An Algonquin nation in Quebec has launched a land-claim lawsuit asserting rights over a high-profile swath of downtown Ottawa including Parliament Hill and LeBreton Flats, potentially complicating the NCC’s ongoing redevelopment of the Flats and Windmill’s planned “Zibi” commercial-residential real estate project on adjacent lands around the Chaudière Falls.
The claim, encompassing Centre Block and the Peace Tower, the Supreme Court building and the Canadian War Museum, was filed by the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, a community of Algonquin people based in Maniwaki, Que., about 150 kilometres north of Ottawa.
The claim was filed in Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa on Dec. 7, and names the defendants as the Attorney General of Canada, Ontario, and the NCC.
The claim says that the Algonquin Anishnabe Nation have rights to what is described as “Kichi Sibi Lands” — or Ottawa River Lands — including the Chaudière Islands and the adjacent shoreline on the Ontario side of the river.
The claim was filed in response to a recent agreement-in-principle between the Algonquins of Ontario and the federal and Ontario governments, which did not include the Algonquins of Quebec.
The Ontario treaty established that roughly 36,000 square kilometres of land, including portions of the Ottawa Valley, would be signed over to the Algonquins of Ontario in a deal estimated to be worth around $300 million.
The Ontario deal is deemed problematic to the Algonquins of Kitigan Zibi, they say, because it does not account for the interests of Quebec-based First Nations that historically resided on both sides of the Ontario-Quebec border.
Kitigan Zibi chief Jean-Guy Whiteduck said he filed the suit because of frustration at the slow pace of negotiations between his community and the federal government over unceded Algonquin territory encompassing the present-day national capital along with much of present-day Ontario and Quebec.
Whiteduck stated in a press conference after the site-specific land claim was launched that recent discussions with the National Capital Commission have been going nowhere.
The statement of claim states that the Algonquin Anishnabe Nation “physically occupied the Kichi Sibi Lands in a variety of ways,” and used this area for a host of activities, including: fishing, hunting and trapping, as camp sites for meeting, farming and cultivation, gathering berries and medicinal plants, trade, travel routes, and as sacred land that includes burial grounds.
This claim also stated that the Algonquin Anishnabe Nation “had the intention and capacity to retain exclusive control over the Kichi Sibi Lands.”
The document cites a number of justifications for the claim, noting that historically there was a system of rules and laws in place confirming and enforcing their ownership of the land, that they controlled the occupation and use of the land, as well as passage along the Ottawa River. The claim argues that a number of agreements were made with other aboriginal and European nations that confirmed the Algonquin Anishnabe Nation’s right the possess and control this land.
The nation “has never surrendered its title to the Kichi Sibi Land,” The document states.
Currently, the NCC is negotiating with a group called RendezVous LeBreton and the City of Ottawa to build a new NHL arena for the Ottawa Senators, as well as an accompanying neighbourhood at LeBreton Flats and a host of other public and private facilities.
The controversial Zibi development, which envisions condominiums and office buildings on reclaimed industrial lands on Chaudière and Albert islands as well adjacent shoreline properties on the Gatineau side of the Ottawa River, has been touted by Windmill Developments and the City of Ottawa as a showcase “green” community. It also has the support of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation near Renfrew, about 150 kilometres west of Ottawa, but is opposed by Kitigan Zibi and a number of other Quebec-based Algonquin communities.
Whiteduck said he’s not against development, but wants his people to be considered an equal partner in the decisions around development of the Kichi Sibi lands.
The claim specifically cites their right to have a role to “manage” the land.
The statement of claim argues that the NCC and the Canadian government have “economically benefitted from the Kichi Sibi Lands… without transferring those benefits to the Algonquin Anishnabe Nation.”
The claim states that Kitigan Zibi and the Algonquin Anishnabe Nation have never been compensated for the use of this land.
An NCC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The NCC and federal and provincial governments had 20 days after the Dec. 7 filing of the claim to submit a formal response.