The Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation fund team will be making an announcement today, June 17, at 1:30 p.m.
Working within a framework that they understood, the sharing of resources for common good, the First Nations of much of Northeastern Ontario entered into a treaty with the Crown, as represented by William Benjamin Robinson, a former mine manager who was named treaty commissioner. Basically, if further wealth was generated in the territory, the Crown is obligated to increase the annuity “to such further sums as Her Majesty may graciously be pleased to order.”
The decisions, in what the RHTLF refers to as Stage 1 and Stage 2, both ruled in favour of the First Nations, asserting that Canada and Ontario have a mandatory obligation to review the annuity amount. But Restoule adds that however the revenue sharing looks, it will not only improve the lives of First Nations people and communities, but the communities surrounding them in Northern Ontario.