Since late September, the business of the House of Commons has been brought to a halt due to a Conservative party filibuster of their own motion. As the motion relates to a question of privilege, it takes priority over all other matters. Key legislation on matters such as online harms, protection of nature, and First Nations’ clean water has been held up. The substance of the Conservative motion concerns an order for the government to turn over documentation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) related to the management of a sustainable technology fund with which the Auditor General had found significant faults. Conservatives accuse the government of failing to comply fully, however, critics of the Conservative motion consider that it is outside the scope of the powers of the House of Commons to order the government to turn over documentation to the RCMP.

On 6 January, the Governor General approved the Prime Minister’s unrelated request to prorogue Parliament until 24 March. 

Sources: CBC (1), CBC (2), Toronto Star

Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that the Ontario and federal governments made a “mockery” of the 1850 Robinson Treaties, by which Anishinaabe First Nations of Lake Huron and Lake Superior ceded territory to the British Crown, in exchange for perpetual annual payments. The Robinson agreements included an augmentation clause, through which payments would increase, depending on the profits obtained by the Crown through the exploitation of resources from the ceded land. However, a limit to the annuities was set at CAD 4 per status member of the First Nation, and was not increased since 1874 despite development and growth excluding First Nations. The Court ruled that annuities should have been augmented, and the government’s failure to do so constituted an egregious and longstanding breach of agreed terms. It further decided that compensation, which Lake Superior First Nations asked should reach CAD 126 billion, should be negotiated between the parties. Other First Nations from the Lake Huron region settled with the government last year for CAD 10 billion.

Sources: Supreme Court of Canada, Canada’s National Observer, The Guardian

The Supreme Court of Canada issued a ruling about collective rights of Indigenous Peoples. The ruling upheld the requirement that individuals who wish to be elected to the Vuntut Giwtchin First Nation of Yukon’s Council must reside on traditional lands. The case was brought by a member of the community who lives outside of traditional lands. The Court determined that the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples, protected by Section 25 of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, prevail in certain circumstances over individual rights. That is, when a collision of irreconcilable rights occurs, those that are indispensable to the preservation of cultural differences and self-government should prevail. Dissenting judges, including Michelle O’Bonsawin, an Odenak First Nation Member, considered that Section 25 was applicable to cases brought by non-Indigenous people, and not to cases in which an Indigenous person alleges a transgression to her rights in her own Nation. The Court’s decision was hailed by the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation as a recognition of Indigenous self-government.   

Sources: The Globe and Mail , Supreme Court of Canada 

A ruling by a federal court has stated that the government’s use of the Emergencies Act to respond to the “Freedom Convoy” protests in 2022 was unreasonable and contrary to protesters’ rights. According to the federal judge’s decision, in a case brought by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Constitution Foundation, and two interested parties who had their bank accounts frozen on the basis of the Act, no national emergency justified its use.  

The ruling contradicts the findings of the Rouleau Commission, a public inquiry mandated to investigate the use of the Emergencies Act, which concluded in February 2023 that the threshold needed for that effect had been met. The government has stated it will appeal the federal court’s decision. 

Sources: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, The Guardian, International IDEA