The Gitxaała Nation filed a lawsuit alleging the Canadian and B.C. governments, along with the Prince Rupert Port Authority, failed to properly recognize its historic presence and land title at Canada's third-largest port. The First Nation cites archeological evidence and oral histories demonstrating continuous occupation of the area, challenging government studies and claiming they suffered economic losses due to the lack of consultation.
A B.C. First Nation has sued multiple levels of government and a port authority in a lawsuit that seeks damages and recognition of land title over Canada ’s third-largest port.
Elected Chief Councillor of Gitxaała Nation Lou Ga Gwelks said that to date, the consultation process has been like a “box-ticking exercise” used to “clear the way to development and resource extraction.” Lawsuit alleges other First Nations favoured despite lack of historical claim Located on the shortest Pacific shipping route linking East Asia with North America, the port of Prince Rupert is 36 hours closer to Shanghai than Vancouver.
In the intervening years, the port authority and federal government undertook ethnographic reports assessing Indigenous occupation of the area. The court document claims those studies were never disclosed to the Gitxaala until years later. They claim the groups abandoned the area around the port of Prince Rupert in 1846 when the Hudson’s Bay Company established a post at Port Simpson. Metlakatla “did not in fact exist” before 1846, but came together from a number of other nations under the religious leadership of the Anglican missionary William Duncan.
Lawsuit seeks declarations and damages In contrast to government findings, a 2017 report commissioned by the Gixtaala found a “strong” claim to title around the Prince Rupert harbour area.
FIRST NATIONS LAND TITLE LAWSUIT PRINCE RUPERT CANADA
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