GULL BAY FIRST NATION, Ont. — Members of the Gull Bay First Nation, also known as Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek (KZA), were to gather Tuesday to receive an update on the community's longstanding land claim.
Gull Bay, on the western shore of Lake Nipigon, first filed the claim against Canada and Ontario in Superior Court in 2016.
KZA's leadership wants redress for a mistake it says was made in calculating the size of the reserve when the First Nation signed the Robinson-Superior Treaty with the Crown in 1850.
Chief Wilfred King said "the reserve should have been much larger as per the treaty negotiations...It's only four miles square. It should be ten times that size."
In an interview with Tbnewswatch, King said the Crown has settled similar grievances with the Fort William First Nation and Michipicoten First Nation, the two other signatories to the treaty.
"They failed to negotiate with us so we commenced legal proceedings. They've asked us to put our claim in abeyance and go back to the negotiating table, and I said 'No, we're not gonna do that.' "
Chief King said if his community held back its court case "we'll go to the bottom of the pile again and we'll have to wait another 15 or 20 years before our claim is even brought to the negotiation table," noting that there are "thousands" of outstanding claims across the country.
Community meetings with council and KZA's British Columbia-based legal firm were scheduled for both Gull Bay and Thunder Bay on Tuesday.
"We're just giving the community members an update in terms of where we're at and some of the key issues," King said.
He expects the case will go to trial in 2019.
Tbnewswatch contacted Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada for comment on the Gull Bay claim.
A department issued a prepared statement that said "Honouring the treaty relationship, based on the recognition of rights, respect, co-operation and partnership, is important to this government and is key to achieving lasting reconciliation...The Government of Canada prefers negotiated outcomes wherever possible and we remain open to discussions on moving this case out of the Court process."
