ON THIS DAY

January 14, 1961

Gertrude Guerin became the first woman elected chief of the Musqueam Indian Band. Guerin was one of six band members who sued the Crown in 1975 for breach of trust with regard to the lease of 65 hectares of Musqueam land for the creation of a golf course. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1984 ruled the government has a fiduciary duty toward the First Nations of Canada. The landmark decision established Aboriginal title as a distinct right.