Potts Drops Bombshell On Sharbot Lake Algonquins

Jeff Green | Jun 05, 2013

The Algonquins of Ontario (AOO) have been conducting an information/public relations campaign of late. They have been re-assuring nervous municipal officials, hunting and cottage groups, as well as neighbouring landowners, that the Draft Agreement in Principle for the Algonquin Land Claim will not cause undue harm to their various and varied interests.

As part of that campaign three meetings with municipal and provincial representatives were held. One of them was held at the Civitan Hall in Perth on June 3. Robert Potts, a lawyer with Blaney McMurtry in Toronto who is the lead negotiator for the AOO, spoke at the meeting

“From the start of the process, 22 years ago, the Algonquins have been trying to find solutions. That’s why they said Algonquin Park would remain a park right from the start, and that they would leave privately held land alone. They will bring the same spirit to finding solutions to problems that arise from the agreement,” Potts said.

North Frontenac Councilor Fred Perry, who attended the meeting, asked how municipalities are going to cover the added cost of providing fire, ambulance, and other services to some of the remote lands that are going to be transferred.

“As Crown lands they are covered by the MNR, but once they are transferred, it falls to us. I’m afraid that when all is said and done, the governments will disappear and leave us holding the bag,” said Perry.

“Well, the Algonquins aren’t going any where. They are going to be here, as neighbours, and as neighbours they will have to work out arrangements with the municipalities, with the loggers, with everyone,” Potts replied.

He said that the AOO is hoping to bring the Draft Agreement in Principle to a vote by the end of 2013. That will be followed by a four to five year process towards a final treaty, which will give the Algonquins time to work on developing a governance and administrative structure to handle the financial and land aspects of the deal, which calls for a $300 million cash transfer and a 117,500 acre land transfer.

“The money will be a tax free payment. It will be held in trust and invested, so the amount will grow over time,” Potts said.

After the formal meeting was over, Bob Potts was available for short interviews.

It was then that he revealed that the appeals process for Algonquin electors has been completed, and in one of the largest appeals, the ruling by Former Justice Chadwick, who was hired to conduct the process and make rulings, is that the descendants of Simon Jude Bedard and Simon Gene Bedard do not meet the criteria of direct Algonquin descent and will therefore be removed from the voters’ list. They will also not be eligible as beneficiaries to the final settlement.

The implications of this to the membership of the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation are large. Roughly 500 of the 750 members of the Shabot Obaadjiwan are descended from the Bedard line.

Well-known Aboriginal families in the Sharbot Lake area such as the Badour, Cota, and Hollywood families are no longer included in the Algonquin Land Claim.

For years there have been questions about the heritage of families in the area. Cathie Sharbot Duchene, a descendant of Francis Sharbot, for whom Sharbot Lake was named, claims that the ancestry of her family is Mohawk, as did Crow Lake historian Lloyd Jones.

James Meness is a member of the Council of the Pikwàkanagàn First Nation and the land claim negotiating team. He launched the appeal of the Bedard line.

We called two of the people on the voters’ list, and they said they have not yet received notification of the decision.

Coincidentally, they also both said they did not feel they had lost any of their legitimacy as Aboriginal people through the decision by the appeals committee, even if it means they no longer are electors or beneficiaries of the land claim.

A phone call to Shabot Obaadjiwan Chief Doreen Davis on Tuesday morning was not returned before press time.