OTTAWA—Canada's Metis have won a major victory in a land dispute more than a century in the making.

The way the federal government handed out land to children of the Manitoba Metis in the 1870s failed to live up to its constitutional obligations, the Supreme Court of Canada said Friday in a 6-2 ruling.

“What is at issue is a constitutional grievance going back almost a century and a half,” Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice Andromache Karakatsanis said in writing for the majority of the court.

“So long as the issue remains outstanding, the goal of reconciliation and constitutional harmony . . . remains unachieved. The ongoing rift in the national fabric . . . remains unremedied.

“The unfinished business of reconciliation of the Metis people with Canadian sovereignty is a matter of national and constitutional import.”

The decision opens the door for the Metis to negotiate a claim to vast tracts of land in the province, including all of present-day Winnipeg.

“They've won a great victory, and I think they've shown that there is every reason for negotiations now to remedy a historic wrong,” said former judge Thomas Berger, who represented the Manitoba Metis Federation.

“That's what Canada is all about. We don't leave a trail of historical wreckage behind us as we move from one decade to another.”

Berger characterized the decision as a clear signal that the time has come to sit down and negotiate a new deal.

Whether or not any negotiations take place is another matter. The Harper government pointed out the Supreme Court ruling doesn't spell out any specific remedy for the Metis.

The decision calls on governments to continue working on “improving the lives of and policy related to Metis populations across Canada,” said Greg Rickford, parliamentary secretary to new Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt.

“It's a signal that the legislature, you know, now can move forward . . . on developing the kind of policy platform that ensures that Metis populations across Canada, which we realize and recognize of course that Manitoba has a substantial population of Metis folks, and we'll move forward in that manner.”

The ruling marks the second time in recent months that the courts have sided with the Metis in high-profile cases. A Federal Court ruling brought Metis and non-status Indians into the ranks of people considered “Indians” under the Constitution.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The Conservative government is now appealing that decision, which — if left to stand — would vastly expand Ottawa's responsibilities for Aboriginal Peoples.

Friday's decision, which comes after a legal dispute dating back three decades, stems from a historic deal that ultimately made Manitoba Canada's fifth province.

The Manitoba Metis Federation claimed the federal government never lived up to its obligation to set aside land for the children of the Metis of the Red River Settlement.

As part of the 1870 deal that created the province of Manitoba, the federal government of the day promised 5,565 square kilometres of land would be set aside for the 7,000 children of the Metis.

The Manitoba Act helped to quell the Red River Rebellion, fought by Metis struggling to hold on to their land as white settlers began to arrive.

But Ottawa botched the distribution of land. Soon new settlers began arriving in waves and speculators snapped up much of the land for a fraction of its value.

The Manitoba Metis Federation argued it amounted to a failure by the federal government to look after the interests of the Metis children and a betrayal of the land grant's intent.

The Supreme Court agreed.

“The federal Crown failed to implement the land grant provision . . . in accordance with the honour of the Crown,” the decision says.

The Crown “acted with persistent inattention and failed to act diligently to achieve the purposes” of the land-grant agreement, it adds.

.

Metis groups from across the country say the decision will affect other provinces.

“It's about negotiations, I believe, now,” said Audrey Poitras of the Metis Nation of Alberta. “It's about having that opportunity to sit down with the federal government and negotiate.”

“This is about, certainly, more than the Metis people of Manitoba. They're our brothers and sisters, but it has implications for Metis people right across our homeland,” said Gary Lipinski of the Metis Nation of Ontario.

“We hope that, obviously, with the positive outcome of this case, the federal government will now look to see how we're going to deal with Metis historic grievances that are throughout the Metis homeland.”

Read more about: