MMF Land Claim Case Heard by the Supreme Court of Canada

On the morning of December 13th, Métis Nation citizens gathered in Ottawa to march to the steps of the Supreme Court of Canada in support of the Manitoba Metis Federations’ court land claims appeal that has been 30 years in the making.  It was a great day for the Métis Nation.

Métis citizens entered the Supreme Court of Canada to be a part of history as the rights of the Manitoba Metis and therefore Métis from across the Homeland were on to be discussed.  The courtroom itself was filled, the overflow room, too, was filled – and off-site, Métis citizens gathered in a meeting room where two big screens webcasted the appeal live.

This case, was launched in 1981 by the MMF asserting that Canada did not fulfill its constitutional obligations agreed upon by the Riel government as part of Manitoba’s entry into Confederation and today the Métis got their day in Canada’s highest court.

The Métis Nation legal team, which is lead by Thomas Berger, Q.C. and Jim Aldridge, Q.C. presented strong evidence including letters and copies of statements from Canada’s highest officials including former Prime Minister John A. MacDonald.  (Please see below for the major points that were presented to the Judges).

It will be several months until the MMF is back at the Supreme Court of Canada to hear the Judges remarks, but after today the Métis Nation is confident that the next steps will be positive.

THE CASE FOR THE MANITOBA METIS

• The case involves two historical leaders, Sir John A. Macdonald and Louis Riel, and the promise of land for the Metis people.

• It goes back to 1869-70 and the negotiations between the government of Canada and the Provisional Government established by the Metis of the Red River Settlement, headed by Riel.

• In 1870 the Red River Settlement had 12,000 people; 10,000 were Metis. Seven thousand of them were children.

• Promises by the federal government contained in the Manitoba Act of 1870 were supposed to confirm the possession of land held by the Metis settlers along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.

• The Federal Government also assumed the responsibility to appropriate 1.4 million acres and to distribute it among the 7,000 Metis children.

• It was on the strength of these and other promises that the Metis laid down their arms and agreed that Manitoba should enter Canada.

• The Metis established at the trial of the case that the distribution of 1.4 million acres to the 7,000 Metis children was delayed for a decade and more. Indeed almost a thousand children received no land at all.

• The Metis lands were traditionally held by extended families along the Red, Assiniboine and other rivers. But no provision was made for the children’s lands to be contiguous or clustered together. Instead, Ottawa ordered the land to be distributed by lottery in each parish. The result was that each child’s land might be 10, 20, 30 or 40 miles from their parents and their siblings.

• The Metis rely on what Sir John A. Macdonald and his colleague, Sir George-Etienne Cartier told the House when piloting the legislation through Parliament.

• Macdonald told the House of Commons on May 2, 1870 that the grant of 1.4 million acres was “for purposes of settlement by their children.” On May 4, he said “No land would be reserved for the benefit of white speculators, the land being only given for the actual purpose of settlement.”

• A year later, Sir George-Etienne Cartier told the House on April 13, 1871 that “Until the children came of age, the government was the guardian of the land, and no speculators would be suffered to get hold of it.”

• The Liberal government of Alexander Mackenzie, in office from 1873 to 1878, took the same position: Sir Richard Scott, Secretary of State, told the Senate on March 14, 1877: “The Government was the guardian of these people, and it was their duty to see that they were protected in their rights to their properties.”

• The trial judge and the Manitoba Court of Appeal held that these provisions of the Manitoba Act were intended to provide a “head start” for the Metis against the influx of new settlers.

• But in the meantime a great influx of settlers from Ontario had entered the new province. They received their land without delay. There was no “head start” for the Metis. In fact they did not get to the start line for ten years or more.

• Paragraph 200 in the MMF Factum sums up the situation. “By the time the grants were finally issued in the names of the children the Metis had been in Macdonald’s phrase, “swamped by the influx of settlers”. The Metis had become marginalized and were now, to a great extent, a landless minority. It may be that half the Metis population had left Manitoba by 1881.”

Argument of MMF Case

The Manitoba Metis Federation, in showing that there was an inexcusable delay in implementing the original promises, argues that there was a breach of fiduciary obligation by Canada, which left the Metis a marginalized minority in the province. The breach by Canada was a breach of a constitutional obligation.

1. The Manitoba government then passed a series of laws which the MMF alleges were designed to ensure the children’s grants passed from Metis ownership to non-Metis ownership. The MMF contends that these laws were unconstitutional.

1. The MMF will argue that since the federal government had a constitutional obligation to the Metis and their children that it failed to fulfill, the Supreme Court of Canada, notwithstanding the passage of time, can rule on the question, since it involves the rightful place of the Metis within the constitutional system.

History of Case

The MMF lost in the Manitoba courts. The trial judge and the Manitoba Court of Appeal held that there had been no breach of fiduciary obligation, even though both held the purpose of the grant of 1.4 million acres was to give the Metis families and their children “a head start.” The Supreme Court of Canada earlier this year agreed to hear their appeal.