First Nations group granted access to Kapyong Barracks for ceremony

A First Nations group is being allowed inside theformer Kapyong Barracks to perform a ceremony.

The Department of National Defence let the group into the former military base on Tuesday after the group set up camp,demanding access.

KyloPrincefrom Long Plain First NationsaidCol.Andy Cook helped the group gain access to the land.

"Not in my wildest dreams would I ever have thought thatwe could deal with the military and have them stand with us. Reconciliation," Prince said.

The group set up camp on Morpeth Boulevard, just off Taylor Avenue, outside the chain-link fence around Kapyong an emptymilitary base andlong-disputed tract of Crown land.

DND has granted the group access to the barracks for five days until they have completed their ceremonies, after which time the departmentwill lock the gates.

Four Manitoba First Nations have been trying to get the 64-hectare property, nestled between the affluent Tuxedo and River Heights neighbourhoods,for more than a decade, in hopes of converting it into an urban reserve.

Prince said this week's ceremony has nothing to do with plans to create the urban reserve on the site.

KapyongBarracks became vacant in 2004whenthe 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, relocated to CFBShilonear Brandon, Man.

DND declared the property surplus. It has essentially been tied up in legal disputes since then and deteriorating.

In 2007, the federal Treasury Board decided to sell the site to theCanada Lands Co., a Crown corporation that was to oversee the land's redevelopment and resale.

That planstalled when a group of Treaty 1 First Nations, whichincludedLong Plain, Peguis, Roseau River and Swan Lake,saidthey had a right to the land under outstanding Treaty Land Entitlement claimsand expressed interest in creating anurban reserve.

• Kapyong Barracks to become urban reserve?

In September 2009,Justice Douglas Campbell declared the transfer invalid, saying the federal government didn't do enough consultation with First Nations groupswho have outstanding Treaty Land Entitlement claims.

• First Nations file lawsuit over Kapyong land
• Kapyong transfer invalid, court rules
• First Nations not consulted on Kapyong Barracks sale, court rules

The government appealed that decision but lost again in December 2012.

The federal government took the case to theFederal Court of Appeal but in a decision issued in August 2015, thecourt agreedwith the earlier rulings.

Under the decision, the government has a duty to consult with First Nations on the future of the land.