VANCOUVER – A challenge of the landmark Nisga’a Treaty by individuals inside the Nisga’a nation has been dashed by the B.C. Supreme Court.
The constitutional challenge of the 12-year-old treaty was mounted by a group led by James Robinson, also known as Chief Mountain.
The group’s lawyer claimed the treaty allowed for a third tier of government, giving Nisga’a lawmaking and self-government powers that didn’t comply with the Canadian Constitution.
But Justice Lynn Smith dismissed that argument, ruling any government powers of the Nisga’a First Nation are protected under the 1982 Constitutional Act.
Smith also dismissed claims the Nisga’a could start up their own court, calling the argument “wholly hypothetical.”
The Nisga’a final agreement was British Columbia’s first modern-day treaty and took decades of negotiations before it was signed in 1999 by the Nisga’a and the federal and provincial governments.
Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver
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