As Canadian taxpayers will soon be on the hook for paying $10 billion-plus to an estimated 30,000 Ojibways in northwestern Ontario, it’s worth taking a look at how an Ontario judge was courted — enthusiastically, to all appearances — by the Ojibway plaintiffs.In her December 21 2018, Stage One ruling on Restoule v. Canada (Attorney General), — which forms the basis of the $10 billion-plus out-of-court settlement — Justice Patricia C. Hennessy of the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice wrote:“As a court party, we participated in Sweat Lodge ceremonies, Pipe ceremonies, Sacred Fire teachings, Smudge ceremonies, Eagle Staff and Eagle Feather presentations (she let the Ojibway plaintiffs place an Eagle Staff in the well of the courtroom) and Feasts."“During the ceremonies, there were often teachings, sometimes centered on bimaadiziwin — how to lead a good life. Often teachings were more specific (eg on the role of the sacred fire, the role of sacred medicines, or the meaning and significance of the ceremonies).”Justice Hennessy expressed gratitude to “the many firekeepers who tended sacred fires throughout the hearing process from September to June in the full range of Northern Ontario weather and to Elder Leroy Bennett of Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation (population approximately 1,500) who conducted Smudge, Eagle Staff and Pipe ceremonies and offered teachings to those who asked.”It is clear from her misinformed findings that Justice Hennessy was co-opted by “the Anishinaabe worldview,” “Sacred Fire teachings,” “knowledge keepers” and “ancient practices.”Consider this.“The First Nations were warm and generous hosts when the court convened in their communities,” Justice Hennessy wrote. “The entire court party (including the lawyers representing the taxpayers of Canada and Ontario) expressed their gratitude for the generosity of the many knowledge keepers who provided the teachings. I believe I speak for the counsel teams when I say that the teachings and the hospitality gave us an appreciation of the modern exercise of ancient practices.”What, you might well ask your local Member of Parliament, was the judge in charge of the case doing out on the reserves in the first place?A matter of this financial magnitude should have been heard entirely in a court of law.Justice Hennessy concluded her Stage One decision with the Ojibway term for thank you: “Miigwech, Miigwech, Miigwech.”How did this precedent-setting court case become so entangled with Ojibway religious ceremonies?What, if anything, did the lawyers representing Canada and Ontario do to prevent this from happening?Instead of “expressing their gratitude” for the “teachings” of the “knowledge keepers,” they should have objected strenuously to this unprecedented poisoning of the well.Justice Hennessy mistakenly claims that the 60,350 square kilometre territory covered by the Robinson Treaties of 1850 “was historically occupied and communally held (by the Ojibways) prior to contact.”She also says: “As the last placed within creation, the Anishinaabe could not act in ways that would violate those relationships that came before their placement on the land and that were already in existence across creation.”Would that have been before, or after, the Ice Age and The Flood?If Justice Hennessy and the taxpayer-funded lawyers had gone to a local church instead of a sweat lodge or sacred fire ceremony, they might very well have learned that most of the Ojibways — including Chief Shingwaukonse who is referred to as the chief spokesperson throughout her decision — were Christians.And they were not alone. Many thousands of indigenous people across Canada had converted to Christianity and were regular churchgoers.According to J. R. Miller’s 1996 Shingwauk’s Vision, Chief Shingwaukonse and several other Ojibway leaders travelled by canoe to Toronto 18 years before the Robinson Treaties to discuss religion and other matters with Lieutenant-Governor John Colborne.In response to that meeting, Professor Miller wrote: “Colborne arranged to have the Church of England in 1832 dispatch a young missionary, who ministered to the Ojibwa and married into their nation. The close link between the Ojibwa of Garden River and the Anglican Church had been established.”Why — 186 years later — was a judge of the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice attending sweat lodges, sacred fire ceremonies and “teachings” of the knowledge keepers?By agreeing to the terms of the treaties, Justice Hennessy claims, the approximately 2,500 Ojibways living along the north shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior in 1850 “were giving the greatest gift of all — ‘the land and water over which countless generations of their ancestors had presided… the source of bimaadiziwin, which is to say, life in the fullest sense of the term.’”In fact, the Ojibways had moved up from the United States and were originally from the Atlantic Coast, near the Gulf of St. Lawrence.Consider this from Justice Hennessy’s Stage One decision:“May 1846: Commissioner of Crown Lands D.B. Papineau states that the Indians from Sault Ste. Marie are not considered to have any claims to the land, having emigrated from the United States.“November 4, 1847: Papineau issues a report stating….that the Anishinaabe claimants had no right to the land because they were ‘not the original proprietors of the soil’ and because ‘being only a small tribe, they do not form a Nation and therefore cannot claim the Territory’.”Notwithstanding the evidence before her that the Ojibways had no legitimate claim on the land, Justice Hennessy ruled otherwise.And Canadian taxpayers are now going to have to fork over $10 billion-plus because she allowed herself to become co-opted by the Ojibway plaintiffs. Toronto author Robert MacBain has been following the indigenous file for more than 60 years, as a newspaper reporter, consultant to the Department of Indian Affairs and the author of three books with indigenous themes.
