Legal victories no sure bet for native groups – The Globe and Mail

Jun. 24, 2015

Dwight Newman is professor of law and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Rights in Constitutional and International Law at the University of Saskatchewan, and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

This time last year, all eyes were on the Supreme Court of Canada and a landmark aboriginal title declaration. On June 26, 2014, the court granted aboriginal title to 1,900 square kilometres of land in central British Columbia to the Tsilhqot’in Nation. It was a historic legal victory for an aboriginal community that pursued its rights through the courts after negotiations broke down.

Some frame the Tsilhqot’in case as part of a narrative of a “legal winning streak” by aboriginal communities and have implied that victories will continue to pile up for them. The courts have recognized significantly expanded legal rights for aboriginal peoples, and this recognition is long overdue, but there are dangers to assuming that native communities are bound to keep winning in the courts.

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