Canada's Supreme Court has ruled the Crown 'dishonourably" breached the Robinson Treaties. Photo: APTN News
Canada’s top court says the Crown dishonourably breached the Robinson Treaties and must negotiate a settlement with First Nations within six months.
The two treaties were signed in 1850, ceding a large swath of land in Ontario to the Crown in return for annual payments to the Anishinaabe of lakes Huron and Superior.
The treaties said the payments should increase over time, so long as the Crown did not incur a loss, but they have been frozen at $4 per person since 1875.
In a ruling today, the Supreme Court says the Ontario and Canadian governments had a mandatory obligation to raise that amount when economic circumstances warranted.
The top court says the Crown now has six months to negotiate a settlement with one of the groups, the Robinson Superior plaintiffs, and if a deal cannot be reached the Crown must set a remedy on its own.
The second group, the Robinson Huron plaintiffs, had already reached a negotiated settlement of $10 billion.
