Like I said, to the victor go the spoils.
CBC
A draft copy of the final residential school agreement shows that the federal government will pay $40 million each to a Regina law firm and a national consortium of lawyers.
None of that includes the significant legal bills submitted in the course of the long running adjudication process, (for which I’ve been told one firm was paid to do nothing but attend on behalf of the federal government). And that leads me to mention another quirk of process – in the case of residential school claims, the word “adjudication” refers to hammering out an agreement the government is obligated to accept, while the complainant had the option of walking away to try for more.
What are at the root of all these landclaims – lawyers. Billable hours.
enough
Is it any friggin wonder most people are disgusted by and hateful of lawyers.Their horrendous fees are nothing more than legalized theft….Guess that’s why they so easily slip into politicians’ clothing!
JUSTICE?…Sure,if you can afford it!
Bad link to “victor”?
Cheers
“What are at the root of all these landclaims – lawyers.”
False. The root of land claims is the fact that provinces such as B.C. failed to treat with First Nations as prescribed by the Royal Proclamation. Other claims come from the fact that the federal government failed to live up its treaty promises.
In fact, if First Nations had not been outlawed, via the Indian Act, from hiring lawyers for the first 50 years of the 20th C, we might well have dealt with all these issues by now.
I had an itemized invoice from a lawyer once. Under the “misc” category he listed:
Photocopying, paperclips, etc.
YES, paperclips! I hope Satan is sharpening a pitchfork for this slimy SOB.
Why sharks don’t attack lawyers ??
Professional courtesy.
Remember when the term “ambulance chaser” was derogatory and lawyers in general were respected members of the community? Now the bastards run full-page color advert’s in the yellow pages, bragging about their sandbagging prowess. Social parasites who found the mother lode when they invented class action suits.
I suppose that we should be thankful we don’t live in the U.S. where a million of the varmints form a distinct and substantial demographic unit.
Jeancula: Case open. +
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/001749.html
OCCUPATION
* Lawyer (called to the Quebec Bar in 1958)
* 1958 -1963 Lawyer with Chrétien, Landry, Deschênes, Trudel and Normand
* 1962 -1963 Director of the Bar of Trois-Rivières
* 1986 -1990 Counsil with Lang, Mitchener, Lawrence and Shaw, and Senior Advisor with Gordon Capital Corporation, Montreal +
Jean Chrétien – Wikiquote
“No, a proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It’s a proof. A proof is a proof, and when you have a good proof, it’s because it’s proven.” …
en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_Chrétien – 13k –
“In fact, if First Nations had not been outlawed, via the Indian Act, from hiring lawyers for the first 50 years of the 20th C, we might well have dealt with all these issues by now.”
Peter D,although we are wandering off topic here,I cannot allow that claim to go unchallenged.Landclaims issues will NEVER be completely resolved as natives do not want them to be.It is by far the best tactic they have to extort more and more billions from Canadian taxpayers.
Give natives credit,they learned from Quebec what unrelenting whining about being oppressed can accomplish.ALthough natives already have more rights in this country than the “white man” they hate so much,they demand more.
BTW,well done Harper,stopping 5 BILLION more dollars from finding itself into the pockets of those who do no more than profit from the Indian Industry.
Lawyers are one of the reasons I’m glad the Kelowna agreement died on the table. Government dollars always seem to end up going to bureaucrats and lawyers instead of the people that need it.
Peter D,
We allow the process to go on and never set an end date. Then to finance the lawyers we let the indians pay the lawyers on credit from the settlement amount. If a case is ever settled this will change and lawyer fees will be in addition to the claim. No incentive to settle unless the government blinks first.
End it now. Make a final offer, take it or leave it. Extinguish all extra-canadian rights.
The indians have been conquered and lost.
enough
Everyone hates lawyers. At least, until they need one themselves.
Well done Harper?…Didn’t you observe, Canadian Observer, that the $5 billion with an extra $1 billion thrown in for good measure, went straight down the farm subsidy black hole. Why should taxpayers be thrilled about that?
Jim Prentice and HArper nmade a bad deal. Don’t you have any influence with the Tories?
