governments of Canada and Manitoba embroiled in an on-going court battle, various scholars have received generous financial support to investigate Métis land claims in Manitoba." Tom Flanagan, acting as "historical consultant for the Federal Department of Justice" argued that the "federal government fulfilled the land provisions of the Manitoba Act." Donald Sprague, a "historian retained by the Manitoba Métis Federation to undertake research into Métis land claims, argues that through a process of formal and informal discouragement, the Métis were victims of a deliberate conspiracy in which John A. Macdonald and the Canadian government successfully kept them from obtaining title to the land they were to receive under terms of the Manitoba Act of 1870." Witness Flanagan has served as a witness for Alberta, Manitoba, and Canada in litigation involving native rights and land claims, providing testimony about the Numbered Treaties and the administration of federal programs for Métis and Indians in Western Canada. He has since stated that he will no longer be serving in this capacity for ethical reasons. The Blais decision, as well as the later Manitoba Metis Federation case, upheld the efficacy of the nineteenth-century distribution of land and scrip in extinguishing Métis land rights in Manitoba., the decision was overturn on appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Benoit established that Treaty Eight did not grant immunity from taxation to Indians living off reserve. In Victor Buffalo, the Samson Cree band, located near Hobbema, Alberta, unsuccessfully challenged the federal government's implementation of Treaty Six. Flanagan was also a witness for the University of Alberta in the Dickason case in which the Supreme Court of Canada ultimately upheld the validity of mandatory retirement for university professors. Views Tom Flanagan adopts a libertarian point of view and defends personal freedom particularly in academia. He self describes as a Hayekian and was considered as among the most conservative members of the Reform Party in 1998. Superiority of western civilization and colonialism as justifiable and inevitable Flanagan adopts the philosophical analysis of John Locke and Emer de Vattel that European colonization of North America by western civilization, was justifiable and inevitable. Flanagan asserts that "European civilization was several thousand years more advanced than the Aboriginal cultures of North America both in technology and social organization" (Flanagan 2000:6). Wikileaks In 2010, Flanagan made controversial comments, later retracted, advocating the assassination of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. While appearing on the CBC