Updated Fri. Dec. 7 2007 8:00 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A Metis community's claim that it was owed billions of dollars for the sale of a massive stretch of Manitoba land -- including most of the Winnipeg area -- was dismissed Friday.
The ruling by Justice Alan MacInnes came more than 25 years after the lawsuit was first filed and more than 136 years after the conflict began.
"We're very, very disappointed," said David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation. "He states very clearly that he rejects any argument and all arguments we brought forward."
The suit, launched in 1981, claimed the Metis community was entitled to land agreements made surrounding a 1.4 million acre stretch of land in the Red River Valley.
An 1870 agreement between Metis leaders and the government of the day -- known as the Manitoba Act -- was the equivalent of a treaty, they said.
On Friday, MacInnes rejected that claim.
"I disagree. There was no treaty or agreement," he wrote in his decision, which came after 16 months of deliberation.
He also ruled that too much time had passed between the signing of the Act and the lawsuit filed more than 100 years later.
The Manitoba Act
In 1870, Metis residents -- nervous about the Dominion of Canada's plan to acquire the territory and establish the province of Manitoba -- agreed to the Manitoba Act.
The Act promised that 1.4 million acres of land be set aside for Metis children and that occupied land along the rivers was left alone.
The lawsuit was based on claims that the province of Manitoba facilitated land transfers between the Metis and prospectors between 1877 and 1885.
The MMF estimated that 85 per cent of the promised land was never received, annexed or bought out by prospectors.
Karen Busby, a law professor at the University of Manitoba, said the ruling indicates the government was not responsible for the fate of the land.
"Everyone recognizes that Metis people were swindled out of their land. The question is who's responsible for that swindling," she said.
"Does the government have some kind of obligation, or did they have an obligation to protect Metis people in the late 1800s?"
If MacInnes agreed with the claim, the federal and provincial governments could have been required to pay out billions of dollars.
Chartrand said his organization will appeal the judgment to Manitoba's top court.
With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Kelly Dehn