Blood Tribe votes in favour of $5.8M settlement for wartime infractions

STAND OFF – Blood Tribe members voted overwhelmingly Wednesday in favour of a settlement of $5.8-million from the government of Canada for illegal land use dating back to the Second World War.

In 1941, when Canada was fully immersed in the war, the Department of National Defence illegally leased, used and occupied 55,000 acres of Blood Tribe land for a bombing and gunnery range.

At the time, the Indian Act required that to surrender reserve land, an agreement had to be reached between the majority of the male members of a band and an authorized agent of the Crown; an agreement that never took place.

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In 2003, the Blood Tribe council submitted a claim to the federal government saying Canada had breached its obligations to the tribe. The tribe had also suffered great financial losses as a result of not being able to farm that land between 1941 and 1945 and demanded compensation.

It took seven years but in 2010, Canada accepted the claim. After four more years of negotiations, a settlement offer of $5.8-million was reached.

To be ratified, over 50 per cent of voters had to be in favour of the settlement. Eighteen-hundred members voted with 1,589 supporting the settlement agreement.

A number of procedural steps need to be taken before the $5.8-million ends up in a Blood Tribe trust fund, but once in place, the money will used for capital projects.