Haida Claim Islands and Waters

Jeff Lee and Craig McInnes

Victoria Times Colonist, March 7, 2002

VANCOUVER -- It is a small document -- just five pages plus a simple map stapled at the back.

The substance of the complaints set out within fits on just one page, with the rest taken up with the legal trappings that come with every writ filed in B.C. Supreme Court. But within that document is a power-packed punch that attempts to right what the Haida Nation says is more than 140 years of oppression, wrongful activities and lack of consultation with the original inhabitants of the Queen Charlotte Islands.

On Wednesday, the Haida initiated a lawsuit against the provincial and federal governments, saying the First Nation not only has aboriginal title to all the lands contained within the Charlottes (which they call Haida Gwaii), but also to the resources in and under the sea, including oil and gas reserves believed to be under Hecate Strait.

The writ, filed by lawyers Joe Arvay and Louise Mandell, simply seeks a declaration that the Haida are the aboriginal owners of the entire remote archipelago off the north coast of B.C. and that all of the activities within those lands that are incompatible with the Haida should cease. They also want an accounting of all profits, taxes, stumpage dues, royalties and other benefits the provincial and federal governments have collected over the years.

Those demands signal a huge change in the way the Haida have considered their relationship with the rest of Canada, Haida president Guujaaw said Wednesday.

"Aboriginal title is a compromise for us," said Guujaaw, who goes only by his Haida name. "We think we can find a way to live with Canada. What we want to do is clarify our relationship with Canada."

Aboriginal title is a form of land ownership recognized under Canada's Constitution Act of 1982 that gives native nations a say in how those lands are used. It can include fee simple title and acts as a parallel ownership to the Crown's ownership.

The Haida still believe they are the owners of the land, "lock, stock and barrel," Guujaaw said. But practical realities being what they are, the Haida are willing to accept a "lesser" designation of having aboriginal title to the land under Canadian law because "there are other people living on the land now."

The Haida initiated their lawsuit in part to try to stop the provincial government's apparent plans to lift a moratorium on oil and gas exploration in Hecate Strait.

Their view that they are separate and distinct from the rest of Canada was reinforced in a long ceremony at the First Nations Summit in North Vancouver Wednesday, when many of the hereditary chiefs of the Haida's 33 clans assembled for a ceremonial hand-off of the writ.

The ceremony included several mask dances and concluded with two young Haida people, Nika Collison and Alfie Sepso, literally handing the writ to Terry Lynn Williams Davidson, a Haida lawyer and a member of Arvay and Mandell's legal team.

Iljuwaas, a Haida hereditary chief, said non-natives living on Haida Gwaii do not have to fear the nation's lawsuit.

"Haida Gwaii is not taking anything from anyone, I want to make that clear," he said. "(But) this is our land. This land is not for sale. It is our land."

The lawsuit launched Wednesday is groundbreaking because it includes claims to seabed resources over half of Hecate Strait and 320 kilometres out into the Pacific Ocean, Mandell said. "There's very little judicial determination of the seabed as an aspect of aboriginal title," she said.

A Geological Survey of Canada report in 1998 estimated there are untapped reserves of 9.8 billion barrels of oil and 25.9 trillion cubic feet of gas under the Strait. Opening the area to oil and gas companies could produce up to $10 billion in government royalties.

But Guujaaw said the Haida are opposed to subsea mineral resource extraction because there are too many environmental risks. He said the white man's track record with now-depleted salmon stocks and clear-cut forests indicates they aren't good resource stewards. "They've ruined the fishing industry and they've ruined the forest industry. Now they're on to the next one," he said.

The suit names both the provincial government and the attorney general of Canada. Arvay said it could take 18 months before the case is heard in court, but admitted it could also take years to resolve.

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