Wolastoqey executives are adding forest companies to the title claim case
Wolastoqey chiefs in New Brunswick are moving their case over Aboriginal title claims to pursue the province’s largest forestry companies in an attempt to regain ownership of much of their traditional territory.
The six executives have changed the legal claim they filed last year to add JD Irving Ltd. and its subsidiaries, Twin Rivers Paper, AV Group, Acadian Timber and HJ Crabbe and Sons.
They say the companies operate on about 20 percent of the more than five million acres that the chiefs identify as traditional Wolastoqey areas in New Brunswick.
“They are the largest landowners in New Brunswick and they have had a history of getting land from the province without paying a reasonable price for it,” Chief Patricia Bernard of the Wolastoqey Nation of Matawaskiye (Madawaska) said at a news conference.
“It’s our country that the province gave away for a song. We want back what’s ours, it was never theirs to give.”
The amendment of the lawsuit puts the lawsuit on two tracks, seeking compensation from governments for the loss of some parts of the territory, but requiring ownership of the parts used by the industry.
“Aboriginal title on the traditional lands … does not seek to displace ordinary New Brunswickers from their homes and farms,” the chiefs said in a press release.
But gaining a clear recognition of the ownership of land used by the industry would do Wolastoqey landlords and give them the final say in how companies harvest wood there. They would also be able to receive some or all of the royalties now going to the government.
A decision in favor of Wolastoqey Nation would allow forestry to continue, the release said, “as long as companies had an agreement with the nation on activities on their land.”
The chiefs say the case could take a decade or more to go through the courts, so it’s too early to say what kind of forest management system they could put in place if they win.
But they say it’s too late to get a share of the revenue from the harvest.
“These are our resources. They were never relinquished through the Treaty, and it is not us who generate wealth from them,” said Chief Ross Perley of Wolastoqey Nation at Neqotkuk, also known as Tobique First Nation.
“Businesses in the province have been accumulating wealth from our resources for the last hundred years. We feel it is our turn to get our share of the wealth and make our communities sustainable.”
NB Power is also mentioned in the claim – the only identified non-forestry industry player. In the case of the utility, Wolastoqey First Nations could claim revenue from its production and sale of electricity.
The new claim replaces the one submitted last year. The new version holds the federal and New Brunswick governments as accused.
Last month, the Higgs government ordered state employees to stop recognizing public land that the province sits on uninhabited and uninhabited original territory.
At the time, Advocate General Ted Flemming said the recognitions could compromise the province’s position in the land claim case, suggesting that Wolastoqiyik wanted to take back their entire traditional territory.
Bernard called it “clearly an attempt to deceive and create fear among the New Brunswickers.”
She said that is why the requirement has been changed to make it clear, “that the rights of everyday New Brunswickers will not be affected” by the requirement.
The claim is based on peace and friendship treaties signed by Wolastoqiyik and the British Crown between 1725 and 1778.
The chiefs say these agreements did not include the possibility of surrendering any land.
No comments: