In July, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the federal and Ontario governments had six months to reach a negotiated settlement to address 150 years of insufficient treaty payments for affected First Nations along Lake Superior in Northern Ontario. That six-month deadline expired this week.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
First Nations along Lake Superior in Northern Ontario have turned down a $3.6-billion offer from government officials and say they will ask the Supreme Court to make a better compensation offer for failed treaty promises in a landmark case.
Chief Wilfred King of Gull Bay, one of the Robinson Superior nations, told The Globe and Mail late Monday that their next move is to seek a just amount through the courts.
“We’re just going to ask the court now to hopefully rule in our favour in terms of an amount that’s … just and honourable,” Mr. King said.
In July, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the federal and Ontario governments had six months to reach a negotiated settlement to address 150 years of insufficient treaty payments for the affected First Nations. That six-month deadline expired this week.
Mr. King said both governments ignored evidence during negotiations related to how much wealth Canada and Ontario took from their lands and territories. He said the governments offered a joint amount of $3.6-billion.
“They 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. Their decision today does not make up for 175 years of refusing to share the wealth of our lands,” says a statement from Mr. King and Chief Patricia Tangie of Michipicoten First Nation on behalf of the Robinson Superior nations.
The federal office of the Ministry of Crown-Indigenous Relations told The Globe Monday that despite working with the Robinson Superior nations and Ontario to meet the six-month deadline set by the Supreme Court of Canada, the parties could not find common ground.
“In keeping with the Court’s guidance, we are moving forward to provide the financial compensation to the Robinson Superior Treaty First Nations. We have recently informed the 12 First Nations of the amount that Canada will provide as compensation. We believe this is fair and just compensation to honour our treaty obligations and address these past wrongs,” Kyle Leonard, spokesperson for the federal department, said in an e-mail.
He added that the amount offered is fair, just and honourable and based on “the factors set down by the Supreme Court of Canada, our past discussions with our treaty partners, all the facts in this case, and the evidence heard during the trial.”
Ontario Ministry of the Attorney-General representatives did not reply to e-mails from The Globe and Mail Monday seeking comment on the negotiations and their outcomes.
The case involves 12 Robinson Superior treaty nations of Anishinaabek living along the northern shores of Lake Superior who were promised by government officials in the 1850 Robinson Treaty that their $4-per-person annuity would be raised from time to time. The only time that happened was in 1875.
The resulting Robinson Treaty lawsuit had been before Canada’s civil courts for more than 20 years before last summer’s Supreme Court decision. That ruling described an “empty shell of a treaty promise” by government officials who behaved in “dishonourable,” “egregious” and “shocking” ways over decades.
A neighbouring group known as the Robinson Huron nations settled a similar dispute out of court with Canada and Ontario in 2023 for $10-billion. They saw that money flow last year, compensating families for 170 years of failed promises. The nations had to decide how the money would be disbursed with most voting to keep a percentage for the collective nation and a percentage to its members.
The original 19th-century agreements were known as the Robinson Treaties, and included several thousand Indigenous people living along Lakes Huron and Superior in Northern Ontario.
“The Crown has dishonourably breached its sacred promises to them under the Robinson Treaties for almost 150 years,” the Supreme Court ruling said earlier this year.
According to the decision, there were 13,456 beneficiaries of the Robinson-Superior Treaty as of 2017. Treaty signatories signed written agreements that ceded some land but mostly for the shared use and benefits of vast territories in Northern Ontario. Those ancestors agreed on the understanding they would thrive from resource sharing, and the treaty provided for annual payments in perpetuity that were to increase periodically based on land use and development.
“The treaty promised that, as the Crown benefited from the exploitation of natural resources over the years, the First Nation treaty beneficiaries would also benefit by having their annuities increased,” the statement from Mr. King says.
Instead, “the annuities have been frozen at a shocking $4 per person,” the Supreme Court ruling from July said. It added that the frozen payments “can only be described as a mockery of the Crown’s treaty promise to the Anishinaabe of the upper Great Lakes.”