By Lynda Powless
Editor
The Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI), Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) legal team and other intervenors into the multi- billion dollar land rights case will all be back in a Toronto courtroom Tuesday, May 9 to begin the main intervenor hearing after a case conference failed to reach a resolution on outstanding issues Monday (May 8).
The HDI had requested the case conference with all parties in a move to try to resolve “some or all of the issues before the court.”
Monday’s discussions and negotiations were adjourned to Tuesday (May 9) for the main intervenor hearing. However, negotiations and discussions could still continue to try to settle some of the outstanding issues. One of those issues may be the terms that could lead to the Confederacy having a representative participate in the land rights case.
The intervenor hearing delayed SNEC’s now 28-year-old court case seeking an answer to what happened to Six Nations lands and money.
The claim that stretches across cities and farmlands that grew up along the Grand River in southern Ontario has been estimated to be worth billions of dollars.
Six Nations maintains the Haldimand Treaty designated lands six miles on each side of the Grand River, approximately 950,000 acres, to the “Mohawks and such others of the Six Nations,” lands that are now home to major cities and towns in southern Ontario.
SNEC has been seeking an accounting from both Canada and Ontario over what happened to Six Nations lands.
Monday the HDI (on behalf of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council), SNEC, the Mens’ Fire and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation met in a daylong case conference intitated by the HDI to try to resolve outstanding issues.
Those discussions were adjourned Monday without resolution. The main intervenor hearing is expected to begin today ( Tuesday, May 9th) at 10 a.m..
However, Turtle Island News has learned negotiations and discussions could still continue in an attempt to reach a settlement of the terms by which the Confederacy might have a representative participate.
The intervenor hearing had been scheduled to hear firstly the HDI and Men’s Fire (May 8, 9 and 10th) and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation intervenor Motion was scheduled for May 12th.
The intervenor hearing can be heard at linktr.ee/sixnationsgr
For more information on how to attend the hearing in person or on line contact the Lands & Resources office at (519) 753-0665 or go to www.sngrlitigation.com
MORE TO COME…
