A November 4 New Brunswick court’s decision by Judge John Turnbull promises to be good news for First Nations across Canada.
The decision says the trees on Crown lands belong to the Aboriginal people.
This ruling basically means the forestry companies that have been granted access to Crown lands by the Nova Scotia and News Brunswick provinces are now in jeopardy of losing their cutting rights.
Grand Chief Roger Augustine started this court case. First Nations, even though they may cheer now, can expect to see this precedent-setting ruling appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
If upheld it may bring in the first of guaranteed revenue-sharing of resource extraction from traditional Native lands and territories. It also further defines the relationship Aboriginal peoples have with unoccupied Crown lands. Some Native leaders have said this ruling has the potential to see compensation for past damages by forestry companies. New Brunswick Native leaders are saying they are looking at more than just trees in compensation packages but are including lost wildlife, natural resources and lost opportunities.
Cree Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come hadn’t had a chance to review the decision in detail, but did comment on the case, saying, “It certainly has ramifications in regards to the trees that are on Crown lands actually belong to the Aboriginal Peoples. That will have a series of ramifications with all the wood concessions and wood rights that have been allocated to forestry companies in and around our area. Even if they appeal that decision, at least now there is a jurisprudence case in which it is clearly shown, in our case, the trees belong to the Crees. We’ll have to assess how we can use that in the development of our own court case that we have prepared and wanted to file. So we’ll have to assess the New Brunswick court case. In ours, that was what we were trying to establish, that the trees belong to the Crees. So it was very encouraging to see this decision has been made.”
