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Backgrounder

This claim by the Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation originated during one of the most complex periods in Canadian history, as the newly-created Confederation sought to expand into Rupert's Land, the vast region west of the Great Lakes owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. The period heralded a major turning point for prairie Indians, whose lives were forever changed by the disappearance of the buffalo, epidemics of smallpox and measles, and the arrival in ever-increasing numbers of settlers from eastern Canada and Europe - events that triggered the negotiation of the first of the numbered treaties.

In its plan to open the west, the Government of Canada adopted the philosophy that the vested interests of aboriginal residents would have to be extinguished to free up the land for settlement and development. Accordingly, lengthy negotiations in 1871 between the government of Canada and the Indians resulted in Treaties 1 and 2, which focused on the extinguishment of aboriginal title in exchange for the Indians receiving annual cash payments and reserve lands.

An issue in this inquiry is whether medical aid was one of a number of verbal "outside promises" conceded by Canada's representatives during anxious, last-minute negotiations to close the deal. After the treaty document was signed, it did not take long for serious differences of opinion on the content of Treaty 1 to emerge, one of the Indians' main complaints being that some of the terms negotiated verbally did not find their way into the final document. Although Treaty 1 makes no mention of medical aid, it is obvious that there was considerable confusion at the time of the treaty negotiations over what had actually been promised.

After four years of controversy, Treaty 1 was amended in 1875. The signatories to Treaty 1 received increased annuities that placed them on an even footing with Indians who signed later treaties and Canada agreed to fulfill certain additional promises listed in a separate memorandum, on the condition that the Treaty 1 Indians "abandon all claim whatever against the Government in connection with the so-called - outside promises - other than those contained in the memorandum". Medical aid was not in the memorandum, but Roseau River contends that it did not need to be since, by 1875, Canada had already begun to provide medical services to the Band and continued to fully fund the Band's medical aid until 1909.

In the interim, the Roseau River Band agreed in 1903 to surrender a portion of its reserve lands. Under the terms of the surrender, most of the interest generated from the proceeds of sale of those lands was to be distributed to Band members each year; however, commencing in 1909, the government began applying some of the funds from the Band's interest trust account toward payment of the Band's medical expenses. With some exceptions, Canada continued making these deductions until 1934. In the years preceding and following the 25-year period during which the government made the deductions, there is no record of any payments for medical purposes being made by or for the Band from its trust account.

Roseau River was not informed of the deductions and did not discover them until it conducted background research in 1982 for its claim arising out of the 1903 surrender.

Roseau River contends that the deductions were contrary to the terms of Treaty 1, the Indian Act, and the 1903 surrender. It also argues that Canada induced the First Nation's ancestors to rely on free medical aid to the detriment of their own traditional healing methods, thereby giving rise to a lawful obligation when Canada unilaterally withdrew medical aid by charging medical expenses to the First Nation's trust account from 1909 to 1934.