File No. 33880 IN SUPREME COURT OF CANADA (ON APPEAL FROM THE MANITOBA COURT OF APPEAL) BETWEEN: Manitoba Metis Federation Inc., Yvon Dumont, Billy Jo De La Ronde, Roy Chartrand, Ron Erickson, Claire Riddle, Jack Fleming, Jack McPherson, Don Roulette, Edgar Bruce Jr., Freda Lundmark, Miles Allarie, Celia Klassen, Alma Belhumeur, Stan Guiboche, Jeanne Perrault, Marie Banks Ducharme and Earl Henderson Appellants and Attorney General of Canada and Attorney General of Manitoba Respondents APPELLANTS' FACTUM ROSENBLOOM, ALDRIDGE, BARTLEY & BURKE-ROBERTSON ROSLING Barristers & Solicitors Barristers & Solicitors 70 Gloucester Street 440 - 355 Burrard Street Ottawa ON K2P OA2 Vancouver B.C. V6C 2G8 THOMAS R. BERGER, Q.c. ROBERT E. HOUSTON, Q.C. JAMES ALDRIDGE, Q.c. Tel: 613-236-9665 HARLEY SCHACHTER Fax: 613-235-4430 Tel: 604-684-1311 Fax: 604-684-6402 Counsel for the Applicants Ottawa Agent for the Applicants Myles J. Kirvan Myles J. Kirvan DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA CANADA Department of Justice Department of Justice Prairie Region 234 Wellington Street 301-310 Broadway Avenue Room 216 Winnipeg MB R3C OS6 Ottawa ON KIA OH8 MARK KINDRACHUK CHRISTOPHER RUP AR Tel: 306-975-4765 Tel: 613-941-2351 Fax: 306-975-5013 Fax: 613-954-1920 [email protected] [email protected] Counsel for the Respondent, Counsel for the Respondent, The Attorney General of Canada The Attorney General of Canada ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MANITOBA GOWLING LAFLEUR HENDERSON Department of Justice Barristers & Solicitors Constitutional Law Branch Suite 2600, 160 Elgin Street 1205 - 405 Broadway Ottawa, ON KIP 1C3 Winnipeg MB R3C 3L6 HEATHER LEONOFF, Q.c. HENRY S. BROWN, Q.C. MICHAEL CONNER Tel: 613-233-1781 Tel: 204-945-0679 Fax: 613-563-9869 Fax: 204-945-0053 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Counsel for the Respondent Ottawa Agent for the Respondent The Attorney General of Manitoba The Attorney General of Manitoba TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I - STATEMENT OF FACTS ........................................................................................... 1 PART II - ISSUES ....................................................................................................................... 15 PART III - ARGUMENT ............................................................................................................ 16 A. Standing ............................................................................................................................. 16 B. Mootness ............................................................................................................................ 17 C. Minorities Under the Canadian Constitution ..................................................................... 19 D. Section 31: Fiduciary Duty ................................................................................................ 23 1. Section 31: Fiduciary Duty Embedded in the Constitution ................................... 25 ii. Purpose of the Children's Grant: Content of Fiduciary Duty ............................... .32 a) McInnes J and Scott C.J.M ........................................................................ 32 b) Macdonald's and Cartier's Speeches on the Purpose of the Children's Grant ............................................................................. .32 c) Scott C.J.M.'s Ruling Regarding the Speeches as to the Purpose of Section 31 ........... :.................................................................... 33 d) The Content of the Duty ........................................................................... .34 E. Breach of Fiduciary Duty: Random Selection .................................................................. .3 5 F. Breach of Fiduciary Duty: The Great Delay ..................................................................... .41 G. Canada's Defence: Canada's Evidence ............................................................................. 56 H. The Court of Appeal's Errors Regarding Breach .............................................................. 58 i. Ruling on Bench without Finding that a Duty Existed .......................................... 58 ii. Requiring "Deliberate Ineptitude" ......................................................................... 59 iii. Relying on the Crown's Unique Role as a Fiduciary ........................................... 60 L Manitoba: Constitutionality and Operability of Provincial Legislation ............................ 61 i. Section 91(1) of the Constitution Act, 1867........................................................... 62 ii. Section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867......................................................... 