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By Suzanne Fournier
Staff Reporter
Summary of document:
Five judges today will hand down two weighty volumes of law on height native-rights cases.
And the decision could bring both sides back to the negotiating table...
A unique panel of five judges of the B.C. Court of Appeal has spent the past two years hearing evidence in the Delgamuukw land-claims case as well as five cases on aboriginal fishing rights and two aboriginal hunting issues.
The case with the highest profile is Delgamuukw, in which the Gitksan and Wet'Suwet'en nations seek ownership of public property plus forestry, fishing and mining rights in 57,000 square kilometres in northwester B.C.
Allan McEachern, then the B.C. Supreme Court's chief justice, first ruled on that claim in march 1991, after 300 days of hearings stretched over eight years. He ruled, among other things, that aboriginal title was extinguished before 1871.
The Appeal court could discard that ruling. But it may not give the Gitksan and Wet'Suwet'en the absolute ownership they seek, either.
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