New Brunswick showing a black line around about two thirds of the province. A map shows the area subject to the title claim filed in court Thursday. Photo courtesy: Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn Inc./Submitted APTN News: Eight Mi’gmaq communities in...
June 13, 2024
Municipality appealing $1.67M judgement in Sauble Beach boundary dispute with First Nation
Superior Court ruling also ordered Ontario pay $1.28M to Saugeen First Nation First Peoples Law Report – CBC News: The town of South Bruce Peninsula will appeal an Ontario Superior Court Justice’s ruling last month that it pay $1.67 million in legal fees to Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation in a decades-long boundary dispute, involving Sauble...
May 30, 2024
While waiting for land back, Pikwàkanagàn First Nation is opting to buy back
ALLY LEMIEUX FANSET, MADELEINE VAN CLIEAF, MAUDE LIPSETT AND SOPHIA FOGLIA SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL The Globe and Mail: By the cool water of the Bonnechere River, obscured by bush and an abandoned barn, a plot of land stretches across 170 acres. To some, it’s just an empty lot with maple trees, but...
December 8, 2023
New Brunswick Indigenous lawsuit ‘unprecedented in this country,’ says lawyer
Wolastoqey Nation wants certification of its title-claim lawsuit, but counsel for those affected want the court to strike down the motion John Chilibeck · Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Daily Gleaner | Posted: Dec. 8, 2023, 8:09 a.m. | Updated: Dec. 8, 2023, 8:09 a.m. | 8 Min Read NationTalk: SALTWIRE – SAINT JOHN, N.B. —...
August 25, 2023
Ottawa confirms it changed land claim process, mulls Indian Act changes
The Globe and Mail: The Canadian Press – Canada changed the way it settles First Nation land claims, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada confirmed Friday. The department is also mulling over possible amendments to the Indian Act and the Specific Claims Tribunal Act, though it didn’t say what those changes would be. The response...
August 25, 2023
Higgs doubles down on stance that Wolastoqey title claim threatens smaller property owners
Lawyer, Wolastoqey chief maintain assertion by premier is false CBC News: Premier Blaine Higgs and his government are doubling down on their stance that an Aboriginal title claim for roughly half of New Brunswick could impact properties owned by smaller landowners, despite insistence by the claim’s proponents that that’s not what they’re after. The province filed a motion in...
April 4, 2023
Saugeen First Nation wins treaty ruling on century-old land dispute in Sauble Beach
Town of South Bruce Peninsula says it’s reviewing Ontario court’s decision CBC News: Saugeen First Nation has won a boundary dispute with a municipal government over a stretch of beach that’s a popular tourist destination in Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula. On Tuesday, the First Nation said Superior Court Justice Susan Vella ruled Monday that a strip...
March 14, 2023
Haldimand Tract Litigation New Website and Update
NationTalk: Six Nations of the Grand River Band, under the direction of Elected Council, is suing the governments of Canada and Ontario in a court case that started in 1995. The Band says that under the 1784 Haldimand Proclamation, which it considers a treaty, the British Crown set aside about 950,000 acres of lands along...
March 9, 2023
Mi’kmaq land claim in New Brunswick signals Indigenous nations ‘increasingly assertive over title’
Indigenous peoples in province did not surrender title to land through treaties, says Bruce McIvor First Peoples Law Report: Canadian Lawyer – Last week, the Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn Inc. (MTI), a group of eight Mi’kmaq communities in New Brunswick, circulated a map identifying the lands to which they say the Mi’kmaq Nation holds title, and over...
November 8, 2022
Canada and Fox Lake Cree Nation mark key step toward reconciliation and renewed nation-to-nation relationship
Crown – Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada: Today, Chief Morris Beardy of Fox Lake Cree Nation and the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, announced that they signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance shared work at a Recognition of Indigenous Rights and Self-Determination table. This co-developed Memorandum of Understanding will help guide...
September 21, 2022
Wolastoqey chiefs accuse N.B. Power of scuttling negotiations over Mactaquac dam refurbishment
N.B. Power embarking on project to keep dam operating until 2068 CBC: Wolastoqey chiefs in New Brunswick say a land title claim they filed is being used as justification for N.B. Power providing less compensation to their communities over a massive planned upgrade to the Mactaquac dam and generating station. The narrowing of negotiating terms signals a step back...
September 12, 2022
1492 Land Back Lane dispute over proposed development near Caledonia and Six Nations returns to court
NationTalk: Newmarket Today – The legal saga around a two-year occupation of a proposed development site by a group of Indigenous people returned to an Ontario court on Monday with another attempt to remove the protesters. The company behind the planned housing development near Caledonia, Ont., and Six Nations of the Grand River is again...
August 30, 2022
Federal and Ontario governments settle decades-long flooding claim with First Nation
Globe And Mail: More than a century after a small First Nation in Northwestern Ontario was flooded by a dam on the Rainy River, the community has reached an $84-million land claim settlement with the federal and provincial governments. Chief Janice Henderson of Mitaanjigamiing First Nation said the recent settlement is life-changing for her community,...
