Murray Sinclair to mediate Robinson-Huron Treaty annuities case

The Robinson-Huron Treaty annuities case has gone to mediation, and former senator Murray Sinclair will facilitate that process.

The case concerns the 1850 treaty which promised the governments of Canada and Ontario would share the resource wealth of northern Ontario with Indigenous people.

The annuity was originally $1.60 per person, and increased once, in 1875, to $4 per person.

The Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund represents 21 First Nations that have argued the annuity needs to be re-negotiated, and both the Ontario Superior Court and then the Ontario Court of Appeal agreed.

But the Ontario government appealed the case, and it was scheduled to be heard in the Supreme Court of Canada.

A judge agreed to delay the third and final stage of the proceedings until Jan. 30, in case mediation could settle the matter.

"True reconciliation cannot be achieved in a courtroom. We are hopeful that with dialogue, we can reach a negotiated settlement of the annuities litigation with the Crowns," said Batchewana First Nation Chief Dean Sayers, in a press release.

Duke Peltier, a spokesperson for Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, said the mediation process is an important step in the right direction.

"We hope to continue to work with the Crowns toward treaty renewal and a settlement," he said in a press release.

The mediator, Murray Sinclair, was the chief commissioner of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

"People like Murray Sinclair are people that are respected by all parties in this country and can play a great role,' Marc Miller, Canada's minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, told CBC News.

"You know, if you look at the agreement that was signed way back in 1850, this was a sharing relationship and not an exploitative one, which it quickly did become. And it's about resetting the relationship."

Miller has been in northern Ontario this week to meet with Indigenous leaders on several issues important to their communities.

Those include the impact of inflation and a mental health crisis that he said has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well asongoing work toward reconciliation.

"I don't think anyone should be left with the impression that reconciliation is easy or linear or that it's free, Miller said.

"But it does require an opening of our minds and an education of our own people that we haven't been doing up to now."