After a three-decade wait, a trial pitting Six Nations of the Grand River against the provincial and federal governments began in Toronto on Monday with potentially trillions of dollars at stake.
Hinging on the alleged mismanagement of a centuries-old land grant, the trial could end up being among the longest court proceedings in Canadian history and could see the largest Indigenous land-claim settlement ever awarded in this country.
“I have the honour of representing my civilization,” said Six Nations band councillor Amos Key Jr. who, in a departure from court tradition, was permitted to address Superior Court Justice Ira Parghi before the proceedings got underway in the University Avenue courthouse.
Wearing a brightly coloured traditional ribbon shirt, Key said the Haudenosaunee people “stand here looking to the court for our social, linguistic, legal and political justice” almost 250 years after the British Crown granted the Iroquois Confederacy roughly 385,000 hectares along the full length of the Grand River in thanks for their allyship during the American Revolutionary War.
The Haldimand Proclamation of 1784 declared the Haldimand Tract, running approximately 10 kilometres along both sides of the river from Dundalk to Lake Erie, was meant to be enjoyed in perpetuity by the descendants of the Haudenosaunee who were displaced from upstate New York.
The proclamation “had all the historical hallmarks of a treaty,” said Robert Janes of JFK Law, who heads the legal team for Six Nations.
But the Crown did not uphold its end of the bargain, Six Nations alleges. Instead of allowing the Haudenosaunee to lease the land and keep the proceeds, the forerunners of the Canadian government “carelessly and in some cases corruptly” sold or expropriated the land, using the money to build major infrastructure projects like the Welland Canal.
After decades of forced land surrenders, squatters, flooding and other allegedly fraudulent dealings, the Haudenosaunee were left on the modern-day reserve near Hamilton, which sits on less than five per cent of the original land grant.
“What should have been a vast fortune was lost,” Janes said.
Six Nations further claims the Haldimand Proclamation was a treaty that established a reserve and bound the Crown to a treaty relationship.
The federal and provincial governments say the proclamation was not a treaty, and any financial misdeeds connected to the Haldimand Tract lands predate Confederation, thus rendering the modern Canadian government not liable.
The lands were lost through “a series of valid surrenders and sales of lands within the tract,” Ottawa argues in its statement of defence.
Six Nations is not asking for the return of any land. The band council wants financial compensation it values at anywhere from $13.9 billion to $8.7 trillion, according to a federal government document.
Six Nations Elected Council filed the lawsuit in 1995 after efforts to resolve individual land claims were stymied.
“The Six Nations have always been, and remain, open to achieving reconciliation outside the court. But this seems to be out of reach,” Janes said.
“They believe that justice can be achieved through this process and reconciliation can truly get underway.”
There are currently 350 court days scheduled for the trial, concluding on Dec. 31, 2027.
But in a question period note prepared for Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty last November, her department said the first phase of the trial — which will assess the Crown’s liability — could last “up to five years.”
A second phase that would determine any damages owed to Six Nations will follow.
Factoring in a possible appeal to the Supreme Court, the federal government said the case could stretch beyond a decade.
“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,” the department said in the question period note.
Ottawa stressed landowners within the Haldimand Tract need not fear having their properties seized as part of a future settlement.
“Where claims of this kind have merit, Canada resolves them financially and not through dispossession of any third-party property rights,” the department said.
Several dozen people made the trip from Six Nations to be in the downtown Toronto courtroom on Monday, including Elected Chief Sherri-Lyn Hill and several band councillors, along with staff from the lands and resources office.
Other band members watched from the reserve at a screening organized by the band council.
There were almost as many lawyers as spectators in the courtroom, with eight lawyers representing Six Nations alone, another eight defending Ontario’s position, five acting on behalf of the federal government and four lawyers speaking for Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN), which joined the case as an intervener.
Watching from the gallery was MCFN Chief Margaret Sault, who told The Spectator her nation supported Six Nations despite opposing a key part of its case.
“We support them on making Canada accountable for the lands,” Sault said.
MCFN is not seeking any compensation from any future settlement, but disagrees with Six Nations’ contention that the Haldimand Tract is a treaty.
Six Nations was only able to settle along the Grand River, Sault noted, because the Mississaugas agreed to relinquish the territory to the Haudenosaunee through a 1784 treaty with the British.
The Haudenosaunee Development Institute, acting on behalf of the Six Nations hereditary government, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council, unsuccessfully applied to intervene in the lawsuit.
The Confederacy has argued the elected council, which was created by Ottawa in 1924, has no right to be compensated for claims that predate its existence.
Before the trial, Key, a veteran councillor and university lecturer, delivered the traditional Haudenosaunee thanksgiving address in the Cayuga language and stressed the common humanity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents.
“We all have the same heart,” Key said.
Parghi thanked Key “for sharing those very important words with us.”
In the months to come, the court will hear from dozens of witnesses — including subject-matter experts and Six Nations elders and political leaders — and review reams of historical documents.
On Tuesday, lawyers for Canada and Ontario will deliver their opening statements.
Band members can watch in the Grand River Room of Six Nations Polytechnic on Tuesday before moving to the Great Theatre on Sunrise Court from Wednesday through Friday.
Copyright 2026, The Hamilton Spectator. All rights reserved.
J.P. Antonacci, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hamilton Spectator.