Indigenous Land Title Express – Tsilhqot’in Journey for Justice
The Deets:
Thursday November 7, 2013
9:30 am
Everywhere & Supreme Court of Canada,
Ottawa, ON
The Call Out:
FWD:
Join the Tsilhqot’in Nation Elders as they undertake a journey from their homeland in BC to appear before the Supreme Court of Canada on Nov. 7, 2013 seeking recognition of Aboriginal title for the first time in Canadian history.
Help us meet our fundraising goal of $63,547.10 to bring 21 people over that testified including elders to the SCC hearing! Donations can be made by PayPal here:! Please reference Elders Journey: www.tsilhqotin.ca/abouttng.htm
———-
Backgrounder: Tsilhqot’in Nation v. BC & Canada
This litigation started over 2 decades ago, when the Tsilhqot’in blockaded and then went to court to save some of its last intact traditional lands from industrial logging. The Claim Area comprises some 438,000 hectares of remote and beautiful territory in the Chilcotin Region of BC, which takes its name from the Tsilhqot’in people.
After 5 years of trial, in November 2007, the BC Supreme Court held that the Tsilhqot’in hold Aboriginal rights to hunt, trap & trade throughout the entire Claim Area, including the right to capture and use wild horses.
The BC Supreme Court went further. The Court found that the Tsilhqot’in had proven Aboriginal title to approximately 40% of the Claim Area – lands that the Tsilhqot’in people exclusively controlled when the Crown asserted sovereignty in 1846, & used year after year, season after season, to sustain their communities and their culture.
Although the SCC has confirmed that Aboriginal title continues as a legal right in BC in the 1997 case of Delgamuukw v. BC), this was the 1st time in Canadian history that Aboriginal title was recognized by a court on the ground. Aboriginal title is a right of collective ownership, which would give the Tsilhqot’in people the primary rights to decide how the lands would be used & to the economic benefit of the lands & resources.
However, in June 2012, the BC Court of Appeal overturned the BC Supreme Court’s ruling on Aboriginal title. It fully endorsed the BC Supreme Court’s ruling on Tsilhqot’in Aboriginal rights to hunt, trap and trade; however, the Court of Appeal held that First Nations can never hold Aboriginal title to more than specific, intensively used sites, such as permanent villages, salt licks, or particularly effective rocks used for gaffing salmon.
First Nations denounced this judgment as making a mockery of Aboriginal title and as a discriminatory ruling that denigrates and disregards Aboriginal ways of life, & in particular
their distinctive systems of law & land use.
The sole issue before the SCC on Nov 7, 2013 will be Aboriginal title. The outcome of this appeal can be expected to profoundly shape the future of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. The Tsilhqot’in Nation will call on the Court to end the long era of denial and discrimination that has shadowed the nation’s past, and to provide long-overdue recognition of Aboriginal title on the ground, as the starting point for true & lasting reconciliation.
#30#
Support rabble today!
We’re so glad you stopped by! Thanks for consuming rabble content this year.
rabble.ca is 100% reader and donor funded, so as an avid reader of our content, we hope you will consider gifting rabble with a donation during our summer fundraiser today.
Whether it be a one-time donation or a small monthly contribution, your support is critical to keep rabble writers producing the work you’ve come to rely on as a part of a healthy media diet.
Become a rabble rouser — donate to rabble.ca today.
Nick Seebruch, editor
