VIDEO about Environment posted on February 25, 2011 by Common Sense Canadian

Sinixt Petition for Consultation on Perry Ridge Logging Dismissed

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The Sinixt Nation was before the BC Supreme Court the past several weeks, seeking the right to be consulted on a planned logging project in their traditional territory. Today the judge ruled against their petition, legally clearling the way for Sunshine Logging to begin logging a section of Perry Ridge, amid the Slocan Valley in the Kootenays. The Sinixt are supported by the local non-aboriginal community as well, represented in part by the Perry Ridge Water Users' Association - who share the Sinixt concerns about safety risks from rock slides and various potential environmental impacts. Several weeks ago, Damien Gillis had a chance to interview the Sinixt official representative, Marilyn James and her supporters at the Vancouver courthouse.

Statement from the Sinixt lawyer David Aaron:

This is regarding the Sinixt judicial review application, by way of
> Petition, against BC's issuance of a timber sale licence on Perry Ridge.
> Today, the Court, by way of oral reasons for judgment of Willcock J.,
> dismissed the Sinixt's Petition on the basis of the Court's finding that the
> Petitioners are not a group capable of sufficiently precise definition with
> respect to their group membership.
>
> We say that the Court failed to deal with this question with sufficient
> regard to the historical factors that have affected the Sinixt, including:
> the establishment of an international boundary through Sinixt territory; the
> subsequent restriction against free passage across that boundary; the
> Crown’s failure to provide adequate reserve land and to protect traditional
> village sites and burial grounds; – these are all factors that lead to the
> historical disenfranchisement of the Sinixt from statutory rights in Canada,
> including the right to enter and remain in Canada, the right to viable
> reserve land, the right to membership in an Indian Act band and the
> opportunity for representation through a band council.
>
> This is the historical context within which the proceedings were advanced on
> behalf of a collective that lacks legal capacity to sue in its own right.
> And this is the historical context within which the claim was advanced on
> behalf of that collective by individuals who, over the past 25 years, have
> emerged as representatives through the realities by which a distinct,
> aboriginal rights holding people has given expression to an autonomous
> modality of self-representation, by reference to traditional cultural tenets
> and, ultimately, by the necessity of vigorously representing the interests
> of the collective when they were most threatened.
>
> We do not feel that the judgment today gave sufficient weight to this
> historical context. The Sinxit will consider their appeal options once
> they have had an opportunity to review a written version of the judgment.
> Until then, there will be no further comment to the press.
>
> The Sinixt will be holding a vigil at the Perry Ridge Forest Service Road
> site commencing at day break on February 26, 2011.
>
>
> --
> DAVID M. AARON
> Barrister & Solicitor
> Tel: 250.551.6840
> Fax: 866.685.7376
>