Aboriginal Law Report

In the News

First Nations reacted to the Nova Scotia provincial government's approval of a natural gas storage project 

• Mi'kmaq band to 'fight the fight' after gas storage project approved
• Bands object to OK of plan

TransCanada's proposed Energy East pipeline got good and bad news.

• Quebec mayors opposed to Energy East pipeline, warn of environmental risk
• Trudeau supports Notley on Energy East pipeline
• How will Trudeau sort out Energy East?
• Time for Kathleen Wynne to take a stand against Energy East

A Nova Scotia judge refused to sentence a pulp mill owner for an effluent discharge until a local First Nation is consulted.

• Nova Scotia judge wants impact statement from First Nation on effluent leak
• Northern Pulp told to consult First Nation

A dispute over custody of a Métis child was heard at British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver.

• Foster parents fighting plan to take Metis toddler, place her with siblings

The National Energy Board's Kinder Morgan pipeline hearings opened to widespread condemnation.

• Katzie First Nation sisters say Kinder Morgan expansion would devastate traditional land
• Musqueam urge National Energy Board to delay pipeline expansion
• Aboriginals, environmentalists call for halt to Trans Mountain hearings in B.C.
• Kinder Morgan protesters take over Burnaby bridge
• Trans Mountain pipeline plan enters home stretch
• Native Americans call on Canada to kill Kinder Morgan's pipeline expansion plan
• Lower Nicola Band boycotts NEB’s environmental assessment hearings
• Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in limbo as ‘duty to consult’ takes centre stage

Opposition to Site C dam continued.

• David Suzuki, Chief Stewart Phillip and First Nations draw line in the snow against Site C
• Grand Chief to Trudeau: Reconciliation Includes Acting on Site C
• BC Hydro seeks injunction against Site C dam protesters in province’s north
• BC Hydro files civil claim against Rocky Mountain Fort protesters

The Manitoba provincial government's decision to charge so-called 'poachers' raised the issue of who is a 'Treaty Indian'.

• Poachers charged after trying to get status Indians to take credit for illegal kills
• “Not That Kind of Indian:” The Problem with Generalizing Indigenous Peoples in Contemporary Scholarship and Pedagogy

The negotiation of the Algonquin land claim has raised differences across provincial borders.

• Quebec Algonquins question Ontario land claim

A former member of the House of Lords scolded critics of John A. Macdonald.

• Conrad Black: Burning effigies of John A. Macdonald doesn’t help natives

From the Courts

As part of its commitment to review its litigation positions, the new federal government sought and was granted adjournments in the Courtoreille omnibus bill appeal and the Tsleil-Waututh challenge to the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

• Update from JFK Law
• Tsleil-Waututh pipeline case put on hold

Another Métis hunting rights case is working its way through the courts in Saskatchewan.

• Court Case Deals with Metis Rights for Hunting in Saskatchewan

The Secwepemc Aboriginal title claim to the Ajax mine site in British Columbia continued to make the news.

• Time to draw a line in the sand at Jacko Lake
• Clark adamant about fighting SSN claim

Quote of the Week

“"Kinder Morgan, make my day, take your pipeline, go away!"

Opponents of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline

"We must not forget that the availability of options--a wide range of available choices in life-style and environment--is an essential part of individual freedom."

Richard C. Bocking, Canada's Water: For Sale? (1972)

My Two Bits

Indian Act status and Treaty rights (audio file)

Bruce McIvor, lawyer and historian, is principal of First Peoples Law Corporation.

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