Canada: Ancestral hunting rights of the Sinixt nation recognised
Reading time: 1 minute
Canada’s top court has ruled that the US-based Sinixt nation’s ancestral land rights survived the migration of their members south in the 19th century, the National Post reports.
The court found for Rick Desautel, a descendent of the Sinixt who lives in Washington state. He was charged in 2010 with hunting without a licence on the Sinixt lands in British Columbia.
Prosecutors argued that while Indigenous people have the right to hunt in their traditional lands, the Sinixt were declared extinct in 1956 because they had died or were not living in Canada, and therefore Mr Desautel enjoyed no hunting rights.
The Supreme Court, however, agreed with the inferior courts and dismissed the federal appeal, ruling that a nation only had to prove ties to the land before first contact with the Europeans. They did not have to make consistent use of that land.
Judges said refusing Indigenous people their rights “would risk perpetuating the historical injustice suffered by Aboriginal peoples at the hands of Europeans”.
Share this article:
Subscribe to our newsletter to not miss articles like this one:
SUBSCRIBE
