Sinixt begin appeal process over Perry Ridge ruling
By Timothy Schafer
The Sinixt Nation could be back in court in Vancouver in October over their continued opposition to logging on Perry Ridge, as court records show the final factum in their appeal has now been filed.
Although the notice of appeal was filed March 4, 2011 with the B.C. Court of Appeal in Vancouver — regarding application against the Province’s issuing of a timber sale licence on Perry Ridge — it took several months for arguments supporting the appeal to coalesce, said Sinixt Nation’s counsel David Aaron.
At the time of the appeal in March, the Sinixt had requested the court hold off dismissing their petition until the appeal could be heard — which the court denied.
That same day an injunction was issued against the Sinixt blockade of Sunshine Logging’s action on Perry Ridge, bringing down the group’s occupation camp on the road leading into the area.
In his opening statement for the appeal, Aaron questioned the judge’s dismissal of the Sinixt’s assertion for aboriginal consultation because the aboriginal collective lacked band status.
On Feb. 25 BC Supreme Court Judge J. Willcock dismissed “by way of oral reasons” the Sinixt petition against Sunshine and the Crown, contending the Sinixt “are not a group capable of sufficiently precise definition with respect to their group membership.”
Aboriginal rights have developed over the years and are guaranteed under Section 35 of the Constitution, Aaron wrote in response.
“But what remains undeveloped are the procedural avenues which need to accompany those aboriginal rights if they are to be exercised in any meaningful way,” he said back in March when the appeal was filed.
“The court of appeal will be moved at the hearing of this appeal to consider these complicated issues; issues which are at the heart of the process of reconciliation between Crown sovereignty and the prior existence of Aboriginal societies.”
The Sinixt were contending the Crown failed to do its duty to consult them in the course of issuing Timber Sale Licence A80073 to Kaslo’s Sunshine Logging for the forest on Perry Ridge.
The duty to consult First Nations on a timber sale licence arises when the Crown has knowledge of a potential Aboriginal claim or right on the land.
The licence permits Sunshine to harvest Crown timber from within four designated cut blocks on Perry Ridge between the Slocan River and the Little Slocan River — in an area the Sinixt contend is their territory and is close to an ancient Sinixt village and burial ground of Vallican. As well, Perry Ridge appears to have been within the traditional hunting area of the Sinixt.
Perry Ridge is the source of drinking water for many residents in the lower Slocan River valley. The Sinixt have contended that industrial development on Perry Ridge could jeopardize Sinixt archaeological sites, exacerbate geological instability with the risk of slope failure, disrupt water quality and quantity, and threaten endangered species over which the Sinixt exercise “aboriginal rights.”
On Aug. 2 the court upheld a claim for costs by Sunshine Logging and the Crown against the Sinixt to recover the costs they had incurred.
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