August 3, 2022
The Government of Canada Formally Apologizes to Peepeekisis Cree Nation for File Hills Colony Scheme
Crown – Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada – The File Hills Colony Scheme, which was in place from 1898 to 1954, involved the involuntary relocation of graduates from residential schools and industrial schools in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the Peepeekisis Cree Nation’s reserve. The federal Agent arbitrarily allocated agricultural land on reserve without the...
May 8, 2022
Legacy of 1907 illegal land transfer leaves Peguis First Nation struggling with recurring flooding
Peguis FN was moved off of their original territory through an illegal land transfer in 1907 to their current location on Fisher River where they have been subject to continuous flooding. Toronto Star: The marshy delta of Manitoba’s Fisher River was not the original home of Peguis First Nation. But having been relocated there more...
December 1, 2021
Peace and Friendship Treaties 1725 & 1778
APTN- The chiefs of Wolastoqey Nation have added to their lawsuit against the province of New Brunswick, this time adding a number of corporations for conducting business on their territory without consent…the chiefs said that the corporations operate on “20 percent of the more than five million hectares identified in the claim as the traditional...
November 15, 2021
Grassy Narrows Land Declaration
Toronto Star – The government was knowingly using an outdated and inaccurate map (30 years old), members of First Nations charge, green-lighting drilling and excavation areas where the residents say they go for moose hunting, picking berries and camping. The First Nations says it has provided the government with an updated map of the area...
October 21, 2021
Atikamekw Council of Wemotaci and Hydro-Québec agreement
The Atikamekw Council of Wemotaci (CAW) and Hydro-Québec are proud to announce the signature of a master agreement that … marks the beginning of structured discussions that could lead to one or more agreements on matters of common interest. • economic spinoffs such as contract opportunities, but also job opportunities and training initiatives for community...
October 15, 2021
Peace and Friendship Treaties 1725 & 1778
Government of New Brunswick – GNB new policy on territorial land acknowledgment which forbids GNB staff from issuing territorial or title acknowledgments, is purported to be in partial response to the Wolastoqey title claim. We were forced to file a title claim because our rights continue to be ignored by GNB. Now, in response to...
August 10, 2021
Peepeekisis Cree Nation
Government of Canada – The Peepeekisis Cree Nation and the Government of Canada have concluded their negotiated settlement to resolve the File Hills Colony Specific Claim. The century-old claim concerned Canada’s breach of fiduciary obligations when it implemented the File Hills Farm Colony Scheme with its first transfer and settlement of industrial school graduates onto...
August 9, 2021
Stalled Modern Treaty Negotiations
Canadian Human Rights Commission – This report is the second follow up study after the original 1993 investigation and the 2002 follow-up. The authors were asked to consider the status of the implementation of the 1993 and 2002 Reports and to look at more recent developments and their implications for the human rights of the...
July 29, 2021
Saugeen First Nation Treaty 72 signed 1854
Saugeen Ojibwat Nation – Ontario Superior Court ruled on SON’s claims: an Aboriginal title claim to parts of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay and a claim that the Crown breached its promise to protect forever parts of the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula for SON. The claim to “waters” was denied based on a lack of evidence...
July 16, 2021
1492 Land Back Lane
Brantford Expositor – In late June, the developers sent letters to about 180 homebuyers saying that, having exhausted their legal options and with no prospect of the occupation ending, the company was scrapping the planned subdivision and cancelling all purchase agreements. The company has filed a $200-million class-action lawsuit against the Attorney General of Canada,...
June 9, 2021
Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area – Pleasantville
The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs – are demanding that all work by Atlantic Gold be stopped in Pleasantfield, Nova Scotia and that no further exploratory or drilling permits be approved by Nova Scotia Lands & Forestry or the Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mines for this area. The Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office has...
April 12, 2021
Grassy Narrows Land Declaration
Toronto Star – The Ontario government has allowed up to 4,000 mining claims in Grassy Narrow territory ignoring the “the land declaration that Grassy Narrows enacted in 2018 to ban industrial or mining activities on their territories?” Since the land declaration “the area covered by mineral claims has expanded fourfold, spreading across forest, rivers and...
March 30, 2021
Innu lawsuit against Hydro-Québec
CISION – The Penobscot Nation of Maine has joined the Innu of Labrador and 5 Québec First Nations and the Innu of Québec to call on President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau to block Hydro-Québec’s plan to build a transmission line to Massachusetts. Their letter calls for a halt to initiatives that would see the...
March 30, 2021
1492 Land Back Lane
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) spent $16.3 million in just half a year policing the 1492 Land Back Lane protests. Funds covered salaries, round-the-clock overtime, food, hotels, travel costs, supplies, equipment, building rentals and other related expenses between July 2020 and January 2021....
March 1, 2021
Yukon Regional Land Use Plans
The Narwhal – Two Yukon First Nations are renewing calls for a regional land use plan to be completed before any new development on their traditional territories is considered, including a mineral exploration project right next door to Tombstone Territorial Park. Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun recently sent...
