A group of Southeast Alaska tribes filed for a judicial review Nov. 19 over several transboundary mining projects in British Columbia.
The judicial review asks the British Columbia Supreme Court to require the province to consult with Alaska tribes on mining projects in the Taku, Stikine and Unuk watersheds.
The group, Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, represents 14 Alaska Native tribes that depend on those rivers and are downstream from the mines. Guy Archibald, the commission’s executive director, said these mining projects are massive and would leave industrial-scale impacts. He said they’d affect watersheds on both sides of the border.
“It’s not the two different countries anymore than it’s two different rivers or two different watersheds,” he said. “It’s industrial mining, wherever it’s at.”
The judicial review request came after the Southeast Alaska tribes and environmental groups sent about 30,000 messages to B.C. lawmakers. They called for a halt to mining projects that affect rivers shared by Alaska and Canada.
John Gailus, a lawyer with Cascadia Legal in Victoria, B.C. represents the tribes.
“We’re seeking procedural rights, and one of those procedural rights is consultation before decisions are made that could irreparably harm the substantive rights,” he said.
Substantive law establishes what is right and not right. Procedural rights, on the other hand, outlines the rules that everyone must follow.
The tribal commission wishes to enforce those outlines so the province consults Alaska tribes too. Gailus said right now, it’s more of a one-way flow of information from the province.
He said, “I think the tribes are looking for a seat at that table, not bored; not sitting over at the kids table.”
Gailus said B.C. abruptly ended evaluating extensive ethnographic evidence in 2024 after SEITC submitted historical and ongoing tribal ties to the watersheds. Just three years prior, the Canadian Supreme Court found that U.S. tribes may have Aboriginal rights in the case R versus Desautel. SEITC is relying on this case to base their challenge on.
British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment Office said in an email that, “the B.C. government takes its obligations to consult with First Nations who may be impacted by a proposed project very seriously –including with tribes in the U.S.”
But they said that’s if there is a credible assertion of Aboriginal rights under the Canadian Constitution with the U.S. tribes. The office said they were unable to provide further comment due to the matter being litigated.
Gailus said the B.C. government is not fulfilling that duty.
He said they’re pushing for an early court date, but B.C. courts are backed up. He said if delays are significant, they’ll call for an injunction.