Articles on Indigenous Law
Sep 23, 2015 | by Sandra Rubin | from Lexpert Special Edition – Mining
Recent court decisions on Aboriginal title are sending tremors through the mining sector in Canada Canada’s mining sector has taken a beating at the hands of low commodities prices. But for developers whose projects touch on Aboriginal lands, a Supreme Court of Canada decision handed down ...
Oct 30, 2015 | by Sandra Rubin | from Lexpert Special Edition – Energy
Adam Chamberlain has a piece of advice for anyone even thinking of developing an energy project that touches on Aboriginal lands: get yourself into a canoe. One of the most common mistakes project developers and their advisers make is to do too much of the work by email, conference calls and even ...
Oct 28, 2016 | by Brian Burton | from 2016 Special Edition on Energy
IT’S A CENTRAL TRUTH of Canadian Confederation that the standing of First Nations has been determined far more by hard-fought court battles than by fair-minded government legislation. In the face of government inertia, Aboriginal groups have waged a seemingly endless fight to define and ...
Oct 20, 2014 | by Brian Burton | from Lexpert Special Edition – Mining
A new majority government, planned investment and legislative changes may kick-start Quebec’s mining development Fresh from a majority election victory April 7, Quebec’s new Liberal government has said they will revive their vision of a mining Valhalla in the North. Plan Nord is the ...
Nov 24, 2014 | by Sandra Rubin | from Lexpert Magazine November/December 2014 Issue
Tsilhqot’in Chiefs are shown above drumming together after the release of the Tsilhqot’in decision in June. When a group of native leaders who were gathered in a Vancouver boardroom heard the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled that the Tsilhqot’in hold title to a tract of BC land a ...
Nov 19, 2014 | by Michael Bonshor | from Lexpert Magazine Nov/Dec 2014 Issue
In the fall of 1997, I had the opportunity to work with the Sto:lo Nation of the Fraser Valley of BC. Sto:lo comprised 19 First Nations at that time, and had just created a business arm, Sto:lo Development Corp., whose mandate was to create economic opportunities in its territory. It was during ...
Nov 19, 2014 | by Ahmad Hathout | from Lexpert DealsWire
Aboriginal entities in Canada could face cutbacks on federal transfer payments if their compensation from extractive projects are disclosed under the new federal transparency act, according to legal experts. The concern is whether the federal government – armed with the knowledge of what ...
May 02, 2017 | by H.W. Roger Townshend | from 2017 Canadian Lexpert Directory
DUTY TO CONSULT AND ACCOMMODATE Background The duty to consult and accommodate Aboriginal people when decisions are made that may affect their rights, interests or way of life has become a key principle of Aboriginal law, which has resulted in a large and growing body of law. The Crown has a duty ...
Jun 22, 2015 | by H.W. Roger Townshend | from 2015 Lexpert Canadian Directory
ABORIGINAL TITLE Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia (2014 SCC 44) marked the first time a Canadian Court has declared that a particular tract of land was subject to Aboriginal title. The Court granted such a declaration for about 1750 sq. km. (430,000 acres) of land. Generally, the test ...
Jun 21, 2016 | by H.W. Roger Townshend | from 2016 Canadian Lexpert Directory
INTRODUCTION Unlike many years, there were no major shifts or developments by the Courts in Aboriginal law legal doctrine in the past year. The Supreme Court of Canada released no cases in 2015 on treaty or Aboriginal rights. Rather, the year has been marked by policy initiatives at the political ...
Jun 12, 2015 | by Sandra Rubin | from Lexpert US/Canada Cross-Border Guide – Corporate
The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision recognizing title over a piece of First Nations land is having a major impact on investment in the resource sector If resource companies thinking of doing business in Canada read just one thing it should be this: a decision called Tsilhqot’in , ...
Jul 10, 2016 | by Brian Burton | from Lexpert Magazine June 2016 Issue
Across Canada, the long neglect of Aboriginal issues is now confounding the nation’s economic development as never before. From Plan Nord in Québec and the Ring of Fire in Ontario, to the oil sands in Alberta, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and hydro in British Columbia and pipelines ...
Jan 31, 2017 | from Lexpert Magazine January/February 2017 Issue
Maxime Faille relocated to Vancouver from Ottawa. As the leader of Gowling WLG ’s Aboriginal practice group, he has focused his 20-year career on Aboriginal and treaty rights, First Nation taxation, self-government, Aboriginal consultation and accommodation, Impact and Benefit Agreements and ...
Jan 19, 2015 | by Anthony Davis | from Lexpert Magazine January 2015 Issue
Cuttlefish. Not the cuddliest critters. But these cephalopods are among nature's most amazing animals: Remarkably intelligent, they can change colour and skin texture incredibly quickly and vividly. Some can turn themselves into an oscillating light show to hypnotize and gobble down ...
Jan 12, 2015 | by Julius Melnitzer | from Lexpert Magazine January 2015 Issue
The Supreme Court of Canada is very much alive to business and its concerns: that's the clear message from Lexpert 's 2014 top business decisions, which, for the first time, has all 10 cases on the list emanating from the high court. Having said that, it's perhaps surprising ...
Feb 12, 2018 | by Elizabeth Raymer | from Lexpert Magazine January-February 2018 Issue
IN EARLY DECEMBER the Supreme Court of Canada allowed the appeal (in part) of Yukon First Nations and a conservation society in a five-year-old dispute over development of the Peel Watershed in the Yukon Territory, meaning the parties must return to the drawing board. In First Nation of Nacho Nyak ...
Dec 04, 2014 | by Sandra Rubin | from Lexpert Magazine January 2015 Issue
Forget Eastern Europe and Latin America. Canadians interested in public-private partnerships (P3s) should consider an untapped market on their own doorstep: Canada's First Nations communities. “You might consider First Nations as emerging markets,” Harold Calla, executive chair ...
Aug 29, 2014 | by Brian Burton | from Lexpert Special Edition – Infrastructure
In the cash-constrained North, public-private participation partnerships can be especially attractive, but they will not work for every project In a land of ironies, perhaps none is more striking. Despite their storied relationship with their environment, the people of Nunavut are, by some ...
Apr 23, 2019 | by Robert K. (Bob) Rae | from 2019 Canadian Lexpert Directory
The year 2018 was of some significance for both Aboriginal law and policy. Two decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, Williams Lake and Mikisew Cree , stand out, but it was the Federal Court of Appeal judgment in the Transmountain Pipeline case that gathered the most media and political ...
Apr 12, 2018 | by H.W. Roger Townshend | from 2018 Canadian Lexpert Directory
Duty to Consult and Accommodate Background The duty to consult and accommodate Aboriginal people when decisions are made that may affect their rights, interests or way of life has become a key principle of Aboriginal law, which has resulted in a large and growing body of law. The Crown has a duty ...