December 3, 2020
Innu lawsuit against Hydro-Québec
WEMOTACI – Five First Nations in Québec, the Innu of Pessamit, the Atikamekw of Wemotaci, and the Anishnabeg of Pikogan, Lac Simon and Kitcisakik – have joined the Innu Nation of Labrador to oppose Hydro-Quebec’s massive new power transmission corridor to the United States. In two separate briefs addressed to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), the...
October 22, 2020
1492 Land Back Lane
Toronto Star – Ontario court issues a permanent injunction in favour of Foxgate and Haldimand County against the Haudenosaunee protesters. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council, Six Nations traditional government, does not recognize the jurisdiction or authority of the Six Nations’ Elected Council, the colonial construct of The Indian Act The Six Nations Elected Council has...
October 15, 2020
Saugeen First Nation Treaty 72 signed 1854
NationTalk – SON’s claim is that the Crown could have protected the Peninsula and misled SON in the negotiations of a surrender of the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula. SON’s claim is that this was a breach of the Crown’s fiduciary duty. What SON is seeking is a declaration the Crown breached this duty. If successful, in...
October 6, 2020
Innu lawsuit against Hydro-Québec
Canadian Press – Innu Nation of Labrador has filed a lawsuit against Hydro-Quebec seeking $4 billion in compensation for the ecological and cultural damage caused by the damming of the upper Churchill River in the early 1970s. They call the Churchill River’s large watershed Nitassinan. The river itself is called Mishtashipu. The Innu never ceded...
October 5, 2020
Peace and Friendship Treaties 1725 & 1778
NationTalk – The six Wolastoqey Communities in New Brunswick – Matawaskiye (Madawaska), Neqotkuk (Tobique), Wotstak (Woodstock), Pilick (Kingsclear), Sitansisk (St. Mary’s) and Welamukotuk (Oromocto) – announced they will be filing a lawsuit seeking the Court’s recognition of the Wolastoqey Nation’s title to lands in New Brunswick. Between 1725 and 1778, the Wolastoqey Nation negotiated and...
September 25, 2020
Saugeen First Nation Treaty 72 signed 1854
Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) and Grey County – The Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation and the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation reached an agreement settling Grey County’s involvement in SON’s long-standing legal action in relation to parts of the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula. The agreement settles a claim launched by SON approximately 25 years ago...
September 17, 2020
1492 Land Back Lane
EyeOpener – Protesters have occupied so-called Mackenzie Meadows, bordering the town of Caledonia and the Six Nations reserve, since July 19 in opposition to the housing development of the neighbourhood by Foxgate Developments Inc. The site is under the sovereignty of the Haudenosaunee First Nation as one of their last unceded territories under the 200-year-old...
September 16, 2020
2010 First Nations and Métis Consultation Policy Framework
Global News – The Métis Nation – Saskatchewan (MN-S) has launched a lawsuit against the province claiming the government is not doing enough to consult with the Métis over issues like land use, and commercial activities like trapping and fishing. The statement of claim…also says the provincial policy on consultation, issued in 2010, doesn’t recognize...
September 12, 2020
1492 Land Back Lane
Toronto Star – The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) armed with a court injunction arrested 26 people including 2 journalists and an Indigenous academic researcher....
August 5, 2020
Rights to ancestral territories
NationTalk – The Innu First Nation of Pessamit and the Atikamekw First Nation of Wemotaci (Province of Quebec) are joining forces to put an end to the stranglehold of the Quebec government and Hydro-Québec on their traditional territories. They mean to obtain compensation for production facilities, reservoirs and transmission lines set up without their consent...
August 7, 2019
Saugeen First Nation Treaty 72 signed 1854
CBC – In 2014, a tentative agreement between the First Nation and the Town of South Bruce Peninsula was proposed that would have recognized Saugeen’s ownership of the strip of beach. During the municipal election that fall, former councillor Janice Jackson unseated the previous mayor, running on a platform that the town would not settle...
July 16, 2019
Budget Cuts Claims Research Units
Letter to Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada: The National Claims Research Directors – NCRD is a national body of specialized technicians who manage thirty-five Claims Research Units (CRUs) mandated to research and develop specific claims against the federal government. Collectively we have developed and advanced over 1500 claims. We repeat...
July 11, 2019
Abandoning Denesuline First Nation and Sayisi Dene First Nation Land Claim negotiation
The Denesuline First Nation and Sayisi Dene First Nation Canada were on the verge of initialing a land claim agreement. Then on June 12, 2019, without warning, the Minister put off signing and claimed more consultation was required with Indigenous peoples in NWT. At the negotiating table, Canada had previously agreed to initial the agreement...
June 5, 2017
Saugeen First Nation Treaty 72 signed 1854
Globe and Mail, Aug. 30, 2015, Updated June 5, 2017 – Resorting to the courts to resolve a long-standing land claim issue. The federal government supports the Saugeen First Nation claim which dates back to Treaty No. 72, signed in October, 1854. Surveying documents made at the time validate that the eastern boundary should have...
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