How the Blueberry ruling in B.C. is a gamechanger for the Site C dam, extractive industries and Indigenous Rights – The Narwhal

In a precedent-setting ruling, B.C.’s Supreme Court found the province guilty of breaching its obligations to Treaty Rights through decades of cumulative impacts. Now, the impact of that ruling is reverberating across the country

Nov. 1, 2021

When B.C. Supreme Court Justice Emily Burke served her ruling on a long-fought case between Blueberry River First Nations and the province in late June, unequivocally determining the B.C. government breached the Nations’ Treaty Rights by permitting and encouraging widespread resource extraction, she noted B.C.’s regulatory regime for industrial development is broken.

It was a precedent-setting decision — the first to find that cumulative impacts can add up to a breach of Treaty Rights — and it could have sweeping implications for oil, gas, forestry and hydroelectric development across Canada.

“You’ve got to hope that the decision is serving as a wake-up call for B.C. that structural systemic change is needed to address these issues,” Gavin Smith, lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, told The Narwhal in an interview.

Read More: https://thenarwhal.ca/blueberry-river-explainer-indigenous-rights-and-indigenous-rights/