Keewatin v. Minister of Natural Resources

Part 11. Post-Treaty Events 219Many instances of absolute persecution of Indians on the part of officious game wardens have beenreported, the most glaring being the recent instance of Game Warden Hemphill descending on theIslington band and confiscating all the deer meat that the Indians had taken for food, and also the deerskins which they required for moccasins.The Lake of the Woods Indians are physically suffering from the wrongful treatment meted out tothem by the Province, but are patiently awaiting the time when their wrongs will be re-dressed andtheir rights vindicated….Bury cited the clear wording of the Harvesting Clause, capitalizing Her Said Government of theDominion of Canada, and recommending that Canada intervene to protect the Treaty rights ofthe Ojibway, as the words of the Treaty anticipated. His September 17, 1929 memo continued:If this clause means what it says, and the language is un-equivocal, then the hunting and fishingprivileges of the Indians are under the control of the Dominion Government solely, and anyregulation that the Province of Ontario may see fit to make, is ultra vires, unless assented to in thefirst place by the Dominion……The Department being the custodian of the rights of the Indians, naturally, I presume, takes theposition, that the control of Indian hunting and fishing rests solely with the Dominion Governmentand should in my humble opinion press a test case, as far as the Privy Council of Great Britain, so asto determine how far Ontario has the power to abrogate solemn treaties….…I submit that we should insist upon: –2011 ONSC 4801 (CanLII)The right of the Indians to take game and fish for food, only, at any time.The prior right of the Indians to commercial fishing in their own waters or waters adjacent to theirreserves.The creation of trapping ground areas for the exclusive use of the Indians.ConclusionThe Indians of Treaty No. 3 area (Lake of the Woods) are possibly facing today the worst conditionsof living that they have ever experienced. Prevented from hunting for food, restricted fromcommercial fishing, failing to secure a blue –berry crop, they will assuredly need all the help andassistance that its possible to give them to tide over the winters; but if besides financial help, theyalso receive the assurance from the Department that their grievances will be remedied so far as it ishumanly possible to do so, then they will turn to the future with renewed hope and a conviction thattreaties are inviolable documents, not susceptible to alteration or abrogation by parties who were notcontributory signatories.[1143] On June 11, 1938, Captain Frank Edwards, the Indian Agent in the area, made notesduring a meeting with an organized group of Treaty 3 Ojibway known as "The Organization ofAmalgamated Indians" about their Treaty Harvesting Rights. Capt. Edwards then wrote (Ex. 1,Vol. 18, tab 852) to Indian Affairs to report as follows:They know the Dominion Government took over Canada. Now the Ontario Government has takenover, but it was the Dominion Government they made the Treaty with. … the Indians should have thefishing in the lake and also the game. They understood that was their own.After asking through an interpreter whether they understood they could fish and sell fish, theirparaphrased answer was as follows: