Six Nations takes Canada and Ontario to court over Haldimand Tract

Billions, maybe trillions of dollars are at stake in a court battle right now. Six Nations of the Grand River argue the Crown sold off its land and mismanaged funds from those sales, and now it's suing the government of Canada and Ontario. This trial has been decades in the making, but Six Nations has been seeking redress for about 200 years. Lawyers for Six Nations will argue the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784 was a treaty. The Mohawk Nation and other nations within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy were promised land in Canada by the British Crown for their allyship during the American Revolution, after their territory was ceded to the American colonies when the British lost. They were promised about 384,500 hectares of land along the Grand River, six miles deep from each side of the river beginning at Lake Erie up to the river's source, which them and their posterity are to enjoy forever. Ninety-five percent of that land is gone now. The government of Canada and the province of Ontario argue the Haldimand Proclamation was not a treaty. and was not an obligation to set aside reserve land. Canada will also argue Six Nations made a series of valid sales and surrenders of its land and is asking the court whether Canada can be held responsible for any breach of duty because the events happened before Canada even existed. Ontario will argue that if there was any breach of duty that Canada would be solely responsible. They have also pleaded that Six Nations waited too long to sue. There are 46 individual claims with a total value estimated between $13.9 billion and $8.7 trillion. But some folks say even that figure is too great to estimate. The trial is expected to take at least two years, but could last a decade. For CBC Indigenous, I'm Candace Maracle reporting from the Haldimand Tract.