Crown made a 'mockery' of 2 treaties with First Nations for 150 years, Supreme Court rules

For the past 150 years, the governments of Ontario and Canada have made a "mockery" of their treaty obligations to the Anishinaabe of the upper Great Lakes, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday.

In a unanimous decision, the top court said the ongoing failure to increase the annual per-head resource extraction revenues since 1875 for the residents of two First Nations groups has undermined the honour of the Crown. 

"For almost a century and a half, the Anishinaabe have been left with an empty shell of a treaty promise," the ruling said. 

"It is time for the parties to return to the council fire and rekindle the perpetual relationship that the Robinson treaties envision. Nothing less will demonstrate the Crown's commitment to reconciliation."

The ruling does not award a settlement to the Huron or Superior Anishinaabe First Nations, but sets out the obligations of the Crown to negotiate an increase to resource revenues retrospectively, and into the future. 

The case stretches back to 1850, when the Robinson-Huron and the Robinson-Superior treaties were signed between the Crown and the Anishinaabe of the upper Great Lakes. 

As a part of the agreement, the Huron and Superior ceded more than 100,000 square kilometres of territory encompassing Thunder Bay, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, in exchange for an annual payment in perpetuity.

Under the Robinson-Huron treaty, each First Nation member received $1.70 per head a year. Under the Robinson-Superior treaty, the rate was $1.60 per person. 

In 1875, that annual payment was increased to $4 per person, but since that time it had not increased. 

"Today, in what can only be described 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," the ruling said. 

Over time, the number of on and off reserve Huron members increased from 1,422 to nearly 30,000. Superior members increased from 1,240 to more than 13,000 

As part of the 1850 agreement, the Anishinaabe were also entitled to continue hunting on the land.

"Although the Anishinaabe have upheld their end of the treaty bargain, the Crown has failed to do the same," the ruling said. 

"Remedying this failure and restoring the honour of the Crown requires returning to the foundations of the treaty relationship between the Anishinaabe and the Crown."