Chippewa Tri-Council [Coldwater-Narrows Reservation]
March 2003 This pre-Confederation claim was brought forward by the Beausoleil First Nation, the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation and the Chippewas of Mnjikaning (Rama) First Nation, jointly constituting the Chippewa Tri-Council. In the claim, the First Nations denied the validity of the November 1836 surrender of their Coldwater-Narrows Reserve, situated in the area between Matchedash Bay on Lake Huron and Lake Simcoe. The Chippewa Tri-Council contended that undue and unfair pressure by Crown authorities had prevented their ancestors from fully understanding the nature and meaning of the treaty they subsequently signed and that the Crown had thus breached the fiduciary obligation it owed to the Chippewa Tri-Council. In November 1991, the Chippewa Tri-Council submitted its claim to the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. In April 1996, the claim was rejected on the grounds that the Chippewa Tri-Council had failed to demonstrate an outstanding lawful obligation on the part of the Government of Canada. In August 1996, the Chippewa Tri-Council requested that the Commission conduct an inquiry into the rejection of its claim. Two planning conferences were held later that year, in November and December 1996, at which the parties explained their positions and agreed that additional research was needed. In December 1997, a third planning conference was held, at which time Canada and the Chippewa Tri-Council dealt with questions arising from the additional research. The year 1998 saw two more planning conferences and a resolution of the claim seemed near. When a sixth planning conference finally took place in October 2001, and did not produce the progress anticipated by the Chippewa Tri-Council, they called for a full inquiry into the claim. At a pre-hearing conference (in fact, a seventh planning conference) in February 2002, Canada’s representative explained that the claim was still under consideration by the Minister. As a next step in the inquiry called for by the Chippewa Tri-Council, the Commission planned a staff visit to the First Nations’ communities. At this juncture, the parties jointly decided to hold an eighth planning conference to review Canada’s position on the claim. At that meeting, in March 2002, Canada agreed to accept the claim for negotiation. Response: The government accepted the claim for negotiation in July 2002. The Commission published its report in March 2003. This claim is currently in mediation at the ICC. To download the Inquiry Report |
