b'because they havent been increasing theOn January 21, 2019, the 21 First $4 annuity they have been paying bandNations of the RHT annuities case members since 1874.received the disappointing news that Justice Hennessy said the annuityOntario was reserving its right to appeal agreement was a living document andJustice Hennessys ruling. In response to not a one-time agreement: As thethis, one of the plaintiffs, Chief Duke historical and cultural context demon- Peltier of Wiikwemkoong Unceded strates, this was not the case; the partiesTerritory, told Advocate, I continue to were and continue to be in an ongoinghold out hope that the Court decision relationship. Justice Hennessy furtherrendered by Justice Hennessy motivates rejected the position of the Crown thatCanada and Ontario to find a collab-they had unfettered power to determineorative solution to the inequity of the their own treaty obligations.Robinson Huron Treaty annuity.Mike Restoule, Chair, Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation FundAboriginal peoples, resource companies, governments, and all Canadianswe have to find ways to share the wealth. Coates highlights two methods to do this: the first and most established avenue is corporate payments to affected communities, including provisions for training and subcontracting opportun-ities. The second: revenue sharing by governments. By sharing resource revenue, governments can meet their treaty, legal, constitutional, and moral obligations to the Aboriginal people of the country.Complicating matters is the Crowns belief that they are not responsible for working out frameworks for resourceStrategic approaches revenue sharing. They leave it up to the individual provinces in Canada to imple- to advance our ment these frameworks. A 2017 report by the Conference Board of Canadaclients initiatives in notes that an increasing number of provinces and territories have beenall areas of law.developing and implementing Crown resource revenue sharing agreements with Indigenous peoples.The LawsuitTwenty-one First Nations took theCentrally located Indigenous Ontario and Canada governments to court in September 2017 over thelawyers with years of Crowns failure to implement the termsexperience representing First of the RHT with respect to the annuitiesNation clients across Ontario clause. A win by the plaintiffs, bene-ficiaries of the RHT signatories, wouldin litigation, governance, directly impact how natural resources arenegotiations, and access to shared in Ontario, and how other annu-ities cases are settled across Canada.traditional forms of criminal255 Manitoba St.On December 20, 2018, the Honour- justice, child protection law, asBracebridge, Ontarioable Patricia Hennessy of the Ontariowell as training and workshopsT: 705.645.3007Superior Court of Justice ruled that theF: 705.645.3998Crown has not been living up to thefor leaders and their members.Fallslaw.caFirst Nations signatories of the RHT ISSUE 1 2019C hIEfS ofo ntarIoA dvocAte magazInE l 17'