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On December 13-14, 2018, Leah Pence of Mandell Pinder LLP will be chairing the Pacific Business & Law Institute’s conference on specific claims in Vancouver. The conference is a great opportunity for Indigenous leaders and lawyers to learn about recent developments in this area of the law from experts in the field. Speakers at the conference […]
Posted on by Mandell Pinder LLP
On February 2, 2018 the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) released its decision in Williams Lake Indian Band v Canada (AANDC), 2018 SCC 4, ruling the Williams Lake Indian Band (“Band”) was wrongfully displaced from its village lands, and restoring the decision of the Specific Claims Tribunal (“Tribunal”). The Tribunal had found that the Colony […]
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On February 29, 2016 the Federal Court of Appeal (“FCA”) released its decision in Canada’s application for judicial review of the decision of the Specific Claims Tribunal (“Tribunal”) in the Williams Lake Indian Band’s Village Site Claim. The FCA set aside the Tribunal’s decision, substituted its own decision for that of the Tribunal, and dismissed […]
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In this decision, Justice Whalen of the Specific Claims Tribunal (“Tribunal”) found that the Crown breached its legal obligations to the Doig and Blueberry River First Nations (formerly the Fort St. John Beaver Band) when it failed to obtain subsurface rights for the Replacement Reserves it acquired following the Band’s surrender of the Montney Reserve. […]
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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 Huu-Ay-Aht First Nations v. the Queen, 2014 SCTC 7, Judge Whalen of the Specific Claims Tribunal (“Tribunal”) decided in favour of the Huu-Ay-Aht First Nations (“Huu-Ay-Aht”), finding that Canada had committed multiple and ongoing breaches of fiduciary duties in relation to its dealings with a licence to harvest timber on Numukamis Indian Reserve No. […]
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Judge Patrick Smith of the Specific Claims Tribunal has issued a ruling in favour of the Popkum First Nation (“Popkum”) with respect to its claim regarding the Seabird Island Reserve. Judge Smith found that in divesting Popkum of its interest in the Seabird Island Reserve without compensation and distributing part of its share of the […]
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On June 5, 2014, the Federal Court of Appeal (the “Court”) released its decision in Canada v. Kitselas First Nation, 2014 FCA 150, dismissing Canada’s application for judicial review of the decision made by the Specific Claims Tribunal (“Tribunal”). In Kitselas the Tribunal found that Canada breached its fiduciary obligations in excluding from Kitselas’ reserve […]
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In this decision the Specific Claims Tribunal found that the Williams Lake Indian Band was wrongfully dispossessed of its village lands in Williams Lake in the 19th century, and that Canada was accountable for the Colony’s failure to protect the Band’s village lands from settlers. The Band had brought the claim under s. 14(1)(b) and […]