63 iii. Paramountcy .......................................................................................................... 65 J. Section 32 ........................................................................................................................... 67 K. Limitations ......................................................................................................................... 76 1. Laches ................................................................................................................................ 7 8 M. Declaratory Relief.............................................................................................................. 78 PART IV - SUBMISSIONS IN SUPPORT OF COSTS ........................................................... 79 PART V - ORDER(S) SOUGHT ................................................................................................ 79 PART VI - TABLE OF AUTHORITIES .................................................................................. 81 PART VII - LEGISLATION ...................................................................................................... 83 I PART I - STATEMENT OF FACTS I. This case concerns the rights ofthe Metis people of Manitoba which were provided for in sections 31 and 32 of the Manitoba Act, 1870 and subsequently given constitutional protection by virtue of the Constitution Act, 1871. The Appellants seek declarations that these rights were frustrated or defeated by virtue of breaches of fiduciary duty and unconstitutional actions and enactments by the federal Crown, as well as by unconstitutional or inoperative enactments of the provincial Legislature. 2. The Appellants rely on the facts of history, which are generally not in dispute. The Appellants rely on the facts as found by the trial judge and the Court of Appeal, except where indicated. The narrative of events is not in dispute. The documents themselves are not in dispute. The trial judge concluded, with respect to the documentary record, at Trial Reasons, Record Vol. I-III, paragraph 458, that: ... while there are nonetheless gaps in the documentary record, generally speaking, that which the Plaintiffs assert as regard the documentary record is correct. 3. The heart of this appeal engages the proper interpretation and characterization of the Manitoba Act, 1870, as well as the proper interpretation and characterization of federal and provincial statutory provisions relating to the Manitoba Act. As these are questions of law, the standard of review is therefore one of "correctness". 4. In R v. Blais [2003] 2 S.C.R. 236 (SCC), para. 33, this Court described the Metis as Canada's "negotiating partners in the entry of Manitoba into Confederation". Professor Gerhard Ens, an expert witness for the Crown, wrote in Homeland to Hinterland, 1996, that "the creation of a 'new nation' of mixed-blood people on the western prairies remains one of the most striking aspects of Canadian history". He also wrote that: For much of the nineteenth century, the Red River Settlement was considered a Metis homeland because living there allowed them to occupy this niche with assurance. Once the Red River Settlement ceased to provide important opportunities such as hunting, freighting, trading and provisioning, the colony ceased to be a Metis homeland. In this sense, one might view Riel's efforts during 1869-70 as an attempt to reconstruct a Metis identity in political or constitutional terms as its social and economic bases were eroding. [Emphasis added.] 2 5. Scott C.J.M., writing for the Manitoba Court of Appeal, summarized the historical background of the case in the Court's Reasons for Decision, (henceforth "Reasons, Record Vol. III-IV") paras. 14 - 168. He referred to the Royal Charter granted by the Crown to the Hudson's Bay Company of 1670, the Selkirk grant, the rivalry between the Hudson's Bay Company and the Northwest Company, and the development of the Red River Settlement. He wrote, at Reasons, Record Vol. III-IV, paras. 21 and 24 to 27: 21. In 1817, Lord Selkirk entered into a treaty with a number ofIndian bands which granted and confirmed "unto our Sovereign Lord the King" land for two .miles on either side of the Red River, all the way from Lake Winnipeg to the north to what is now Grand Forks, North Dakota, in the south, and similarly on the Assiniboine River to a point west of what is now Portage la Prairie. This two-mile strip became known as the settlement belt. Subsequently, the Selkirk Treaty, as it came to be known, was considered to constitute an extinguishment of "Indian title" to the lands in question, a concept about which we will read much more. 24. As the Red River Settlement grew and prospered along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, the community became organized