The Debt of Nations

A group of First Nations in Canada is taking the federal government to court and seeking billions of dollars in compensation to cover previous losses and protect future generations, accusing the state of failing to uphold the financial commitment promised in a 175-year-old treaty, the Guardian reported.

The case centers on the Robinson treaties signed in 1850 by a group of Anishinaabe nations living on the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior and the British Crown. The agreements established payment obligations of the Crown regarding 35,700 square miles of land belonging to the Anishinaabe.

They also included an “augmentation clause,” according to which the Crown would increase annual payments “from time to time” as the land produced more wealth and prosperity – “if and when” the payment could be made without causing a loss to the Crown.

Between 1850 and today, the lands and waters covered in the treaty generated large revenues for private companies and the province of Ontario. But the annuities due to the Anishinaabe remained fixed at $4 Canadian dollars ($2.75) per person – the price agreed to when the treaty was signed – and it was never increased.

In July, Canada’s Supreme Court unanimously released a decision criticizing the federal and Ontario governments for dishonoring the contract and leaving First Nations people to battle with poverty, poor health, and shorter life expectancies while the surrounding communities, industry, and government exploited their land and resources and kept all of the profits.

The court ordered Ontario and the federal government to settle the conflict with the Anishinaabe nations and present them with a reimbursement offer within six months, CBC News reported.

While Eric Head, spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada believes the government offer of nearly $2.5 billion to be fair, chief of Gull Bay First Nation, Wilfred King, said the sum did not live up to the wealth Ontario and the government earned from the land as they “condemned” the Indigenous communities to “intergenerational poverty.”

It is still unclear how much money the First Nations are due but some believe it could be as much as $86 billion.

The Ontario Superior Court will set the sum owed in a hearing set for June.