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In Ktunaxa Nation v. British Columbia (Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations), 2017 SCC 54, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or the “Court”) decided that Qat’muk, a place of spiritual significance for the Ktunaxa Nation (the “Ktunaxa”), was not protected by the s. 2(a) Charter right to freedom of religion. With this decision, […]
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On July 26, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) released its decisions in two cases: Clyde River (Hamlet) v. Petroleum Geo‑Services Inc. and Chippewas of the Thames First Nation v. Enbridge Pipelines Inc. In these cases Indigenous Nations argued that the Crown had breached its duty to consult when the National Energy Board (“NEB”) […]
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On June 30, 2016 the Federal Court of Appeal (“FCA”) released its decision to overturn Canada’s approval of the Northern Gateway Pipelines Project (the “Project”). In the decision, the FCA agreed with what First Nations had been saying all along and found that Canada’s approval of the Project could not stand as Canada had failed […]
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On January 13, 2016, the British Columbia Supreme Court (“Court”) released its reasons in the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline (“Project”) case.¹ In her decision, Madam Justice Koenigsberg found that a portion of an Equivalency Agreement (“Agreement”)² entered into between the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office (“EAO”) and the National Energy Board (“NEB”) was invalid to the […]
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This legal update, presented on September 28, 2015 to the Annual General Assembly of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, provides a round-up of some of the cases that have been decided in the last few months, and the trends these cases reveal. I. Consultation Ktunaxa Nation v British Columbia (Forests, Lands and Natural Resource […]
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In this decision of the Federal Court of Canada, Mr. Justice Rennie concluded that certain conditions included in Marine Harvest’s fish farm licence were inconsistent with the regulatory standards governing when fish can be transferred to the marine environment, and were also inconsistent with the precautionary principle. The Court gave the Department of Fisheries and […]
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On December 9, 2013, the British Columbia Supreme Court released it’s reasons on the judicial review of the Minister of Environment’s (“the Minister”) decision to not issue a certificate, pursuant to the Environmental Assessment Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 43 (the “Act”), to enable Pacific Booker Minerals Ltd. (“PBM”) to construct and operate a copper/gold and […]