Native land claims in Ottawa

[rocketphish]

Algonquin band’s lawsuit declares ownership of Parliament Hill amid stalled land claim talks

David Akin 12.08.2016

OTTAWA – An Algonquin band in western Quebec is suing the federal government saying it owns Parliament Hill.

The Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, an Algonquin band based in Maniwaki, Que., filed suit Wednesday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice seeking an order that it is the title holder to what it calls the Kichi Sibi Lands, land that includes the Parliament buildings and the Supreme Court.

Kitigan Zibi’s chief and council filed the suit in frustration at the slow pace of negotiations with the federal government over what even Liberal government ministers in the House of Commons frequently acknowledge is Algonquin territory.

“There have been ongoing discussions with the National Capital Commission but they’re going nowhere,” said Kitigan Zibi Chief Jean Guy Whiteduck. The National Capital Commission (NCC) is the federal organization responsible for administering the lands and buildings where federal institutions in the capital are located.

The NCC, the federal government and the government of Ontario are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Kitigan Zibi is part of an Algonquin group that claims the entire Ottawa Valley but Whiteduck said the lawsuit his band filed this week is “site-specific” in the hope that it gets the attention of Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett.

“We’re not against development but we want to be an equal partner,” Whiteduck said. “We have to be benefactors of that land.”

The parcel of land identified in the lawsuit as the Kichi Sibi Lands includes what those in Ottawa know as the LeBreton Flats, an area that is west of Parliament Hill, on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River, that is home to, amongst other things, the Canadian War Museum and could be the future home of a new arena for the NHL’s Ottawa Senators.

But the LeBreton Flats are also the site of a condominium development known as Zibi. Zibi is the creation of Ottawa-based developers Windmill Development Group and Dream Unlimited Corporation. Their development plan would see 1,200 condominium apartments along with new office and retail space built on a 37-acre piece of land that spans the Ontario-Quebec border 2 km west of Parliament Hill.

The development would reclaim and clean-up some polluted industrial land.

But those 37 acres are on what Algonquin bands, including Kitigan Zibi, say is sacred land. In fact, nine of 10 federally recognized Algonquin First Nations, are opposed to the development.

The lawsuit claims that the federal and Ontario governments have “economically benefitted from the Kichi Sibi Lands … or has permitted others to do so, withouth transferring those benefits to the Algonquin Anishnabe Nation.”

Whiteduck’s Kitigan Zibi band, which has about 1,500 registered members, claims in the lawsuit that title to these lands has never been surrendered and that it has also always controlled occupation of what is now Parliament Hill “through a variety of means which included arrangements for temporary possession, but also, in the absence of an arrangement, sanctions of increasing severity up to and including death to any invader.”

Modern-day Algonquins are unlikely to be seeking any sanctions as harsh as death but they are deadly serious that their claim should be taken more seriously than it is by the federal government.

“A number of policies are still irritants to my people especially the land claim policies which are not in line with the most recent court decisions,” Whiteduck said in an interview.

The federal and Ontario governments have 20 days to respond to the claim.

Kitigan Zibi Lawsuit claiming Parliament Hill by David Akin on Scribd

• Email: dakin@postmedia.com

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/na...331/story.html

[daud]

Its a complicated situation but this whole region was algonquin land that was never ceded. Settlers just came in, imposed a british style lot system for the land and started handing it out.

The abuses faced by algonquins as settlers came is well documented. For example, Scottish settlers into the area around Perth, ON could receive lands for settlement but Algonquin tribes that petitioned for the exact same thing were given only "temporary" permits to settle-effectively meaningless because as soon as a logging group wanted that land, the algonquins were forced to leave. They got squeezed out by settlement there is no question of this.

When you delve into the algonquin first nations-Maniwaki, Golden Lake, Nipissing (North Bay) Dumoine, Kipawa, Temiskamingue etc.. You quickly realize they are all related-literally. All these bands would go to Oka in the summers through the 1800s, they inter-married and descendents settled any and all of these current first nations reserves.

The point of the last paragraph is simply, if you are going to strike a deal with one band, you have to strike one for all of them. maniwaki algonquins have as much stake in the Ottawa area as Golden Lake algonquins and arguably Nipissing, Kipawa etc...

The part that is so tricky about this is the government is walking a fine line between respecting these groups who are current citizens of our land while trying their best to keep the status quo which allows them to continue to claim ownership of this land and sell it.

I don't know the answers to these issues, just wanted to provide some background on it. I have recently researched these communities and families and there are a number of papers published on the subject as part of the current land claims with the Algonquins of Ontario.