Press
Release
PRESS CONFERENCE
TREATY RIGHTS LAWSUIT TO STOP RED HILL VALLEY EXPRESSWAY
HAMILTON,
ON, November 27, 2003: Lawyers representing a Six Nations
man and his descendants are commencing legal action against
the City of Hamilton concerning the proposed Red Hill Valley
Expressway. The expressway will violate and destroy Iroquois
rights pursuant to a major Treaty between the then Five
Iroquois Nations and the British Crown of 1701, or the “Nanfan
Treaty”. Mr. Green will be seeking an injunction preventing
the construction of the proposed expressway.
Lawyers Murray Klippenstein of Toronto and Andrew Orkin
of Hamilton are representing Larry Green, one of the Iroquois
Firepeople who lit the Ancestors' Sacred Fire in the Red
Hill Valley in early August 2003. The fire was recently
extinguished at the behest of the City of Hamilton by the
Hamilton police.
“In 1701, it was solemnly agreed between the Crown
and the Iroquois Nations that our people and our descendants
would have hunting and land use rights and freedoms to the
part of our country that includes the Red Hill Valley, ‘for
ever’ and ‘free of all disturbances’. The
planned expressway would destroy those rights. I intend
my heirs and descendants to be able exercise these treaty
rights and freedoms on this corner of undisturbed land,
for ever.”
“Mr. Green has instructed us that that only an injunction
to stop the expressway can protect his and his descendants’
perpetual treaty rights and freedoms in the Red Hill Valley,
and that there is no amount of money which would be a reasonable
or comparable replacement for these rights,” said Murray
Klippenstein. “We are determined to obtain the injunction
and prevent that destruction. But if for some unknown reason
the courts decline to stop the expressway in the valley,
the City should not assume or hope that this case will disappear.
The 1701 treaty rights have extraordinary value in perpetuity,
and they cannot legally be paved over with impunity. Accordingly,
Mr Green is also claiming one hundred million dollars in
compensation, to be set aside in a trust fund for traditional
and cultural activities for his descendants.”
“The rights and freedoms arising out of treaties between
the Crown and aboriginal peoples in Canada have been declared
by the Supreme Court of Canada to be part of the highest
law of the land,” said Andrew Orkin. “Mr Green
is asking no more and no less than that the solemn promises
made to his people by the Crown, and the very recent court
and Crown affirmations of those promises, be honoured and
upheld according to their very plain meaning. As repeated
by the courts of Canada on numerous occasions, ‘The
honour of the Crown is at stake.’”
Further
information:
Murray Klippenstein 416-598-0288
Andrew Orkin 905-522-7929
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