If treaty payments in the neighborhood of $126 billion don’t sink the Canadian economy, I don’t know what would. While it’s true that the annual per person treaty payments are very low, why wouldn’t a court also take into account the mushrooming budget for the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs which made such payments redundant over many decades?
In a unanimous ruling, the panel of nine judges declared both Canada and Ontario had “dishonourably breached” their obligations under the Robinson Treaties signed with the Anishinaabe of Lake Huron and Lake Superior in 1850.
Harley Schacter, a lawyer for Red Rock First Nation and Whitesand First Nation which started the group’s fight back in 2001, told reporters on Friday he believes his clients are owed “a couple of billion to as much as $126 billion.”
“It’s a victory for everybody.”
Everybody, that is, with the exception of taxpayers.