Supreme Court hears appeal on Edmonton land claim

The Supreme Court of Canada reserved its decision Friday on an appeal by Alberta's Papaschase Cree, who claim the land under much of south Edmonton belongs to them.

Band members say their land was illegally taken from their ancestors in 1888, when their land, which was then known as Indian Reserve No. 136, was disbanded and the property was given to white settlers.

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the band's history, and there are now about 900 who claim to be Papaschase Cree. Forty of them travelled to Ottawa for the court hearing.

'We are still alive, we are still a band and not going anywhere.' — Rose Lameman, Papaschase Cree chief

"We had elders right down to babies," Chief Rose Lameman said at the end of the two-hour hearing in Ottawa.

It was very emotional for her, she said.

"It made me feel really good because we are still alive, we are still a band and not going anywhere," she said.

The Papaschase claim ownership to about 70 square kilometres of land, now occupied by giant shopping centres and sprawling housing developments. They are asking for a new reserve south of the city and $2.5 billion dollars in compensation.

A group of Papaschase descendants filed claim for the land in 2001, but in 2004, a Court of Queen's Bench Justice ruled against them. They took the case to the Albert Court of Appeal and won in 2006, but the federal Justice Department took the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

If the Papaschase win their court case, it would give them the right to pursue their land claim with the federal government.

'Their [story] should have been one of opportunity and wealth and instead what you see are people on the outside looking in.' — Ron Maurice, lawyer for Papaschase Cree

"This is a group of people that had incredible valuable agricultural land right in the centre of one of the most burgeoning settlements in Western Canada," Ron Maurice, the band's lawyer, told CBC Radio recently. "Their [story] should have been one of opportunity and wealth and instead what you see are people on the outside looking in."

Gerhard Ens, a professor of aboriginal history at the University of Alberta, is watching the case.

"It's one of a number of bands in which large numbers of their members opted out of treaties in 1886 and 1887. And in the Papaschase case, that eventually led to the surrender of the reserve," he said.

The issue is not whether there was outright fraud but federal authorities at the time may have made "inappropriate" decisions, Ens said.

A ruling in the case is expected to take several weeks to several months, Lameman said.