City of Brantford Council unanimously supported a request that a judge be assigned to a 1995 lawsuit between Six Nations of the Grand River and Canada’s Attorney General, during its Committee of the Whole, Operations meeting on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.
Mayor Kevin Davis’ resolution stated that the lawsuit, which has taken three decades to get to trial, and its claims are critical to resolving tensions that exist throughout the watershed between Six Nations and the various municipalities in the area.
“The theme here is justice delayed, justice denied,” said Davis. “A 30 year delay of what is probably the most important and complex of various land claim compensation claims in Canada, is unconscionable, and it’s really not something for our country and our legal system to be proud of that it has taken this long.”
He said that while delays have come via both parties, the lawsuit is now ready to go to trial.
“The federal government, through various pretrial tactics, which involved delaying and refusing to produce relevant documents, and which resulted in a number of pretrial procedures that lasted years, certainly, they had a hand in it, but it’s also taken a long time for Six Nations to gather their evidence and prepare their case. Regardless, it’s now ready to go to trial as I’ve been advised by Six Nations,” explained Davis.
In an effort to get the trial officially underway, Davis’ resolution requests that the Honourable Geoffrey Morawetz, Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Justice, assign a judge to the case and that the Court proceed as expeditiously as possible to conclude the trial of the matter.
“The difficulty, since this will be a long trial, is finding the court allocation, the court resources, and the judge to take this case on,” he said. “This resolution is an indication from us as a political body, neighbour to Six Nations, and in some ways, I believe, a friend and an ally, that this should be given a great deal of priority. …We’re not in any way indicating what we expect the court to do with it, but I think it’s within our rights to ask the court to give this some priority.”
Davis said that Six Nations will be bringing forward its review of 22 parcels of land within the Grand River watershed where the surrender, done in the 1800s, was either nonexistent or questionable. He also noted that Six Nations will also be raising questions about money that was received by the Crown when the properties were surrendered, but were not not properly accounted for.
“It’s a claim that’s probably worth in the billions… and it’s a claim that has a lot of merit.” he said. “It needs to be heard because it provides a once-in-a-century opportunity to resolve some of these injustices and deal with the lingering tensions that are here in the watershed. It should not be squandered, and to continue to delay this, squanders it.”
Councillor Richard Carpenter thanked Davis for bringing the resolution forward, stating that the matter is long overdue.
“Getting to the bottom of this and getting a full hearing and a settlement is long, long overdue,” he said. “It doesn’t need to be another generation, it needs to be done now and the provincial government and the federal government both need to step up and do the right thing in bringing this forward.”
Councillor Dan McCreary extended his kudos to the Mayor and said it was reprehensible that it’s taken so long for the issue to go to trial.
Certainly the folks in Ottawa and the folks in Toronto either don’t know or don’t care, what a problem this has been to municipalities like us for all these years,” he said. “The difficulties that we’ve experienced, development headaches, and the decline in relations between many of the communities with Six Nations of the Grand River as a result of this. …It’s reprehensible, and it’s misunderstandable why on earth it has taken 30 years to even begin to deal with this. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for this issue and its impact on the City.”
The vote to recommend the resolution for approval was then carried unanimously, and it will go before council for final approval come Tuesday, September 24, 2024.
Once passed, the resolution will be forwarded to Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, the Honourable Doug Downey, Attorney General of Ontario, the Honourable Geoffrey Morawetz, Chief Justice of Ontario, the Honourable Greg Rickford, Minster of Indigenous Affairs of Ontario, Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, the Honourable Arif Virani, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Honourable Gary Anandasangaree, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Canada and to the Clerks of all municipalities in the Grand River watershed, asking that their Councils pass this resolution posthaste.