As Canadian taxpayers will soon be on the hook for paying $10 billion-plus to an estimated 30,000 Ojibways in northwestern Ontario, it’s worth taking a look at how an Ontario judge was courted — enthusiastically, to all appearances — by the Ojibway plaintiffs.In her December 21 2018, Stage One ruling on Restoule v. Canada (Attorney General), — which forms the basis of the $10 billion-plus out-of-court settlement — Justice Patricia C. Hennessy of the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice wrote:“As a court party, we participated in Sweat Lodge ceremonies, Pipe ceremonies, Sacred Fire teachings, Smudge ceremonies, Eagle Staff and Eagle Feather presentations (she let the Ojibway plaintiffs place an Eagle Staff in the well of the courtroom) and Feasts."“During the ceremonies, there were often teachings, sometimes centered on bimaadiziwin — how to lead a good life. Often teachings were more specific (eg on the role of the sacred fire, the role of sacred medicines, or the meaning and significance of the ceremonies).”Justice Hennessy expressed gratitude to “the many firekeepers who tended sacred fires throughout the hearing process from September to June in the full range of Northern Ontario weather and to Elder Leroy Bennett of Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation (population approximately 1,500) who conducted Smudge, Eagle Staff and Pipe ceremonies and offered teachings to those who asked.”It is clear from her misinformed findings that Justice Hennessy was co-opted by “the Anishinaabe worldview,” “Sacred Fire teachings,” “knowledge keepers” and “ancient practices.”Consider this.“The First Nations were warm and generous hosts when the court convened in their communities,” Justice Hennessy wrote. “The entire court party (including the lawyers representing the taxpayers of Canada and Ontario) expressed their gratitude for the generosity of the many knowledge keepers who provided the teachings. I believe I speak for the counsel teams when I say that the teachings and the hospitality gave us an appreciation of the modern exercise of ancient practices.”What, you might well ask your local Member of Parliament, was the judge in charge of the case doing out on the reserves in the first place?A matter of this financial magnitude should have been heard entirely in a court of law.Justice Hennessy concluded her Stage One decision with the Ojibway term for thank you: “Miigwech, Miigwech, Miigwech.”How did this precedent-setting court case become so entangled with Ojibway religious ceremonies?What, if anything, did the lawyers representing Canada and Ontario do to prevent this from happening?Instead of “expressing their gratitude” for the “teachings” of the “knowledge keepers,” they should have objected strenuously to this unprecedented poisoning of the well.Justice Hennessy mistakenly claims that the 60,350 square kilometre territory covered by the Robinson Treaties of 1850 “was historically occupied and communally held (by the Ojibways) prior to contact.”She also says: “As the last placed within creation, the Anishinaabe could not act in ways that would violate those relationships that came before their placement on the land and that were already in existence across creation.”Would that have been before, or after, the Ice Age and The Flood?If Justice Hennessy and the taxpayer-funded lawyers had gone to a local church instead of a sweat lodge or sacred fire ceremony, they might very well have learned that most of the Ojibways — including Chief Shingwaukonse who is referred to as the chief spokesperson throughout her decision — were Christians.And they were not alone. Many thousands of indigenous people across Canada had converted to Christianity and were regular churchgoers.According to J. R. Miller’s 1996 Shingwauk’s Vision, Chief Shingwaukonse and several other Ojibway leaders travelled by canoe to Toronto 18 years before the Robinson Treaties to discuss religion and other matters with Lieutenant-Governor John Colborne.In response to that meeting, Professor Miller wrote: “Colborne arranged to have the Church of England in 1832 dispatch a young missionary, who ministered to the Ojibwa and married into their nation. The close link between the Ojibwa of Garden River and the Anglican Church had been established.”Why — 186 years later — was a judge of the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice attending sweat lodges, sacred fire ceremonies and “teachings” of the knowledge keepers?By agreeing to the terms of the treaties, Justice Hennessy claims, the approximately 2,500 Ojibways living along the north shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior in 1850 “were giving the greatest gift of all — ‘the land and water over which countless generations of their ancestors had presided… the source of bimaadiziwin, which is to say, life in the fullest sense of the term.’”In fact, the Ojibways had moved up from the United States and were originally from the Atlantic Coast, near the Gulf of St. Lawrence.Consider this from Justice Hennessy’s Stage One decision:“May 1846: Commissioner of Crown Lands D.B. Papineau states that the Indians from Sault Ste. Marie are not considered to have any claims to the land, having emigrated from the United States.“November 4, 1847: Papineau issues a report stating….that the Anishinaabe claimants had no right to the land because they were ‘not the original proprietors of the soil’ and because ‘being only a small tribe, they do not form a Nation and therefore cannot claim the Territory’.”Notwithstanding the evidence before her that the Ojibways had no legitimate claim on the land, Justice Hennessy ruled otherwise.And Canadian taxpayers are now going to have to fork over $10 billion-plus because she allowed herself to become co-opted by the Ojibway plaintiffs. Toronto author Robert MacBain has been following the indigenous file for more than 60 years, as a newspaper reporter, consultant to the Department of Indian Affairs and the author of three books with indigenous themes.
