Nuchatlaht First Nation Asks B.C. Supreme Court to Halt Logging on Parts of the Nation’s Territory

In oral arguments heard before the British Columbia Supreme Court on Monday (3-21-22), lawyers for the Nuchatlaht First Nation asked the court to recognize its rights and title and put a stop to logging on their land. The lawsuit filed in 2017 asserts that the provincial and federal governments have denied Nuchatlaht rights by authorizing logging and “effectively dispossessing” the nation of parts of its territory on Vancouver Island’s west coast.

Jack Woodward, who is representing the Nuchatlaht First Nation, told the court that the Aboriginal title was created through the merger of Indigenous and British legal systems in 1846, when the Crown resolved boundary disputes with the United States and claimed sovereignty over what is now B.C. He says the claim filed by the Nuchatlaht First Nation is about reconciliation and finding that balance between Crown and Indigenous legal systems, while recognizing the existence of Indigenous societies before colonization.

During the proceedings on Monday, Woodward told the court that the legal basis for claim is the test for the Aboriginal title set out in the Supreme Court of Canada’s precedent-setting Tsilhqot’in decision in 2014. That case recognized the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s rights and title over a swath of its traditional territory in B.C.’s central Interior, not only to historic village sites. Woodward, who also represented the Tsilhqot’in in their claim, told Justice Elliott Myers that the Nuchatlaht Nation meets the test for Aboriginal title. Woodward said that evidence from experts on both sides of the lawsuit agree that the Nuchatlaht people were occupying and using the claim area before and during 1846.

Woodward added that the Nuchatlaht First Nation wants a declaration from the court that recognizes its rights and title and nullifies the application of B.C.’s Forests and Parks action in the claim area. Woodward said the area the nation is claiming avoids any potential conflict with neighboring nations.

Lawyers for the B.C. and federal governments and logging firm Western Forest Products, another defendant, are expected to address the court later this week.