A history lesson

I have spent the weekend reading through the decision of Mr. Justice J.S. Fregeau who presided over the trial of Couchiching FN et al v AG Canada Et Al. I didn’t attend any of the court hearings, which lasted from February 19 through March 28, 2013, and I am now kicking myself for skipping them.
Justice Fregeau decision is a lesson in history going back to before Confederation and focusing on the development of the Rainy River district. It is a case involving the creation and purpose of Agency 1 land known as Pither’s Point Park.
Through 130 pages in his decision, Justice Fregeau reviews the development of the area from a century prior to confederation and the drive of the first governments of Canada to connect east with west across the country through to today.
The access across Northwestern Ontario required the signing the Treaty #3 and its negotiations. It had been noted as early as 1847 that the area was rich in forests and had potential for agriculture development and settlement by Sir George Simpson.
Simon Dawson was appointed as a surveyor to map out a route from Fort William to Fort Gary. It carried through Fort Frances. Dawson became extremely knowledgeable of the First Nations people in the Rainy Lake and Rainy River area and it was on his recommendations that a Treaty was to be negotiated,
He felt that Fort Frances would grow into an area of commerce built on the lumber potential of the region and he set aside a two-chain allowance where the lake entered into the river for purposes of commerce and access. He reasoned that, right of way to lumbermen, booms, wharves and other public purposes had to be secured. He looked at this as a way to improve transportation and to promote future development in the region.
Dawson in his notes noted, “ Fort Frances must soon become a place of importance. Land should in consequence be reserved not only for the public works necessary to surmount the falls, but also for the site of the town.”
When it came time to identify land for the reserves of the region, Dawson recognized that a reserve close to the Hudson Bay Factory at Fort Frances for all the tribes of the Saulteaux was not the best solution, he created Agency 1 for the use of all the tribes to continue meeting and camping. All the bands had access to use it and no single band had control over it.
Up to that time, the Ojibway for camping used the area; fishing and building birch bark canoes. Agency 1 was created but a two-chain allowance was withheld.
The case lasting those several weeks spent much of the time focusing on that two-chain allowance and whether or not that land around Agency 1 land belonged to the First Nation or to the Province who vested its interest in the property to the Town of Fort Frances.
There are been many attempts over the course of 135 years following the laying out of the reserves as to the ownership of the two chain allowances bordering Pithers Point Park and Couchiching First nation.
Historians acting on behalf of both the plaintive and the defendants in the case provided Justice Fregeau with the history of the land and the cases that have been heard.
Much has been learned by the lawyers for the parties, that I wished now having read the decision that I would have wasted my time hearing and learning our history in the court room.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher