Insights on Quebec (Attorney General) v Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan, 2024 SCC 39 – OKT Law
December 17, 2024
What does it mean that the Honour of the Crown applies to contracts between governments and Indigenous peoples? Until recently, this was a theoretical question. But on November 27, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada released Quebec (Attorney General) v Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan. In this precedent-setting decision, the Supreme Court confirmed that contracts between the Crown and Indigenous communities can engage the honour of the Crown. The decision set out a two-part test for determining which contracts attract the honour of the Crown.
For people representing Indigenous communities in negotiations with Crown governments, whether in leadership, as a negotiator or as legal counsel, the Supreme Court’s decision will change how you negotiate, and what your final agreements look like.
Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan also provided new guidance on the remedies available when the Crown breaches obligations flowing from the honour of the Crown. These remedies are now part of a new category of tools that courts can use to resolve disputes between Indigenous peoples and the Crown, which the court called “reconciliatory justice.”[1] These remedies should be flexible, context dependent, sensitive to Indigenous perspectives, and should not only compensate an Indigenous claimant for past wrongs but “place the parties on the path to reconciliation.”[2]
