Canada’s Métis win 142-year-old land ruling |
Canada’s Métis win 142-year-old land ruling
BBC News
2013-03-08
Canada’s Supreme Court has ruled the government failed to hand out land grants properly to the Métis indigenous group 142 years ago.
In a 6-2 ruling, the top court said the failure was “not a matter of occasional negligence, but of repeated mistakes and inaction”.
The Métis are descendants of indigenous people and European immigrants.
The land was promised in a 1870 law, to settle a rebellion of existing Métis amid a wave of settlement in Manitoba.
After delays, it was eventually distributed via a lottery that largely benefited European settlers.
The Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), which brought the suit, celebrated the end of three decades of legal challenges over the land-grant provision…
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Tags: BBC News, Manitoba