“Landclaims issues will NEVER be completely resolved as natives do not want them to be.It is by far the best tactic they have to extort more and more billions from Canadian taxpayers.”
Where is the proof us this? Have you sat in on land claims negotiations? Do you really believe that the reason for land claims not being settled more commonly is because of First Nations? Is the government just a bystander here?
“The indians have been conquered and lost.”
Did I miss something? When was the war?
“Extinguish all extra-canadian rights.”
So if we extinguish the Treaties, I assume all non-Aboriginal people here are willing to give up their treaty rights then?
In the Hep C Compensation claim, lawyers who NO ONE HIRED – who launched a class action on their own, received $62 million. Coincidence that the guy who received this, and was appointed to negotiate with the Feds was a college buddy of the Health Minister (Between a Rock and a Hard Case).
I just heard a voice clip of Tony Merchant on the radio regarding his firm getting $40,000,000 cash in fees as part of the residential school settlement with the government. He deadpanned that his firm billed for $50,000,000 of unpaid work and all they were getting was $40,000,000. Anyone who feels sorry for poor Tony – put your hand up. OK Paul, you can put your hand down now.
Law Student,
And what is the main reason that anyone needs a lawyer? For protection from other lawyers of course.
yup, the CBC blip on Tony’s… er.. payment,
wow… nice ROI.
“Merchant said the firm invested nearly $2. million in this case over the years”
http://www.cbc.ca/sask/story/merchant-fees060508.html
“land claim” is nothing more than extortion; why is it “their land”?, because one of their ancestors walked on it once? Unfortunatley no politician has or ever will have the guts to say enough is enough, especially with all the white guilt flying around.
Lets see here. 78,000 people attended residential schools over the life of the program. I am making an assumption here that not all 78,000 were abused and some actually got some education that helped them in life beyond the rez. So where is the 2.2 billion going? Oh yeah, lawyers. I can see just who is getting screwed and abused in this deal… Canadian taxpayers.
BTW is that illegal stand-off still going on in Ontario?
A little off topic.The six nations (Caledonia) have a website up,unfortunately thier comment section was quite sparse.I posted the simple question about the land they claimed was leased not sold.Three times over a 48 hour period,I wanted to know how long the lease agreement lasted.Was it for 2 years,99 years,etc.Guess what?No one could give an answer.Simple question,simple answer,unless there was never any lease.Though I was informed about how oppressed they are,numerous times.
Two young kids are talking about thier dads.The first one says his dad is a lawyer,The second one is impressed,says,”Honest”. First kid replies,”No,just a regular one”.
“”land claim” is nothing more than extortion; why is it “their land”?”
Read some history, especially the Royal Proclamation of 1763. This document confirmed Aboriginal Title to all the lands west of the Appalachian Mts. Plus, they had occupation rights. Might want to read up on that too.
It is pretty sad that to fulfill a treaty promise to educate the Indians we have now been sued for doing so. When only about 15% of them attended res school all of course were abused. I personally know natives that attended these schools and they were no more abused than I was in public school. When a student misbehaves there are usually consequences.
This being the case we should stop educating them for fear of furher lawsuits.
We only promised to build a {1} school on the reserves not universities.
The old medicine chest[first aid kit}has sure expanded as have numbers for land claims.
They will never be satisfied and governments continue to ruin their lives by handing out treats.
We are still fighting battles from hundreds of years ago.
This is Canada now. Yet we keep paying from hundreds of years ago. It should be over. Royal proclamation or not.
enough
At the conclusion of the [Donald] Marshall Inquiry in Nova Scotia some years ago, Halifax cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon featured a forlorn Donald Marshall standing at the side of the road with his hands in his pockets as a large, finned convertible carrying several lawyers sped away, dollar bills flying wildly out of the car. The occupants of the car are shown calling out: “So long, Junior (Marshall’s nickname); don’t be a stranger now!”
Canadians should remember these stories every time they hear that some outraged (or faux-outraged) citizen, lobbyist, activist, politician, etc. is said to be “demanding a public inquiry.”
WallyJ, Excellent lawyer joke…100 points! TG