Even when a First Nations governing body has millions of dollars seemingly available, judges may still deem the funding of its legal fights a necessity
The Supreme Court of Canada has made it easier for First Nations to obtain court-ordered subsidies to help pay the costs of their legal challenges against government.
Beaver Lake, in northeastern Alberta, has not won funding yet; the Supreme Court sent the question of advance costs back to a lower court to reconsider, and required more detailed evidence. Even so, Karey Brooks, a lawyer for Beaver Lake, applauded the ruling and said the community is confident it can highlight its needs in enough detail, to prove it is “impecunious.”
Judges have inherent authority to make advance orders for costs, to protect access to justice in public-interest cases. Nearly two decades ago, the Supreme Court set down broad parameters for doing so: The group must be needy and the case must have merit and be of public importance. “Reconciliation requires a court to consider the pressing needs of a First Nation government applicant from its perspective as a government that sets its own priorities and is best situated to identify its needs,” Justice Russell Brown of Alberta and Justice Andromache Karakatsanis of Ontario wrote for the court.
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