A pair of open meetings are taking place today at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church
Garden River First Nation is being taken to court over how hundreds of millions of dollars from the Robinson Huron Treaty settlement for past compensation are being allocated.
Community member Rene Belleau is seeking a Federal Court order on behalf of all band members, directing chief and council to “comply with its common law obligations to create a fulsome, fair, transparent and meaningful process” where band members can decide how the settlement is used.
Belleau says the tipping point came earlier this year, when Garden River First Nation Chief Karen Bell informed her during a private meeting that $200 million had been locked away in a collective fund for the community known as the Legacy Trust.
“It’s our money,” Belleau told SooToday, after serving court documents at the band office on Tuesday.
“I feel as a beneficiary that we should have had a say from the beginning, and it should have been distributed to the people.”
Garden River’s share of the Robinson Huron Treaty annuities settlement for past compensation was approximately $610 million, with up to $50 million in additional funds anticipated after the Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund scaled back a ‘war chest fund’ that had been set aside for future legal costs.
The Robinson Huron Treaty annuities claim was launched in 2014, after more than 150 years of the Crown breaching its obligations to treaty beneficiaries.
A pair of Robinson treaties signed in 1850 ceded more than 100,000 square kilometres of land in the upper Great Lakes region to the Crown in return for annual payments to the Anishinabek of Lake Huron and Lake Superior — with an agreement in place to share land and resources.
Annual treaty payments to Anishinaabe beneficiaries, also known as annuities, have remained frozen at $4 per person since 1875.
In 2018, Ontario Superior Court Justice Patricia Hennessy ruled the Crown had a “mandatory and reviewable” constitutional obligation under a clause in the treaty to increase annuities as wealth generated from the land grew, so long as the Crown could do so without incurring a loss.
A $10-billion settlement between the Robinson Huron plaintiffs and the Crown was finalized in 2023, with Canada and Ontario agreeing to pay $5 billion each in past compensation.
More than 3,400 members of Garden River First Nation each received a per capita distribution of $110,000 in October of last year.
Chief and council also decided to establish the $200-million Legacy Trust, which was set aside for the collective needs of Garden River First Nation.
Belleau staged a series of protests outside of the band office over the past few months, decrying decisions made by chief and council over how millions of dollars in settlement proceeds are being allocated.
Another per capita distribution of $10,000 for each member was announced by Garden River earlier this year, but Belleau doesn’t think that’s enough.
Now, she’s taking her issues with leadership all the way to Federal Court — on behalf of all community members — and is enlisting some high-profile help to facilitate that.
Rob Louie is the president and founder of Band Members Alliance and Advocacy Association of Canada, a federally registered national non-profit organization with a mandate to help band members get access to justice.
Louie will be present at two open meetings being held by Belleau in Garden River later today, after assisting her in serving the band office with court documents yesterday.
He believes there has been very little, if any, meaningful participation by band members who are the beneficiaries of the settlement.
“After seeing that there is merit to what she is saying in so far as a court case — and some of her allegations against the chief and council — we have now elevated to providing legal representation for Rene and all other band members that have the same rights and interests as Rene with respect to these settlement dollars,” Louie said.
SooToday has reached out to chief and council for comment.
A pair of open meetings are taking place today at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, at 1082 Highway 17B in Garden River, where governance, transparency and per capita distribution will be discussed with the public.
The meetings will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m.
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