Blog

 

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Delgamuukw v. The Queen, also known as 3 SCR 1010, Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa,  or just Delgamuukw, contains the court’s first in-depth research analysis of Aboriginal title in Canada, which is a particular type of Aboriginal right.

FACTS OF THE CASE :

Since European settlers first started to arrive on their ancestral territories in the 1800s, the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en peoples have made an effort to negotiate authority, ownership recognition, and self-government. The Gitxsan declaration of claim was delivered to the Canadian federal government in 1977, but British Columbia refused to take part in the land claims procedure. British Columbia started allowing clear-cut logging in the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en territories without the hereditary chiefs’ consent in 1984. 35 Gitxsan and 13 Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs submitted their statement of claim to the British Columbia Supreme Court on October 24, 1984.

JUDGMENT : 

Aboriginal title “cannot be alienated except to the Crown or encumbered in ways that would prevent future generations of the group from using and enjoying it,” the court ruled. Furthermore, the land cannot be exploited or developed in a way that significantly deprives future generations of its benefits.

JUDGMENT REVIEW BY SREYA MARY.