Fine and apology accompany guilty plea in archaeological disturbance case

Saugeen First Nation headquarters near Southampton. (File)

Ontario’s Court of Justice took a rare road trip Tuesday to the site of an important archaeological site at the centre of a potentially precedent-setting court case in Southampton.

“We’re actually standing on a massive, continuous, multi-component archeological site that’s existed over millennia,” said Dr. Robert Martin, archaeologist with the Saugeen Ojibway Nation.

In November 2022, the former owners of 6 South Rankin St. in Southampton were issued a stop work order and charged with disturbing an archaeological site after they started site work for construction of a new home.

The site was deemed an important archaeological site decades earlier after thousands of Indigenous artifacts were found under the waterfront lot overlooking Lake Huron.

Following years of legal wrangling, the former owners of 6 South Rankin St. have agreed to plead guilty to disturbing an archaeological site, pay a fine, apologize to the Saugeen First Nation, and most importantly donate the land back to the Saugeen First Nation for restoration, free of charge.

“Today is a celebration. We are certainly glad to know that justice can be served, and the Heritage Act can be implemented to protect archeological sites as it was meant to do,” said Martin, who led the tour of 6 South Rankin St.

At the request of the Saugeen First Nation, sentencing and tours of the site, along with historical context, took place outside of a regular courtroom Tuesday. A unique setting for a unique case that could set precedent for future ‘archaeological’ disturbances along the Lake Huron shoreline.

“My concern remains for the unknown sites. Hopefully the Heritage Act can help us to continue to protect the sites that are known. But it certainly is important to understand that this entire community is built on an ancestral landscape, and there are archeological sites literally everywhere around us right now,” said Martin.

So, what happens to 6 South Rankin St. now that it’s under Saugeen First Nation control? Probably nothing significant for the time being, suggests Martin. Its archaeological significance is not in question, so the waterfront lot near the mouth of the Saugeen River in Southampton may simply remain a ceremonial and sacred spot for members of the Saugeen First Nation.

“I think for the time being, what we might see is, you know, them communing with their ancestral landscape and hopefully being able to come here and have ceremonial fires like we did this morning,” said Martin. “Lodges, whatever they want. I mean, it’s the mouth of the Saugeen River. It’s only right that the Saugeen First Nation be able to be here with their ancestors. So, I think maybe that will take priority over archeology, for the time being.”