March 6, 2014, Blood Indian Reserve #148, Standoff, Alberta
For Immediate release:
Federal Court quashes “Blood Band Council’s position, that Land Occupants have no rights”!
In a Federal Court decision, March 6, 2014, a Federal Court judge dismissed the Blood Chief and Council’s legal position that “Indians have no rights on the Blood Indian Reserve #148, Standoff, Alberta”! And to remove Joachim Hengerer not to honor the two years remaining on his agriculture permit. The decision to remove Hengerer was a result of seven baseless accusations that were proved false and were malicious in nature.
The matter arose in December, Blood Chief and Council arbitrarily and unanimously decided that Hengerer a local farmer who has been farming for the past 3 decades can no longer farm on the Reserve. Mr. Hengerer shared the news with the land occupants he farms for. Attempts were made to have an audience with Chief and Council for details on the non-renewal; Council took the position that they are not required to deliberate any decisions they have made and by law they don’t have to report to anyone including the membership of the Reserve.
Correspondence was submitted to meet and discuss the details; Chief and Council chose to ignore the requests; they informed the public that a meeting would take place on January 20th that this is the place where details of Hengerer’s dismissal will be shared. January 20th came and left, Council refused to provide details.
Hengerer was left with no options but to apply to the Federal Court along with two Blood Tribe women Lois Frank and Charlene Fox as applicants; in addition ten other Blood Band occupants (members who lease to Hengerer) were included in the application to federal court.
Chief and Council took the position that they had immunity and that any decisions made, nobody can question their decisions and actions, based on their legal position that Indians have no rights!
“ Occupants and farmers who lease agriculture lands on the reserve need protection from petty policies and Indian agent style of governance. Farmers who invest millions of dollars such as crop inputs, machinery, labor and other costs require that their contractual obligations are honored and respected by Chief & Council.
Interestingly enough the Dept. Of Indian Affairs who formally issue an Agriculture Permit to the farmers and are contractually obligated to honor them have remained silent on this issue.
An official of The Department of Justice was in attendance at the court hearing as well. “Joanne Crook is the legal counsel for chief and council was paid out of band funds to represent their position. To date, the costs of this matter to band members are not known but will be in the thousands of dollars.
This dangerous assertion of Chief & Council that they have inherent authority over lands is against all principles of democracy. In fact if they were allowed to continue on their path they would in essence extinguish treaty rights that were borne from the land which are sacred…
More interestingly this Chief and Council continue to endorse Harper’s termination policies and initiatives on First Nations; this has caused concerns among tribal members who realize how vulnerable and dangerous the Blood Indian Reserve is in.
This Chief and Council fail to or don’t understand is that a fiduciary trust relationship exists handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada in the 80’s, contrary to the legal position the Blood Indian Legal department continues to endorse that “Indians have no rights”!!!! This position the Legal department supports is equivalent to the Jim Crow laws the U.S. had back in the 1860’s, in dealing with the African Americans.
For more information contact:
Keith Chiefmoon
403-737-2714 Harly or Lois Frank
403-737-2118