Last Updated: Jul 29, 2021 | 6:40 PM
Map Showing Area SON Sought Title To
The Ontario Superior Court has released its decision in two longstanding treaty and title claims by the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON).
On Thursday (July 29) Justice Wendy Matheson found in the Title Claim, SON did not meet the test set out by Canadian law for Aboriginal title to the claimed areas in Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.
A release from SON’s Environment Office says this is the first time the matter of Aboriginal title to waters was decided by a court in Canada.
SON explains, “Aboriginal title, in Canadian law, is an Indigenous land right that is recognized and protected by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. The prevailing test calls for evidence about exclusive and sufficient use at the time that the British Crown asserted sovereignty. In this case, that date was 1763.”