[IPSM] Six Nations says McGill owes it $1.7 billion (McGill Daily)

[Jaggi Singh]

  http://www.mcgilldaily.com/view.php?aid=5571


Six Nations says McGill owes it $1.7-billion University denies
responsibility for an 1860 loan that members of Six Nations reps claim came
out of its trust fund By Jesse Rosenfeld
*The McGill Daily* * *

James McGill carries away the big bucks.

photo illustration by Jon Gerber / The McGill Daily

  * McGill owes the Six Nations people $1.7-billion to square outstanding
debt from 1860, say Six Nations representatives, even though McGill denies
the claim's legitimacy.

In the 1850s McGill was near-bankruptcy and, in 1860, took out a $40,000
loan from the Province of Canada. According to the Six Nations, $8,000 of
those dollars came from the Six Nations Trust Fund – money held in trust by
the colonial government for the Six Nations community near Caledonia in
return for land it had taken – and was never reimbursed.

In 1989, members of Six Nations alerted both McGill and the federal
government to the outstanding debt, which amounted to over $1.7-billion with
interest. According to Philip Montour, a private consultant who worked with
the Six Nations at the time, the McGill administration did not acknowledge
the debt at a subsequent meeting with Six Nations representatives in the
early 1990s.

"We had a meeting with the administration. They had lots of lawyers around
them, advising them to admit nothing," said Montour.

"We were willing to be proactive, to offer a good solution so that McGill
could redeem themselves and the debt," he continued. He cited increased
scholarships and support for Six Nations students at McGill as possible
solutions.

Vice-Principal Communications of McGill Jennifer Robinson maintained that
there is no evidence of an outstanding debt in McGill's records, and called
the claim "unfounded." She claimed that McGill settled its debts with the
federal government in 1873, and added that, if any of the loaned money was
supplied by the Six Nations Trust Fund, it was not made clear.

"If there was a relationship between this money and native tribes or nations
in Ontario, as alleged, it was not clear at the time, and remains unclear
today," she wrote in an email to The Daily.

Michael Doxtater, Director of Indigenous Studies, Education and Research in
McGill's Faculty of Education and a member of the Six Nations committee that
met with McGill during the 1990s, also said that the University has never
repaid or acknowledged the debt.

"The response at the time was, 'We don't know where the money came from – if
the government got it from you guys, then your problem is not with us',"
said Doxtater.

Doxtater argued that, while the Six Nations did not want McGill to pay the
entire $1.7-billion sum immediately, the University has the responsibility
to provide restitution.

"We don't want all the money at once, but don't kid us that there isn't
money in the bank when we need [an indigenous studies degree] or funding for
Six Nations students to attend the University," he said.

He suggested that McGill look to upstate New York's Syracuse University. The
university's "Haudenosaunee Promise" acknowledges that Syracuse University
is constructed on Iroquois land, and beginning this year the university will
cover the full cost of education for its Iroquois students.

Robinson said that since the University has not acknowledged the Six
Nations' claim, it has not considered adopting a restitution program like
that of Syracuse University.

Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance) Morty Yalovsky did not respond
to requests for comment.


– with files from Martin Lukacs *