Indigenous specific land claims in Canada
[2] The Canadian government started recognizing indigenous specific claims in 1973, whereafter they began negotiating for their settlement.
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 established that, from that point onward, only the British Crown could engage in treaties or agreements with the First Nations.
It was again recommended between 1959 and 1961 that Canada investigate land grievances of First Nations in British Columbia and in Kanesatake, Quebec.
Indigenous communities criticised the fact that the Office was both evaluating and negotiating each claim, thus creating a conflict of interest.
If a claim meets these requirements, it enters a 3-year assessment period, wherein the government determines whether a breach has occurred or not.
[6] In 1912, Chief Gabriel Awashish and his band of over 150 Atikameks settled on the land of present-day Obeydjiwan, Quebec, on the coast of a lake of the same name.
[7] In 1918, the end of the construction of the La Loutre Dam resulted in a flooding destroyed the village of Obeydjiwan, including all of the band's houses and possessions.
In 2016, the Specific Claims tribunal ruled that the delay for the creation of the reserve was too long, which resulted in loss of income from logging for the Atikamekw.
[10] In 2013, Canadian surveyor Éric Groulx testified in front of the Specific Claims Tribunal that surveyor Walter Russell White miscalculated the area of the land that he surveyed in 1914, stating that the land surveyed had an area of 2,760 acres (11.2 km2) as opposed to 2,290 as was previously calculated.
The Specific Claims Tribunal therefore ruled that the First Nation was not properly compensated for the land lost in the flooding.
However, in 1721, King Louis XV of France granted the Seigneurie des Deux-Montagnes exclusively to the Sulpicians, giving them the legal title to the land.
In the 19th century, the Mohawks of Kanesatake started protesting that the Sulpicians were mistreating them to the British authorities.
They then discovered that the land they had lived on for over 150 years and they thought they owned was, in fact, not theirs, and started pressing their claim with the federal government.
Former Assistant Deputy Minister Fred Caron was nominated as Chief Federal Negotiator for the file.
[14][15] In response to Flanagan's report, lawyers Alisa Lombard and Aubrey Charette published an opinion piece in which they said that the intent of Specific Claims is to bring justice to defrauded First Nation communities, and is not a welfare program.
In an open letter to Crown-Indigenous Relations minister Carolyn Bennett, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs stated that this "[n]on-compliance with legislation enacted to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples...contradicts every public commitment your government has made regarding reconciliation."
