B.C. Court of Appeal reaffirms commercial fishing rights of Nuu-chah-nulth Nations.

On July 2, the B.C. Court of Appeal reaffirmed its own legal ruling that recognized the commercial fishing rights of five Nuu-chah-nulth Nations. Last fall the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) rejected Canada’s request to appeal the court’s first decision on the matter, but sent the case back to the appeals court for reconsideration under the lens of the SCC’s decision in the case known as Lax Kw’alaams vs. Canada. “Having reconsidered the reasons of the trial judge in light of the reasons of the Supreme Court of Canada in Lax Kw’alaams, I do not consider that any different result from the decision of the majority of this Court in 2011 is appropriate,” the Appeals court concluded. The legal battle spanned much of the last decade, beginning in June of 2003. The claims filed by the nations were based on Aboriginal rights to harvest and sell sea resources, Aboriginal title to fishing territories and fishing sites, and the obligations of the Crown arising through the reserve-creation process. “We are pleased that the B.C. Court of Appeal has again confirmed the rights of Nuu-chah-nulth Nations to earn a living from the sea resources in our territories,” said Clifford Atleo Sr., president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. “We expect the government of Canada… to now come to the negotiating table in a much more substantial way to work with the Nuu-chah-nulth to implement these decisions, as the Courts have instructed.”