NTC wins fish rights case
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Nuu-chah-nulth peoples have the right to catch and sell seafood resources, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has said.
In a 307-page judgment delivered Tuesday, Justice Nicole Garson wrote
“The plaintiffs have aboriginal rights to fish for any species of fish in the environs of their territories and to sell fish.”
“Today this decision confirms what we’ve known all along: we have been stewards of our ocean resources for hundreds of generations,” NTC president Cliff Atleo Sr. said, adding that the government erred.
While the decision affirms the right to catch and sell salmon, it stops short of broader application, and did not recognize aboriginal title to fishing grounds within tribal territories, Garson wrote.
The case — Ahousaht et al versus Attorney General of Canada et al — started trial in 2006. Its focus was the Nuu-chah-nulth right to catch and sell ocean resources.
Garson set out a two-year time frame for the federal government and Nuu-chah-nulth to negotiate how the right to catch and sell can be accommodated.
Michael Doherty, lead counsel for the federal government, said neither side got everything it asked for, but that new ground was broken that both sides have the flesh out now through negotiations.
The ruling is “...less than a commercial fishery, but more than just an exchange of goods” he said. “But no one knows what this means yet.”
An appeal is isn't out of the question. “It’s 300 pages long and we just got it yesterday,” Doherty said. “We’ll be carefully reading and analyzing it as we consider the possibility of an appeal over the next 30 days.”
reporter@albernivalleynews.com
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