Why a decades-old dispute over Algonquin ancestry is key to a city hall controversy – CBC

Feb 18, 2021

Questions over ‘root ancestry’ at the heart of outrage against planning decision

In a Pembroke, Ont., boardroom in 2013, a retired judge weighed the evidence to determine whether a voyageur who claimed in the mid-1800s to be a fugitive from an English death sentence was in fact an Algonquin.

This was no random historical exercise, but a key decision that would affect the claims of hundreds of descendents hoping for a place on the Algonquins of Ontario membership list.

The Algonquins of Ontario (AOO) were then two years away from signing an agreement in principle (AIP) on a modern treaty with the federal and provincial governments. A spot on the membership list meant being able to vote on the AIP, a key milestone on the path to a final settlement.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/algonquins-of-ontario-identity-membership-1.5910334