Recent Indigenous rights cases relevant to major project development – Torys LLP
February 6, 2026
Over the past year, Canadian courts have addressed novel aspects of Indigenous rights with implications for project development. Two key topics were addressed. First, courts have started to consider how the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and its principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) may modify the duty to consult and accommodate. Second, a BC court has found, for the first time, that a declaration of Aboriginal title is available in respect of privately held lands. But that decision was contradicted by a recent New Brunswick case, leaving private property rights that are subject to claims of Aboriginal title in an uncertain place.
