City of Brantford council calls for Six Nations lawsuit to be heard

A judge should be assigned to the 1995 lawsuit between Six Nations and Canada’s attorney general as soon as possible, says Mayor Kevin Davis.

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“The thing here is justice delayed is justice denied,” the mayor said at a Tuesday council committee meeting. “A 30-year delay of what is probably the most important and complex (land) claim for compensation in Canada is unconscionable.

“It’s not something our country or our legal system should be proud of that it has taken this long.”

Davis said it’s not all the federal government’s fault.

However, the federal government’s pre-trial tactics, which involved delays and refusing to produce relevant documents, resulted in pre-trial procedures lasting years have contributed to the delay, he said.

It also took Six Nations time to prepare their case.

That being said, the case is now ready to go to trial and the difficulty now is finding short time, resources and a judge to take on the lawsuit, Davis said.

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The mayor, through a resolution, called on Geoffrey Morawetz, chief justice of the Superior Court of Justice, Ontario, to assign a judge to hear the lawsuit as soon as possible. The resolution calls for the lawsuit to be brought to trial as expeditiously as possible.

The resolution was unanimously recommended for approval at Tuesday’s committee meeting. It will come before city council for approval on Sept. 24.

Davis said the lawsuit is a claim for compensation for injustices from the early and mid-1800s.

Six Nations has reviewed 22 parcels of land in the Grand River watershed where there are questions with respect to their surrender. It also raises questions about money received by the crown when properties were surrendered but the funds were not properly accounted for, Davis said.

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“It’s a claim that is probably worth in the trillions and it is a claim with a lot of merit,” Davis said

The lawsuit needs to be heard, the mayor said.

“It’s a once-in-a-generation, it’s a once-in-a-century opportunity to resolve these injustices and deal with the lingering tensions in the watershed and it should not be squandered and continued delay, squanders it,” Davis said . “It’s just the right thing to do.”

The resolution, once passed, will be sent to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau among others. It will also be sent to other municipalities in the Grand River watershed that are being asked to support the posthaste resolution.

“Getting full hearing and getting a settlement is long overdue,” Coun. Richard Carpenter (Ward 4) said. “Both the provincial and federal governments need to step up and do the right thing.”

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Carpenter said resolution of the lawsuit is important to Brantford and everyone in the Grand River watershed.

Coun. Dan McCreary (Ward 3) praised Davis for his resolution. “Certainly the folks in Ottawa, the folks in Toronto either don’t know or don’t care what a problem this has been to municipalities like us for so many years.

“The difficulties we’ve experienced, development headaches and the decline in relations between many of the communities with Six Nations of the Grand River.”

McCreary said it’s reprehensible that it took this long to get the issue before the courts.

“Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end for this issue and its impact on the City of Brantford,” McCreary said.

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