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Consult before creating Fauquier reserve: CCT

Sinixt seek consultation before Westbank reserve gets go-ahead
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Rick Desautel, centre left with arms folded, and supporters from the Colville Confederated Tribes stand outside the Nelson courthouse in 2017.

A U.S. aboriginal group representing the Sinixt First Nation says it wants to be consulted before the federal government goes ahead and transfers land near Fauquier to the Westbank First Nation.

The Colville Confederated Tribes filed a case in court in Vancouver recently, saying Ottawa has to consult with it before creating the new reserve in what they call the heart of their traditional territory.

“We have filed this court case because our repeated requests for a proper and respectful dialogue with Canada and Westbank have been completely ignored, and we believe that that the Sinixt people have a right to be consulted about such an important development in their traditional territory in British Columbia,” Dr. Michael E. Marchand, Chairman of the Tribes, said in a news release last week.

“Consultation is required by Canadian law and policy and to date those laws and policies are not being respected”.

The CCT represents about 10,000 people in 12 tribes, including about 3600 members of the Sinixt, a First Nation declared extinct in Canada by Ottawa in the late 1950s. Members of the First Nation dispute that status, and say its members still live in the Arrow Lakes and Slocan area.

The Canadian government is planning to transfer about 4.6-acres (1.9 hectares) on the shores of Arrow Lake, just north of Fauquier, to the Westbank First Nation. It received the land as part of a land-swap that allowed highway development through Westbank’s land in West Kelowna.

Fauquier is a tiny settlement about 60 kilometres south of Nakusp.

The Westbank First Nation says it also has traditional claims in the area, and their action doesn’t affect or limit Sinixt rights in the territory.

In their court submission, the Colville Tribes says Ottawa has ignored multiple written and oral requests for consultation with the Sinixt people.

“The duty to consult is grounded in the honor of the Crown, and the Crown is not living up to that solemn obligation by refusing to acknowledge the court rulings which have held that the Sinixt are not extinct and have aboriginal rights in Canada”, Marchand said, “The area around Fauquier has been described as the “headquarters” of the Sinixt, and we will not stand by and allow the Canadian government to create a reserve for another First Nation without appropriate consultation.”

The Sinixt have seen some success recently in re-establishing their traditional rights in the Arrow Lakes and Slocan areas.

In March 2017, a judge in Nelson ruled in favour of Sinixt traditional hunting rights in R. v. Desautel. She acquitted Richard Desautel of charges under the provincial Wildlife Act on the basis that, as a sn̓ʕay̓ckstx or Arrow Lakes person, he had established an aboriginal right to hunt in the area.

A Crown appeal from that acquittal was dismissed in late 2017, but the province is appealing that decision to the B.C. Court of Appeal.