Question Period Note: Six Nations Haldimand Tract Litigation

N.A.

• The Government of Canada values its relationship with Six Nations of the Grand River and we respect their decision to pursue their claims through the courts.

• A trial in the Six Nations’ Haldimand Tract litigation is scheduled to commence in October 2026.

This litigation comprises 46 unique claims centred on 950,000 acres of land along the Grand River (including Waterloo, Brantford, Caledonia) granted by the British to the Mohawks “and their allies” by the 1793 Haldimand Proclamation.

The Six Nations claim the Haldimand Proclamation is a s.35 Treaty that created a reserve and imposed related Crown duties, and that over the span of 150 years, the Crown improperly sold the lands and mismanaged the proceeds.

The Six Nations value their claim at between $13.9 billion and $8.7 trillion.

The case is divided into two main phases: Phase 1 will determine Crown liability for the 46 claims, and Phase 2 will determine damages arising from that liability, as well as cross claims (between Canada and Ontario).
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The Phase 1 trial is scheduled to commence in October 2026, and is expected to last up to five years. Phase 2 would follow. Appeals to the SCC are possible. As such, the case could run until 2037.
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If pressed on concerns of private landholders
• The Six Nations claim that the Haldimand Proclamation created a reserve in southern Ontario, or imposed duties on the Crown to create a reserve.
• Where claims of this kind have merit, Canada resolves them financially and not through dispossession of any third-party property rights.