‘This is not reconciliation,’ judge says, scolding Canada for dragging feet on First Nations land debt deal

A federal judge recently said the way Canada has continued to “shirk its responsibilities” to a group of Manitoba First Nations since signing a landmark agreement meant to resolve historic treaty land shortages “is simply not acceptable.”

The province, the federal government and the Treaty Land Entitlement Committee of Manitoba signed the Manitoba Framework Agreement in 1997 to give land to First Nations that were given insufficient land under Treaties 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10.

The total land owed to the 21 First Nations eligible under the agreement is about 445,000 hectares. Just over half of that has been converted to reserve land as of last March, the committee’s annual report said.

In an Aug. 21 decision, Federal Court of Canada Justice Julie Blackhawk expressed frustration with Ottawa’s ongoing delays in fulfilling its commitments under the deal.

“It is disheartening to see that three decades after the successful negotiation of a modern agreement aimed at settling outstanding Treaty obligations, the relationship between the parties continues to be marred by distrust and now represent[s] more broken promises,” she wrote.

“It is difficult for this court to see how the Crown is committed to reconciliation in the face of the Crown’s conduct on this matter.”

Ottawa has delayed implementation of the 1997 agreement with “vague references” about its duty to consult other Indigenous communities, but Blackhawk said that duty “does not detract” from Canada’s obligation to fulfil its obligations under the deal.

“Canada cannot hide behind a vaguely defined duty to consult to hold up its fulfillment of the settlement for an indefinite period of time,” she wrote. “This is not reconciliation [or] upholding the honour of the Crown.”

While the federal government told Blackhawk it is committed to advancing reconciliation, the judge said that promise “rings hollow in the circumstances of this case.”

Blackhawk’s ruling was the result of a summary judgment motion by the committee as part of its 2022 statement of claim against Ottawa over breaches of the 1997 deal.

The lawsuit’s roots go back a decade. In 2016, the Treaty Land Entitlement Committee used the deal’s dispute resolution process to allege Canada’s consultation with the Métis — before setting aside lands under the 1997 agreement — failed to comply with the deal, Blackhawk said.

In 2018, an independent arbitrator found Canada materially breached the agreement’s fundamental terms requiring it to use “best efforts” and refrain from unilateral changes to the deal, she wrote.

Canada did not remedy those breaches, and in 2021, the federal court ruled the First Nations were no longer bound by terms of individual treaty land entitlement agreements preventing them from pursuing legal action against the government for insufficient land allocations under the treaties, Blackhawk wrote.

‘We need the land’: committee president

The federal government said it respects Blackhawk’s decision and is reviewing it but will not comment further while the committee’s lawsuit is before the courts, spokesperson Pascal Laplante told CBC News in a written statement.

Although Blackhawk handed down criticism of Canada’s conduct, her ruling came with mixed results for both sides.

She dismissed the federal government’s argument that the Treaty Land Entitlement Committee must first exhaust the agreement’s dispute resolution process to pursue relief for its breaches of the deal.

But Blackhawk sided with Ottawa’s argument that the 1997 agreement and the treaty land entitlements operate prospectively, rejecting the committee’s claim that the amount of land owed under the deal was retroactive to the initial signing of the treaties.

She also ruled in favour of Canada’s argument that the total amount of land owed to each First Nation in the 1997 agreement and individual treaty land entitlements were negotiated amounts “based on mutual compromises” and did not reflect actual reserve land entitlements under the treaties.

Seeking an out-of-court resolution, negotiators previously reached a proposed settlement in 2023, which included a $3.5-billion compensation package for the loss-of-use of reserve lands, but it “evaporated,” the Treaty Land Entitlement Committee said in a news release earlier this year.

Committee president Nelson Genaille said in a June 2026 letter to federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty that the proposed settlement was “designed to avoid expensive and prolonged years of litigation.”

The proposed settlement also included amendments to the 1997 agreement that would have remedied Canada’s breaches of the deal and introduced a process for the federal government to consult other Indigenous groups, wrote Genaille, who’s also chief of Sapotaweyak Cree Nation.

In 2025, Alty’s predecessor Gary Anandasangaree announced a $210-million payment to the affected First Nations in advance of the proposed settlement, the Treaty Land Entitlement Committee’s news release said.

Genaille told CBC News the committee plans to appeal Blackhawk’s ruling.

Canada needs to fulfil its obligations to the First Nations under the 1997 deal, he said.

“Basically, they want to keep us in the teepees, when the treaties were signed,” Genaille said Friday.

“We know how to do business. We want to be part of the economy, and in order for us to be part of the economy, we need the land that’s been obligated to us … so we could start those businesses.”