Case information

Aboriginal law — Treaty rights — Specific Claims Tribunal — Jurisdiction — Treaty 6 — Crown unilaterally extinguished commercial harvesting right without compensation — First Nation made claim to Specific Claims Tribunal — Crown made motion to strike — Whether Specific Claims Tribunal’s jurisdiction extends to commercial harvesting right — Test to be met to strike out a claim before the Tribunal as doomed to fail — Denial of right to fair trial — Standard of review.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

The Waterhen Lake First Nation filed a Claim with the Specific Claims Tribunal seeking compensation for losses from the taking of commercial harvesting rights by s. 12 of The Natural Resources Transfer Agreement, S.C. 1930, c. 41. The claim addressed the taking of 2,900,000 acres of traditional lands for the Primrose Lake Air Weapons Range and for the loss of lands on which the First Nation held commercial trapping licences.

The Crown brought an application to strike the claim under s. 17 of the Specific Claims Tribunal Act, S.C. 2008, c. 22, in whole, without leave to amend, on the basis that it was plain, obvious and beyond doubt that the claim could not succeed because it was outside the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.

The Specific Claims Tribunal granted the application to strike, and the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the First Nation’s application for judicial review.