Canadian Supreme Court Ruling a ‘Game-Changer’ for First Nations, and for Resource Development

A unanimous Supreme Court ruling granting the Tsilhqot’in First Nation title to 1,700 square kilometres of traditional land outside its reserve “is not only a game-changer for many Aboriginal communities across the country, but also for the government and the resource industries,” Hildebrandt reports. “It means that if you’re a miner or a forester or a B.C. hydro transmission company or a pipeliner, that the legal landscape … has shifted,” former treaty rights negotiator Bill Gallagher told the CBC. The “most disadvantaged communities in the country” have been “massively empowered” by the ruling, and “their expectations have just increased exponentially.”