Meegwetch. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Boozhoo. Aaniin. Tansi.
Good afternoon and good evening to the committee members.
Chris Henderson nindizhinikaaz. My name is Chris Henderson. My father comes from a community in Manitoba known as the Black River First Nation. He's Anishinabe, or Ojibwe. My mother comes from a Swampy Cree community known as the Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, in midwestern Manitoba.
I am the executive director of the Treaty Land Entitlement Committee of Manitoba. We are a stand-alone rights-based organization dedicated to helping our member first nations try to get what they were first promised when the numbered treaties were signed in Manitoba.
We are a signatory to the big green book known as the Manitoba Framework Agreement on treaty land entitlement. This was signed 26 years ago. At that time, 26 years ago, the Prime Minister of Canada was the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, and the Premier of Manitoba was Mr. Gary Filmon. I was but a young lad at the tender age of 25 years old. This framework agreement, while not a treaty, is an implementation agreement that tried to resolve the outstanding treaty land claims that our member first nations had against both Crown governments.
For your background information, some first nations, shortly after the signing of their numbered treaties—particularly treaty numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10—with Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, between 1871 and 1910, which provided among other obligations, that Canada would lay aside and reserve tracts of land for the exclusive use and benefit for first nations.... It's important to acknowledge that some first nations received their full allotment of reserve land and others did not, as promised under the treaties with the Crown. For those first nations that did not receive their full allotment of reserve land, they started their research and negotiations in the 1970s, actually, and over the next 20 years they tried to negotiate to resolve these outstanding treaty land entitlement claims.
Finally, on May 29, 1997, this framework agreement was signed with the Government of Canada and the Province of Manitoba. Since that time, only 15 out of 21 entitlement first nations actually have signed on to this framework agreement. The other six unfortunately decided not to accept what was being offered by way of land and a financial payment being provided for under the framework agreement.
Twenty-six years after the signing of the framework agreement, Canada has set aside over 565,000 acres of land as reserve for these 15 first nations. However, I should also point out that, regrettably, Canada has breached its obligations under the framework agreement, and that was noted in a court decision that was also provided, I hope, to each member of the committee. Because of that, this breach continues. On what this breach is, it is that Canada unilaterally changed the original, agreed-to, step-by-step land transfer and reserve creation process without the written consent of our member first nations.
What I mean specifically by that is that before land was to be set apart as reserve under the framework agreement, Canada said, well, we now have to let other potentially affected aboriginal groups know about these lands that are about to be set apart as reserve—we have to consult with them. When this framework agreement was signed in 1997, that was not the focus. The focus was to try to give land back to the first nations, but now, since 2012, the focus has been on Canada ensuring that it meets its consultation obligation.
We weren't opposed to that when we were advised of this back in 2012 because there is a process to try to negotiate amendments to the framework agreement. Regrettably, Canada did not listen to us. As a result, we took Canada to court, and we were successful in those court proceedings.
Over the years, there have been numerous studies.