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03 November 2004
Gitxsan Territories
 For immediate release
Gitxsan hereditary chiefs are eagerly anticipating a Supreme Court of Canada ruling expected this week that could bolster hard-won aboriginal rights and title gains from the world-renowned 1997 Delgamuukw decision.
The highest court in the land is due to release its judgment Nov. 4 in the Haida Nation v. the Minister of Forests and Weyerhauser said Gitxsan treaty negotiator Gwaans (Beverley Clifton-Percival). The case concerns the transfer by BC of the right to cut trees in Haida territory to the forest company Weyerhauser. At issue is what constitutes accommodation and consultation of a First Nation regarding their rights and title before such a decision is made. Accommodation and consultation was a cornerstone of the groundbreaking SCC Delgamuukw ruling – a case initiated by the Gitxsan that took 13 years to wind its way through the courts before the decision on Dec. 11, 1997.
“Our hereditary system is the foundation of the Delgamuukw decision and the basis of all that was won on aboriginal rights and title in that case,” said Gwaans. “We intervened on behalf of the Haida when they went to the Supreme Court last March in order to protect what was gained in 1997.”
The importance of the Haida case in defining accommodation and consultation was evident at the SCC hearing March 24-25 when four other provinces and Canada intervened on the side of BC and Weyerhauser. At the hearing, lawyers for BC’s Ministry of Forests and the Attorney General’s office argued for a watered down version of consultation relating it to a procedural duty of fairness.
“It is all about fitting us into their policy, not about consultation,” said Gwaans. “They are not open to accommodating the Gwalxyee’nst which is the Gitxsan inherency handed down from generation-to-generation made up of components like our laws, our oral history and the land and its resources.”
The Gitxsan have always maintained that any consultation or accommodation on their traditional territories must respect that the decision-making authority rests with the Wilp (House group). The hereditary chiefs are seeking a ruling from the SCC in that vein.
“We’ve been trying to reconcile the gains from the Delgamuukw decision with provincial policy since 1997,” said Gwaans. “That’s seven years the province has refused to articulate and clearly express what they mean by consultation and accommodation.”
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For more information:
Gwaans (Beverley Clifton-Percival), treaty negotiator, Gitxsan Chiefs’ Office, (250) 842-6780
Gordon Sebastian, Gitxsan Chiefs’ Office executive director, (250) 842-6780, (250) 847-9224
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