<p>In response to the recent February 14, 2012 article<br />
Algonquin Land Claim Deal Near, Lawyer Says Pact of Significance to Ottawa Valley,by Mohammed Adam,in the Ottawa Citizen.</p>
<p>In the referred to article negotiations lawyer for the incorporated entity the Algonquins of Ontario, Robert Potts, is quoted as stating that:</p>
<p>"It is 400 years since Champlain set foot here, and our confederation will be 150 years old in 2017. We are right in the middle of what is one of the historic claims and settlement that will have occurred in Canada. This will be a historic treaty at a historic time." </p>
<p>It is 400 years since Samuel de Champlain set foot here in Algonquin territory and entered into diplomatic negotiations with the Kichesipirini Algonquin leader, in accordance to customary law and diplomacy. And it is 400 hundred years since and we still do not have an accurate account of this important part of Canadian history and institutional development. It was during these historical meetings based on mutual respect of the customary law of nations, that respected the jurisdiction of the pre-existing nations of Canada before colonial imperial commercial claims, that Canada's laws and our unwritten Constitution found their secure footing.</p>
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