Delgamuukw v. British Columbia
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| Delgamuukw v. British Columbia | |||||||||
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| Hearing: June 16, 17, 1997 Judgment: December 11, 1997 |
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Chief Justice: Antonio Lamer |
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Majority by: Lamer C.J. (paras. 1-186) |
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Delgamuukw v. British Columbia [1997] 3 S.C.R. 1010 is a famous leading decision of the Supreme Court of Canada where the Court made its most definitive statement on the nature of Aboriginal title in Canada.
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[edit] Court proceedings
The proceedings were started in 1984 by the Gitxsan Nation and the Wet'suwet'en Nation. They bypassed the slow Federal Land Claims process in which the British Columbia Provincial Government would not participate.
They claimed ownership and legal jurisdiction over 133 individual territories, a total of 58,000 square kilometres of northwestern British Columbia, an area larger than the province of Nova Scotia.
[edit] Provincial government position
The Province insisted that all First Nations land rights in British Columbia were extinguished by the colonial government before it became part of Canada in 1871. (In the Court of Appeal, the Province changed its position to argue that aboriginal land rights had not been extinguished.)
[edit] Supreme Court ruling
The Supreme Court made no decision on the land dispute, insisting that another trial was necessary. For the first time, however, the Court directly addressed the issue of Aboriginal title.
Aboriginal title is different from land usage rights, as it acknowledges Indigenous ownership of the land and the right to use in ways it had not been used traditionally. On the other hand, it is different from common land ownership, in that it is a Constitutional communal right deeply linked to Indigenous culture. Land governed by Aboriginal title can only be sold to the Federal Government, not to private buyers. The ruling also made important statements about the legitimacy of Indigenous oral history.
[edit] Bibliography
- Culhane, Dara (1998) The Pleasure of the Crown: Anthropology, Law, and First Nations. Burnaby, British Columbia: Talonbooks.
- Daly, Richard (2005) Our Box Was Full: An Ethnography for the Delgamuukw Plaintiffs. Vancouver: UBC Press.
- Fisher, Robin (1992) "Judging History: Reflections on the Reasons for Judgment in Delgamuukw vs. B.C." B.C. Studies, vol. 95, no. 43-54.
- Gisday Wa and Delgam Uukw (1992) The Spirit in the Land: The Opening Statement of the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, 1987-1990. Gabriola, B.C.: Reflections.
- Glavin, Terry (1990) A Death Feast in Dimlahamid. Vancouver: New Star Books.
- Mills, Antonia C. (1994) Eagle Down Is Our Law: Witsuwit’en Law, Feasts, and Land Claims. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
- Monet, Don, and Ardythe Wilson (1992) Colonialism on Trial: Indigenous Land Rights and the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en Sovereignty Case. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.
- Roth, Christopher F. (2002) "Without Treaty, without Conquest: Indigenous Sovereignty in Post-Delgamuukw British Columbia." Wicazo Sa Review, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 143-165.
- Sterritt, Neil, et al. (1998) Tribal Boundaries in the Nass Watershed. Vancouver: U.B.C. Press.
[edit] See also
- Royal Proclamation of 1763
- St. Catherines Milling v. The Queen
- Calder v. British Columbia (Attorney General)
- R. v. Guerin
- Mabo v Queensland (No 2) - the similar Australian case
- List of Supreme Court of Canada cases
[edit] External links
- Full text of Supreme Court of Canada decision at LexUMand CanLII
- Delgamuukw/Gisday'wa National Process - An extensive collection of resources relating to the Delgamuukw decision
- Justice Dept. analysis of case
- A Lay Person's Guide to Delgamuukw - BC Treaty Commission PDF
- Archive of Delgamuukw Case - NativeWeb
