Media.Knet.Ca

Human rights fellowship winner studies disputes over ancestral lands

(Ottawa, August 31, 2005) ― The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) announced today that University of British Columbia history professor Arthur Ray has been awarded the 2005 Bora Laskin Fellowship to examine what he calls Canada’s biggest unresolved human rights issue—Aboriginal land claims.

Granted annually by SSHRC, the Bora Laskin National Fellowship in Human Rights was established in 1985 to honour the late chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. The prestigious 12-month, $55,000 fellowship is awarded to a leading Canadian researcher in the field of human rights.

“Land claims are based, more and more, on historical research,” explains Ray, who has served as an expert witness in several landmark Canadian court cases on Aboriginal rights. “And how the courts treat this evidence is creating an uneven type of justice.”

For example, Aboriginal communities located close to major fur trading routes may have a wealth of historical evidence to draw from when arguing their claims—documents like personal diaries or business records that mention their community and way of life. Yet, says Ray, more isolated groups do not. These groups must often fund new research to prove their claims, or lose the right to live on and use the natural resources of their ancestral lands.

The result, says Ray, is that land claims are becoming so expensive only the wealthiest communities can afford to participate.

“Expert testimony is taking up more time in the courtroom,” says Ray. “For example, the Sampson Cree case still being decided in Alberta has already taken 365 trial days and has included a huge cast of historians, anthropologists and other experts.”

Such cases also make unrealistic demands on trial judges, who must develop a PhD level of knowledge on the subject almost overnight, and sort through many different points of view to make decisions about new historical facts.

Because these decisions often have historical as well as legal implications, Ray will use this fellowship to compare different approaches to land claim settlements in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia over the past 50 years. He hopes his research will pave the way for more balanced—and less expensive—solutions to disputes over Aboriginal rights in Canada and around the world.

“These decisions have real consequences: for the rights of Aboriginal people, for governments who sometimes pay millions of dollars in compensation, and for our understanding of Canadian history,” says SSHRC president Marc Renaud. “The work of Professor Ray will help us learn how we can reduce the potential costs of land claim disputes, both in terms of money and human dignity.”

For additional information on this release and other SSHRC research projects, please contact:

Doré Dunne
Media relations officer
Telephone: (613) 992-7302
E-mail: dore.dunne@sshrc.ca

+++++++++++++++

Aboriginal Research Program Funding from SSHRC ...

• Application deadline: September 15, 2005
• Value and Duration:
  • Development Grants: up to $25,000 for up to 2 years.
  • Research Grants: up to $100,000 annually with a maximum of $250,000 over 3 years.

This program has two overall objectives. The first is to facilitate research on a range of policy-related issues that are of concern to Canada's Aboriginal peoples, including urban issues, economic development, the environment, education, research ethics, intellectual and cultural property, and languages and cultures.

The program’s second broad objective is to build up the capacity of the humanities and social science community to operate within, and to benefit from, the approach to Aboriginal research outlined above.

http://www.sshrc.ca/web/apply/program_descriptions/aboriginal_e.asp