Samson defends treaty rights

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A legal action that has been called the most important Native rights lawsuit in Canada will soon move into its second phase now that basic information has been put into the court record.

Close to 100 days of trial hearings and more than 400 days of examinations of witnesses have been conducted so far in the case of Victor Buffalo v. the Queen. The trial, begun May 1, 2000, takes place in a Federal Court courtroom in downtown Calgary. The First Nation claims $1.385 billion in damages. The trial is not expected to conclude for at least another two years. But the first phase, the "general, historical and constitutional matters" phase of the action is nearly complete. Next, the court will examine the Samson claims regarding the federal government's handling of its money.

Victor Buffalo started the lawsuit rolling when he was the chief of the Samson band in 1989. For years, the preliminary steps in the litigation were shrouded in secrecy. The public only became aware of this gigantic legal action in early 2000 as the first day of trial approached.

Sweetgrass met with Buffalo on Oct. 4 in the 26th floor offices of Terry Munro and Associates. Munro is a management consultant who has advised the band for many years. His offices, located in Western Canada Place in downtown Calgary, across the street from the court, double as the headquarters for the Samson legal team now that the trial is underway.

"My name's on the statement of claim because I was the chief at the time, Buffalo said. "But it's really driven by the nation."

Munro said the Samson community's drive to see this complex action through to its end is the most important factor in the case.

"There've been many changes in council since 1989, but the community is still unified, still fighting and this frightens the government," he said.

He said Samson is one of the few communities with the financial resources to take on the government in an action this big.

Buffalo said the lawsuit is really several lawsuits in one. It will deal with allegations by the band that the government breached its fiduciary trust by not ensuring Samson got the best possible return on assets the Crown held in trust. Samson also challenges the government numbers on the amount of money in its trust funds and alleges the monies were mismanaged. Samson also says, because they had their own revenue coming in, the department deprived the band of services and programs that all other bands received.

"We were entitled to those programs as Aboriginal people, as average Canadians, as average Albertans," he said. "Instead, the government sent us on this guilt trip, saying we were taking money from poor First Nations."

One of the largest pools of oil in oil-rich Alberta was discovered in the region near Hobbema in the 1940s. Almost a third of that pool sits under Samson lands. The band surrendered the lands in 1946 but kept an interest in the mineral rights. Buffalo said the band surrendered the land because the oil companies wanted the security of negotiating deals with the government rather than the First Nation.

Both Munro and Buffalo agree that, at its heart, this is a case about the sanctity of treaties.

'It's a treaty case. It's about what flows from the treaty," Munro said. "The treaty is the foundation of the relationship, not the Indian Act. The Crown is trying to treat it as nothing more than a commercial dispute. They don't want a pronouncement that's favorable to Indians on treaties."

"We exist because of treaty rights, not because of the Indian Act," Buffalo said. "The Indian Act's a creation of the Canadian government."