two First Nations has filed a lawsuit against the lawyers who helped negotiate a $10 billion settlement with Canada and Ontario, saying the $510 million they will receive is too much.
They also claim that attorneys tried to block discussion of the fee at an April meeting, saying they would “lose confidence in the settlement trustee” if the payment was not accepted.
“I do want to say that we are very grateful for the results that the attorneys have achieved, and we believe that the attorneys should be adequately rewarded for their services,” said Atikameksheng Anishnawbek Chief Craig Nootchtai.
“But we do not believe that the ($510 million) in legal fees is fair and reasonable.”
The Robinson Huron Treaty, reached last year, was intended to address unpaid treaty annuities for 21 First Nations.
The First Nations say the $4-per-member annuity, which has not increased since 1874, violates the treaty because resource extraction projects have used their lands for generations, generating far more profits than their members have received.
Lawyers arguing for the settlement requested $510 million in legal fees and said half of that would be used for further work on the treaty, including further litigation and community projects.
But the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Garden River First Nations, who say they have already spent millions of dollars in legal fees, many of which were paid out of loans, are asking the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to reconsider the decision.
“The attorney fees are too high,” said Garden River First Nation Chief Karen Bell.
Emails needed on the day
Top news from Canada and around the world.
She said she had an “obligation to pursue accountability and transparency” and that the application should not affect payments to beneficiaries, which are due to start in August.
Nahwegahbow Corbiere Genoodmagejig Barristers and Law Firm, named in the court application, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The other 19 First Nations have yet to formally support the application, but Nootchtai hopes they will as the process moves forward.
The application, filed on Friday, requires the company to “preserve all records relating to the discussions, negotiations, review, invoicing and approval of legal fees”.
It also requested that the $510 million be held in escrow until a solution is found.
Nipissing First Nation Chief Scott McLeod, whose community is part of the Robinson Huron Treaty, said chiefs discussed attorney fees at a recent meeting and attorneys said they realized the fees, which make up 5 percent of the settlement, were too high.
He said the law firm proposed cutting its fees in half and using the money for things like language preservation, but some principals instead proposed a legal review of the fees.
“The chiefs felt (the review) was unfair to the lawyers,” McLeod said, adding that most were happy with the arrangement.
But McLeod questioned why the chiefs should be “dictated” to how the money was spent and asked about the overall bill. He said that while the attorneys had done a good job of ultimately reaching a settlement, it was appropriate due diligence on behalf of community members to question the attorneys' bills.
“There needs to be someone in the room asking critical questions,” he said.
“But if they go through the court route, I don’t think they’ll get much support.”
The court filing said the attorneys “tried to block the assessment of attorney fees” at an April meeting and told the trustees that doing so would delay the distribution of settlement funds to members. It said the attorneys also told the trustees that if they did not accept attorney fees, they would “lose confidence in Robinson Huron.”
The Treaty Litigation Fund failed to honor part of its deposit fee agreement.
Other lawyers who have fought for settlements on behalf of Indigenous peoples have come under similar criticism, including Cindy Blackstock.
Blackstock was one of the architects of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal case that led to a historic $40 billion class action lawsuit alleging Canada’s chronic underfunding of child welfare services on reserves, and he challenged the lawyers’ $55 million in legal fees in the case.
Last November, she questioned why the people at the heart of the case — some 300,000 people victimized by the government — received only about $40,000, while lawyers received much more.
Meanwhile, the attorneys wrote in affidavits that their fees would likely have been much higher if they had followed a traditional fee retainer agreement.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
