A group of Ontario Métis and non-status Native people are saying they should get a cut from a Native-run casino near Orillia, Ont.
Casino Rama, which opened in the mid-1990s, makes about $100 million in profits a year, which goes to 130 First Nations in Ontario.
The Métis and non-status Natives are excluded from the profits. They have taken their case to the Supreme Court, saying they should get a cut.
The case could redefine what “status” means and how governments distribute funds to First Nations people.
Four provinces and the federal government intervened in the Ontario case, and are watching it closely.
The Ontario Superior Court ruled in 1996 that the Métis and non-status people are disadvantaged and were discriminated against by exclusion from the casino.
The province successfully appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal, and now the case is at the highest court of the land.
