OTTAWA—If justice delayed is, indeed, justice denied, the Supreme Court of Canada is about to preside over one of the greatest denials of justice in Canadian history.With the plight of the people of Attawapiskat dominating the Canadian agenda and sparking fresh introspection of our treatment of aboriginals, another indigenous people is quietly ready for its date with destiny.
For the Métis of Manitoba, the wheels of justice have taken three decades to get to this point.
But they are trying to undo what they believe is a wrong perpetrated 141 years ago.
No court has yet seen history through their eyes.
The country’s highest court will hear arguments on a Métis land deal from 1870, an unfinished piece of Confederation that hinges on a promise John A. Macdonald made to Louis Riel.
The Métis case will be made by Thomas Berger, whose long career has included court victories for Canadian aboriginals, including the 1973 decision that led to the formal recognition of aboriginal title in this country, leading to land claim settlements covering half the Canadian land mass.
The hearing Tuesday revolves around the Red River Settlement of 1870 (present day Winnipeg) and the federal government promise to appropriate 5,600 square kilometres to 7,000 Métis children.
It was on the strength of this and other promises that the Métis laid down their arms and agreed that Manitoba would become the fifth Canadian province.
But the land distributed to the children was done slowly and by lottery, meaning that each child’s land could have been 60 kilometres from their parents or siblings.
Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand likens it to children from downtown Toronto being given land which is rightfully theirs, but in Hamilton.
The access to the land for the Métis children was delayed for a decade or more, during which time an influx of white speculators from Ontario had taken over much of the prime parcels.
The MMF contends that as many as 1,000 Métis children received no land at all.
Their young were supposed to get “a head start,” but indeed received no start at all, the MMF contends.
“By the time the grants were finally issued in the names of the children, the Métis had been, in Macdonald’s phrase, ‘swamped by the influx of settlers,’ ” according to the MMF brief to the court.
“The Métis had become marginalized and were now, to a great extent, a landless minority.’’
Chartrand said it has cost the MMF some $3 million over the past 14 years to get this day in court, money he said, privately raised “by picking up nickels here and dimes there and looking under cushions for loose change.’’
But Métis elders are now hopeful that the court will, in essence, fix history.
“There are tears when they talk about it. There are prayers being offered,” Chartrand says.
“Canada is on trial here. History is on trial.
“But I am proud of our journey and the country needs to see this.
“We are still a young country and we can right our historic wrongs.’’
The land would be worth billions of dollars, but the MMF is not seeking immediate compensation.
Should it win in court, Chartrand says, the MMF will call a referendum among its member to determine whether they should ask for land or for financial compensation, he says.
The federal government has put out the word that billions of dollars are at stake here, he says, likely in a bid to scare the courts.
Indeed, the Métis have been defeated in lower courts before, largely because of the time that had elapsed since the promise was made to Riel’s provisional government.
The odds are still stacked against them, and this is almost certainly the last opportunity to turn history on its head.
Just as First Nations communities this winter call for an end to paternalism and equity for their young, the Métis — who number more than 400,000 in North America — also seek long lost equity.
“We are not asking for money, but we are asking for justice,’’ Chartrand says.
“Why must we have to fight for this through the courts for 30 years?”
Origin
Source: Star
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