Completed Inquiries – Reports Released

01/02/2001

Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation [Medical Aid] - February 2001

In March 2001, the Commission released its report, recommending that the government accept for negotiation Roseau River Anishinabe’s claim arising from the federal government’s deduction of expenses for medical aid from its trust account between 1909 and 1934, without its knowledge or consent. At issue was whether medical aid was one of a number of verbal “outside promises” conceded by the government’s representatives at the negotiations of Treaty 1 when, after ten days of negotiations, it looked as if the Chippewa and Cree Indians gathered at Lower Fort Garry in 1871 would not sign the treaty.

Although the two Commissioners hearing this claim agreed substantially in their recommendation that the claim should be accepted for negotiation, each offered different reasons for their recommendation. Commissioner Bellegarde agreed with the First Nation that the historical record and oral testimony demonstrated that medical aid was a treaty right and that the trust fund deductions represented a breach of treaty and should be repaid.

Commissioner Corcoran, for her part, found the evidence too equivocal to conclude that medical aid was included in any of the promises at the Treaty 1 negotiations, nor did she find that the deductions contravened the Indian Act or the terms of the 1903 surrender. She concluded, nevertheless, that the claim should be accepted for negotiation on the basis that, although the government’s policy may have been correctly implemented, the outcome for the Roseau River Anishinabe was unfair.

Response: The government acknowledged receipt of the Commission’s report but has not responded to its recommendations.

To download the report - PDF