B.C. government attempts to abandon court fights

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The British Columbia government's request that it be allowed to discontinue its court fight against an assertion of Aboriginal rights and title has been denied by the province's Supreme Court.

First Nation leaders see the court's decision as a sign the province knows it can't defend the position it has taken on resource harvesting on traditional Aboriginal lands.

In cases involving several First Nations, the province had attempted to secure stop work orders on logging operations authorized by First Nation governments. The cases, Jules, Wilson, and Harper Lake were similar in that the province first tried to stop the band or tribal council from logging and then tried to walk away from the court proceedings.

In 1999, the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council issued logging permits to members so they could cut timber for housing purposes on reserve. The provincial government went to court to get an injunction to stop the logging, asserting that only it alone had the authority to issue such permits.

The case has been going through the courts in British Columbia since then.

Tribal council sources say the province announced it was dropping the charges just before Christmas. But the First Nations and tribal councils involved, encouraged by Supreme Court of Canada rulings that strengthened the First Nation position that effective consultation must be done with them by government and industry before resource development can be commenced on land under claim, refused to let the province back out.

On March 15, Shuswap Tribal Council Chairman Nathan Matthew announced that British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Jon S. Sigurdson had ruled in favor of his tribal council and had refused to allow the province to back out of the cases.

"The issue at stake in the Harper Lake litigation is the recognition of our Aboriginal rights and title, a right that was exercised by the issuance of timber cutting permits by the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council in 1999," Matthew said.

Not too far away from Shuswap territory, in Okanagan territory, a similar case produced an identical result.

"I am astonished that the province would rather 'weasel out' of a fair fight in court when in the past the province used every lame excuse to legally attack our judicially recognized Aboriginal title and rights," said Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs President Stewart Phillip. "It is a clear and undeniable admission that the bands involved in Jules and Wilson have cases of substantial merit; in other words strong legal arguments that cannot be overcome."

Phillip accused the province of "deliberately obstructing First Nations in their efforts to achieve the outcome of the Supreme Court of Canada's Haida decision in terms of reconciliation, consultation and accommodation."

"Reconciliation can only occur when First Nations are recognized to have true and meaningful involvement in land and resource use decisions, allowing us to both benefit economically, but also to make the decisions necessary to protect our lands for future generations," he added. "Anything else is completely unacceptable."

Justice Sigurdson ruled that the case was of national interest and that it would proceed to trial. Shuswap sources say they felt they couldn't lose going to court: if BC was allowed to drop the cases, it would mean that their logging permits were legal. The same sources say it's possible, with a provincial election scheduled for May 17, that the government didn't want the negative publicity of trying to justify their failure to modify their resource licensing policies in light of the recent Taku and Haida decisions handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada.

First Nation sources across the province believe this matter will be decided eventually at the Supreme Court of Canada level many years from now. But thanks to another top court ruling, since the manner is of compelling public interest, the government will pay the legal bills for the Frst Nations as well as its own.