Two northern First Nations have filed lawsuits against the provincial government, alleging Manitoba has infringed on treaty rights by allowing resource extraction, hydroelectric development and other activities on waterways in their home territories, affecting the environment and their traditional ways of life.
Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and Tataskweyak Cree Nation, with lawyer Kate Kempton of Victoria firm Woodward & Co. Lawyers working on their behalf, filed separate statements of claim in the Court of King’s Bench last week over the use of waters in their traditional territories.
Mathias Colomb is a remote First Nation about 210 kilometres north of The Pas, near the Saskatchewan border, and is accessible by rail, air and winter road. Tataskweyak is on Split Lake along the Nelson River, accessible by road from Thompson, about 140 km to the southwest.
The similar lawsuits ask the court to declare the government must work with the Cree Nations to co-manage the waterways in the territories and make sure environmental effects are remediated to ensure the communities can exercise their treaty rights.
The two court filings also ask the court to declare the provincial government cannot lawfully continue to cause or allow any government or non-Indigenous activities on the lands, including issuing permits for resource projects, until the co-management regimes are established.
Further, the lawsuits demand a temporary or possibly permanent injunction preventing the province from issuing permits that could further negatively affect the territories.
“For countless generations, (Mathias Colomb and Tataskweyak members and their ancestors) have thrived in their traditional territory, living off the waters through seasonal harvesting of fish and animals and gathering of plants for food and medicine,” reads the two claims. “The waters are integral to (the two nations’s) survival.”
The lawsuits allege by allowing the use of the waters — including through Manitoba Hydro’s diversions, dams and generating stations, as well as mining, logging, agriculture and outdoor outfitting — the province has harmed the watersheds and, consequently, the two Cree Nations’ ways of life.
The lawsuits seek compensation for any effects to the waterways going forward, including a share of money from hydroelectric projects earned by the province, as well as damages for breaches of treaty and infringements on the two First Nations’s ways of life. The two court filings do not cite specific dollar figures.
Damages to the waterways include effects to water flows due to hydro development, flooding, damage to shorelines, pollution affecting fish and animal life and loss of habitat, the claims say.
Those damages, the court filings say, have harmed the ability to fish and trap for food and to make a living, the viability of drinking water and navigation on the lakes and rivers, among other effects.
The First Nations claim the province has unjustifiably enriched itself economically through permitting non-Indigenous people to use the waters, without meeting its obligations under treaties.
The lawsuits seek court declarations that the First Nations have constitutional rights to resources in their territories — including to fish, hunt, trap and gather, as well as for spiritual uses — and to manage and steward the waters.
The court filings allege Manitoba has breached obligations under treaties, breached its duty to implement the treaties and infringed on the communities’ ways of life.
The lawsuits also want declarations the provincial government breached fiduciary duties or failed to uphold the honour of the Crown.
The province’s lawyers, who were served notice of the lawsuits Wednesday, are reviewing the claims but have yet to reply with statements of defence.
The allegations have not been heard in court.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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