Articles on Indigenous Law

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 , ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...