Samson trial adjourned until April

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Three scheduled weeks of hearings in the Samson Cree First Nation's $1.5 billion claim against the federal government were cancelled on Jan. 9 after Federal Court of Canada Judge Max Teitelbaum was diagnosed with cancer.

Judge Teitelbaum, 69, has presided over 149 days of hearings so far with the trial expected to last at least two more years. The judge is expected to make a full recovery, sources say, although he was expected to have surgery in late January. He was appointed judge of the Federal Court of Canada on Oct. 29, 1985.

The revelation of the judge's illness came at the beginning of what was to have been the third day of cross-examination of Dr. Thomas Flanagan, a University of Calgary political science professor who the Crown wishes to have the court accept as an expert in the history of Aboriginal-federal government relations. The announcement that the trial had been adjourned until April was made about an hour after court should have begun.

Samson Cree lawyer Ed Molstad, Q.C. made the informal announcement to a courtroom half-full of Native observers who were there to see Molstad make the argument that Flanagan was not qualified to be an expert witness in the case.

The dozen or more people who made the hour-and-a-half trip south from Hobbema to downtown Calgary were looking forward to seeing the cross-examination of Flanagan completed. More than one observer said the scheduled events of Jan. 9 promised to be the most interesting day of the trial so far.

Flanagan, a former policy advisor to former Reform Party leader Preston Manning and author of First Nations, Second Thoughts, the Donner Prize winning book that is critical of what the author calls "Aboriginal orthodoxy," is seen by most First Nations leaders as an arch political foe. He is currently the campaign manager for Stephen Harper, an Albertan who will seek to replace Stockwell Day as the leader of the Canadian Alliance.

Molstad spent six hours of court time narrowing down the areas where Flanagan can claim to have expertise in Native issues, getting him to admit that he has never done research on reserve and has never spent any time working directly with Native people.

Flanagan, who holds a PhD in political science from Duke University in North Carolina, also admitted he has never taken a single course in Canadian history or Canadian Aboriginal history.

The Samson lawyer forced the professor to admit over and over again that in many areas he was not an expert, and in some areas had no knowledge at all, such as in the constitutional issues of the case.

Flanagan admitted he had no expertise in linguistics, law, anthropology, ethnology, ethnohistory and other areas. Molstad carefully narrowed the limits of the professors expertise to support the lawyer's contention that Flanagan had been asked by the Crown to assess the validity and relevance of reports prepared by Samson's expert witnesses when he had no expertise in those experts' fields. The lawyer also argued that Flanagan was usurping the court's role by stating that information in those reports was irrelevant.

Before the lawyer could conclude his cross-examination, the judge abruptly adjourned the session for the day. It will be several months before Molstad can complete his work. When court re-convenes, one more full day is expected to be required before the judge will be asked to decide if Flanagan's testimony will be admitted as evidence.