An Alberta separatist organizer and lawyer involved in a legal dispute over trust funds from a First Nation treaty settlement has appealed a judge’s decision to remove his law firm as trustee of the account.
Jeffrey Rath filed a notice of appeal with the Court of Appeal of Alberta on July 24. In the filing, Rath said the case involves “significant factual disputes, credibility assessments, and complex legal questions” that could not be fairly determined without a complete evidentiary record.
Rath alleges that Calgary Court of King’s Bench Justice Shane Parker made nine errors, including relying on irrelevant considerations and making unsupported factual assumptions. He is asking the Court of Appeal to set aside the decision and grant an interim stay while the appeal is considered.
Rath has been involved in an ongoing court dispute with Tallcree First Nation stemming from a disagreement over legal fees that escalated into a dispute over trust funds intended to benefit members of the First Nation.
Tallcree alleges that Rath and his law firm improperly charged millions of dollars to a trust established to hold settlement funds for its members, including money belonging to minors. The First Nation has also argued that the trust may have effectively paid much of its own court-ordered repayment. Rath disputes the allegations.
The dispute dates back to a $57.6 million Treaty 8 settlement reached by Tallcree First Nation. In 2021, Alberta courts found a 20 percent contingency fee charged by Rath & Company to be unreasonable and ordered about $8.5 million to be repaid to the First Nation Trust.
Tallcree Chief Rupert Meneen said in a court affidavit that the trust distributed settlement funds to eligible beneficiaries while holding funds belonging to members who were minors until they reached adulthood. Meneen said Rath & Company served as the sole trustee of the fund.
Court filings allege that Rath withheld financial statements from the trust. The filings also show that more than $6 million in fees and expenses were charged to the trust in 2024, the same year the trust was required to make the court-ordered repayment of about $8.5 million. Tallcree’s lawyers argued that the trust may have paid for much of that repayment.
Rath is a co-founder and legal counsel for the Alberta Prosperity Project, a group advocating for Alberta’s separation from Canada. He has previously represented First Nations in high-profile treaty settlement cases.
In a July 16 statement on X, Rath said Tallcree’s chief had negotiated a reduced 20 percent rate under a contingency-fee agreement but later proceeded to “litigate for years” on the basis that the agreement approved by the First Nation’s band council was unreasonable.
Rath said the original fee arrangement was approved by 94 percent of Tallcree First Nation members who voted on it. He also said a claim involving payments to the chief and council had been rejected by both a Court of King’s Bench justice and the Court of Appeal following legal action funded by the trust. Rath said the chief was now characterizing the legal costs associated with defending against that claim as a “misappropriation” of trust funds.
The freezing order applies to bank and investment accounts, vehicles, real estate and other personal property. The order was extended on July 15.
