Beaver Lake Cree Nation Stands Firm in Defence of Inherent and Treaty Rights
The Beaver Lake Cree Nation was in court on June
4 due to an appeal by the federal and Alberta
governments against a
2019 ruling of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench
that the provincial
and federal governments must pay advance legal
costs to the Nation.
This ruling allows the continuation of the
precedent-setting legal
action initiated in 2008 by Beaver Lake in defence
of their inherent
and treaty rights. The action claims that the
cumulative effects of
industrial development on the Nation's traditional
land and way of life
must be considered in project approvals. The case
is precedent-setting
because it is the first to challenge the
cumulative economic,
environmental, social, and cultural impacts of
industrial development,
not just a single project.[1]
Crystal Lameman, the Beaver Lake Cree's
Government Relations Advisor, explains, "This is
about Beaver Lake having a say in
what development looks like in their territory,
and on their lands, to
which neither Alberta nor Canada has a bill of
sale -- not under
Treaty-making, and not via any subsequent
unilateral decision-making
authority."[2]
The Beaver Lake territory spans 38,972 square
kilometres and is in the heart of the oil sands.
Governments have
leased out much of this land to oil companies
without any prior
consultation or approval. In total there are 300
projects with 19,000
individual authorizations, around 35,000
individual oil and natural gas
wells, the Canadian Forces Cold Lake Weapons
Range, and thousands of
kilometres of pipelines, access roads and seismic
lines on the
territory. Nearly 90 per cent of the traditional
territory is scarred
and polluted by numerous tar sands projects,
displacing moose and elk
and driving caribou to the brink of extinction.
As affirmed in
the Kétuskéno Declaration (2008), the Beaver Lake
Cree agreed through a treaty of peace and
friendship to share the land
with those who respect their obligations as
keepers of the land and
their traditional, constitutional and treaty
rights. The declaration
affirmed their rights and duties as keepers of the
land, and their
right to gain their livelihood from these lands.
In the court action
launched in 2008 they assert that governments must
respect the right of
the keepers of the land to say yes or no to
developments on their
territory.
In 2018, after years of defending their action in
court against both the federal and Alberta
governments using their own
funds as well as extensive fund-raising, Beaver
Lake filed an interim
costs application asking the Court to order that
Canada and Alberta
contribute to the cost of proceeding with the
case. Alberta and Canada
argued that the Nation should have to exhaust all
of its assets before
being granted advanced costs. On September 30,
2019, Justice Beverly
Browne ruled that Alberta and Canada must each
contribute $300,000 a
year to the Nation's legal costs, while the Nation
would have to
contribute a similar amount. Granting of advanced
legal costs is
considered an extraordinary measure, she
acknowledged. "The case before
me is sufficiently extraordinary that I should
exercise my discretion
to grant the application. In my view, it would be
manifestly unjust to
either compel Beaver Lake to abandon its claim or
to force it into
destitution in order to bring the claim
forward. ...
Regardless, I am unwilling to force Beaver Lake
leadership to choose
between pursuing this litigation and attempting to
provide for the basic
necessities of life that most citizens take for
granted."
Notes
1. Blueberry
River First Nation in BC is also proceeding with a
legal action, which
was filed in 2015. See Defence of Treaty Rights:
Blueberry River First
Nations Bring Historic Cumulative-Impacts Lawsuit
Back to BC Supreme
Court, TML Weekly,
June 8,
2019.
2.
Beaver Lake Cree stand strong as Canada and
Alberta attempt
to derail tarsands legal challenge, by Maia Wikler
and Crystal Lameman, Briarpatch
Magazine, June 5, 2020.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 21 - June 13, 2020
Article Link:
Beaver Lake Cree Nation Stands Firm in Defence of Inherent and Treaty Rights
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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