Land claim trial nearly bankrupts B.C. Indians

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The federal government has driven its Indian opponents into virtual bankruptcy says a lawyer for the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en bands.

The two bands are conducting the largest land claim trial in ever held in Canada. Their case involved 57,000 square kilometres of land in northwestern British Columbia.

Ottawa has already provided the two bands with $2.5 million to prepare for the case and band members have raised more than $400,000 in donations of case and service but the lawyers for the bands say they have run out of cash.

Peter Grant, a band lawyer, says the federal government has reduced expected support of the Indians' case by more than $1 million.

As a result of Ottawa's decision, the bands says they were forced to seek an adjournment of the case.

However, Chief Justice Allan McEachern of the B.C. Supreme Court denied the Indians' application for an adjournment, saying this would be "nothing less than a great legal disaster which should no be permitted to occur." Judget McEachern said the case is too important to adjourn.

The case continued as scheduled last week.