Comment on this Story
Email This Story
Native leaders lobby for speedy end to flood lawsuit
March 25th, 2010By Mary Agnes Welch
Source: Winnipeg Free Press
Native leaders, including former national grand chief Ovide Mercredi, are in Ottawa this week lobbying for a speedy end to a flood settlement lawsuit that is mired in secrecy and 20 years of delays.
As the case dragged on in federal court in Winnipeg this week, three northern chiefs met with Tory and opposition MPs, senators and senior Indian Affairs officials hoping to convince them it makes more sense to negotiate instead of litigate.
“Our approach is not to embarrass the government,” said Mercredi, the chief of Grand Rapids First Nation. “Our approach is to get them to co-operate. Reasonable people should come to the table.”
Nearly 20 years ago, the three bands sued Ottawa for failing in its duty to protect them in the early 1960s when Manitoba Hydro and the province built the Grand Rapids dam. The dam flooded thousands of acres of prime hunting and trapping land, shattering the First Nations’ livelihood.
The case could be worth tens of millions in compensation to the bands.
Mercredi was joined by Chemawawin Chief Clarence Easter and Opaskwayak Chief Michael Constant. The trio planned to meet with about a dozen people, including Conservative Sen. Gerry St. Germain, NDP Leader Jack Layton and several MPs of all stripes.
They won’t likely be meeting with Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, who has declined their request for a face-to-face because the matter is before the courts.
Winnipeg South MP Rod Bruinooge, who normally pinch-hits for the government on aboriginal issues in Manitoba, met with the chiefs in Ottawa but said he couldn’t comment on the issue because of the court case.
Earlier this month, yet another round of preliminary hearings into the case began in federal court in Winnipeg. Before a formal trial can begin, a judge must decide whether to make public hundreds of secret documents that could prove Canada knew for years it was liable. The First Nations want to use those documents to bolster their case, but Ottawa is arguing the documents should be kept confidential forever because they are protected by lawyer-client privilege.
Ottawa was in court again Tuesday and Wednesday, making its case. Once the federal judge rules on that issue, another round of hearings is expected to begin into whether the bands waited too long to file their lawsuit.
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 25, 2010 A6
