NEWS RELEASE

Kitkatla Claim Fails

For Immediate Release

June 29, 2009.

Lax Kw’alaams, BC - The B.C. Court of Appeal issued an Order rejecting an application by the Gitxaala Indian Band (Kitkatla) challenging the territorial boundaries of the Lax Kw'alaams Band.

The decision came in the litigation, Lax Kw'alaams Indian Band v. Canada.  This case is presently before the Court of Appeal awaiting hearing in October.   In this matter, the Lax Kw'alaams have claimed aboriginal rights to fish for their own needs and for sale in order to sustain their communities. 

Suprisingly, Kitkatla intervened before the Court to argue that Lax Kw'alaams’ fishing rights should be narrowly confined to areas around the mouth of the Skeena River and to the north. The Lax Kw'alaams have provided abundant evidence that the Coast Tsimshian fishing territories of the Lax Kw'alaams and Metlakatla have always extended south to Porcher Island and mid-Grenville channel. Kitkatla, a small community that is a member of the Southern Tsimshian, has only recently attempted to extend its boundary claims further north.

The reserved decision of Mdm. Justice Kirkpatrick of the Court of Appeal was issued Friday. The application by Kitkatla was dismissed since such issues had not been raised at the trial. Kitkatla had full notice of the claims at trial from 2003, and did not object to the boundaries at that time.  The main appeal by Lax Kw’alaams will be allowed to proceed based upon the boundaries set forth by Lax Kw'alaams in the BC Supreme Court case (went to trial in 2006-2007).  Canada has not disputed the southern portions of the Lax Kw’alaams claim areas in the case and joined the Lax Kw’alaams in opposing the Kitkatla intervention on that issue.

Chief John Helin of Lax Kw'alaams stated: "We're pleased with the Court's decision. Kitkatla needs to recognize and accept its original boundaries. We respect our neighbours, but they need to be realistic about what their traditional boundaries have always been. Their efforts to fabricate new boundaries for political and economic gain are without foundation in fact or history. That Kitkatla should continue to make such incredible assertions is an embarrassment to the tradition of our true oral history.  We are pleased that this important court case will not be derailed by efforts to reinvent a history that never existed."

-- 30 –

For More Information contact:  John Helin, Chief Councillor, Lax Kw’alaams  

Telephone: (250) 625 3293 Cell: (604) 290 2901

To be removed from this mailing list please send a return email to the sending address.