Federal Court Grants Order For Advanced Costs In Métis Rights Matter

Daniels v. Canada, 2011 FC 230

http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2011/2011fc230/2011fc230.html

The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples ("CAP") and individual Plaintiff representatives brought a motion before the Federal Court for an advanced order for costs on the eve of trial. In the main action, commenced in 1999, the Plaintiffs sought a declaration that the Métis and non-status Indians were "Indians" for the purposes of s. 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867. The action had been previously funded under the Test Case Funding Program ("TCFP") of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada since 2005. The TCFP was created to fund important Indian-related test cases. The ceiling for this funding was started at $1 million and was then raised to $1.5 million. CAP had applied to extend the funding beyond $1.5 million to cover the trial costs. While there was precedent for this application, the Government of Canada had not responded. Applying the Supreme Court decision in British Columbia (Minister of Forest) v. Okanagan Indian Band ("Okanagan"), [2003] 3 S.C.R. 371 and R v. Caron ("Caron"), 2011 SCC 5, the Court granted the Order for Costs in the amount...