Specific Land Claims

Specific land claims include unlawful takings by agents of the Crown of Indian reserve land, historically, and mishandling of reserve land or funds held in trust. Part of the path the federal Crown has charted toward reconciliation between the Crown’s assertion of sovereignty and pre-existing Indigenous interests has involved policies and laws encouraging negotiation rather than litigation of specific land claims.

The adoption of the Specific Claims Policy by the Department of Indian Affairs in the early 1980s, and the establishment by Parliament of the Specific Claims Tribunal in 2008 are intended to be alternatives to the Canadian courts, and seeking redress for specific kinds of historic wrongs is often best sought by First Nations under the Specific Claims Policy.

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“It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

― Robert Kennedy