Injunction against Sinixt protest overturned by Vancouver court

By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily

An injunction to prevent the Sinixt Nation from protesting logging on Perry Ridge in the Slocan Valley has been denied by the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver late Friday.

Kaslo’s Sunshine Logging appeared before the court Nov. 5 on “a short leave injunction application to have the blockage removed,” while the Sinixt appeared with counsel in Vancouver to resist the application. 

Mr. Justice Bowden denied Sunshine's application at 4 p.m. on the basis that it would "pre-empt" the hearing of the Sinixt's constitutional challenge to the logging licence, said Sinixt lawyer David Aaron.

The hearing, scheduled to proceed in Vancouver Court Nov. 15, is on the Sinixt application for interim relief — set out in a Nov. 4 letter filed by Sinixt counsel for a judicial review.

The Sinixt had requested a stay on the timber sale licence awarded to Sunshine by BC Timber Sales for the right to log the forest on Perry Ridge, in the southern end of the valley.

They are contending the one question BC Timber Sales forgot in their due diligence was to ask the Sinixt Nation what they thought of issuing a timber sale licence for the parcel of land.

Two weeks ago the Sinixt established and occupied a “protest camp” obstructing access to the Perry Ridge Forest Service Road. The Sinixt are contending the Crown failed to do its duty to consult the Sinixt Nation in the course of issuing Timber Sale Licence A80073 to Sunshine Logging, said Aaron.

The duty to consult First Nations on a timber sale licence arises when the Crown has knowledge of a potential Aboriginal claim or right on the land, he said.

Although the Sinixt case for rights and claims is still before the court to have their “extinct” status lifted with the federal government, the issue on Perry Ridge is not about extinct status but on the duty to consult aboriginal people, said Aaron.