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1850 Robinson Treaties Annuities Case Justice DeniedTwo court cases of import to Sudbury and Northern Ontario took place over the past few days. One has been proceeding with the speed of molasses in January, the other is proceeding with the speed of a deadly bullet. On April 28, the Ontario Court of Appeal concluded its hearing of the Government of Ontario's appeal of the Stage 1 decision in the 1850 Robinson Treaties annuities case. This case involves an augmentation clause in the Treaties whereby the Crown agreed to increase the annuity if the Crown could do so without a loss. The annuity was last increased in 1875 to $4/person/year. In 2014, the twenty-one First Nations party to the Robinson Treaties took Canada and Ontario to court to gain an augmentation in the annuity. In December 2018, Justice Patricia Hennessy of the Ontario Superior Court released her decision in Stage 1, ruling in favour of the First Nation plaintiffs. The court found, among other things, that "the Crown has a mandatory and reviewable obligation to increase the Treaties' annuities when the economic circumstances warrant, and that the economic circumstances will trigger an increase if the net Crown resource-based revenues permit the Crown to increase the annuities without incurring a loss." It is this decision that the Ontario Government is appealing. The case is proceeding to a Stage 2 appeal later this year, after which the judges will render their verdict. On April 29 and 30, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice heard an application by Laurentian University for an extension in creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). Under the CCAA, Laurentian has cancelled 69 programs and terminated almost 200 employees, forced concessions from its unionized employees and broken the 60-year-old contracts between Laurentian and its affiliated Universities. The Court authorized Laurentian to enter into Stage 2 of the CCAA process which involves selling off land, buildings and other assets said not to be essential to Laurentian's core activities. So, in the case in which the Indigenous peoples would benefit and the Canadian state and the financial oligarchy would provide compensation, the hearing of the case is taking many years and no restitution is being made while the case is being appealed. In the other case, where the Canadian state and the financial oligarchy would benefit and the members of the Laurentian community, Indigenous peoples, Francophones, Sudbury and Northern Ontario have much to lose, decisions are rapidly made and implemented in such a way that an appeal becomes pointless. Laurentian is being wrecked by the CCAA. Such is Canadian justice in the twenty-first century.
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