The Beaver Lake Cree Nation’s legal challenge

When the ancestors of the Beaver Lake Cree signed Treaty 6 with Canada in 1876, they ceded vast tracts of land in exchange for guaranteed rights to hunt, fish and gather plants and medicines within those territories, as they had always done, forever. In recent years, the large-scale deforestation, wildlife disturbance and pollution resulting from tar sands developments have been eroding these treaty rights and now threaten the Beaver Lake Cree’s traditional way of life.

The Beaver Lake Cree say that in order for their treaty rights to have meaning, the habitats of the wildlife upon which they depend must be protected throughout their ancient homeland. They have therefore brought a legal challenge to force Alberta and Canada to keep their promises and to protect the ecological integrity of these lands.

On the 14th May 2008, the Beaver Lake Cree filed papers in the Edmonton Registry aimed at halting the wholesale destruction of their ancestral lands. The legal challenge cites 17,000 infringements of the Beaver Lake Cree’s constitutionally protected treaty rights and as part of the challenge they will be seeking injunctions against new developments.

This legal challenge could have huge implications for Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Total, all of which have tar sands developments or plans for developments within the Beaver Lake Cree’s ancestral lands. Shell’s Orion Hilda Lake tar sands project is within the area potentially affected and currently produces 10,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), with approval for growth to 20,000 barrels during 2009 and potential to produce 40,000 bpd. BP announced in early 2009 that it had started evaluating its Kirby tar sands leases in the area, which could support production of up to 70,000 bpd. Other tar sands developments, which could be impacted by the legal challenge, include: ExxonMobil’s Cold Lake project currently producing 150,000 bpd, with plans to increase production to 180,000 bpd; the Christina Lake and Foster Creek projects in which ConocoPhillips has a fifty per cent stake and currently produce 50,000 bpd, with plans to increase this to 400,000 by 2015; and ConocoPhillips and Total’s joint Surmont project which currently produces 27,000 bpd and has plans to expand to 193,000 bpd.

The Beaver Lake Cree Nation’s legal counsel is Jack Woodward, one of Canada’s principle authorities on Aboriginal law, with a track record of winning such cases. Jack has been the lead lawyer on some of the most groundbreaking First Nation’s rights cases in Canada. This includes, for example, the Meares Island case where the British Columbia court granted an injunction stopping the logging of old growth forest on the basis of an Aboriginal right – an injunction still in place today. More recently, Woodward and Company won the Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia and Canada suit. This case laid the groundwork for the Beaver Lake Cree Nation case. It says that lands and forests must be developed in a way that gives primacy to the sustainability of First Nation’s rights.

Support the Beaver Lake Cree and help stop a potential climate and local ecological disaster:

• Donate to the Beaver Lake Cree– a charitable trust has been set up to support their legal challenge to stop further tar sands expansion
• Spread the word – tell your friends, family and colleagues to join this campaign and support the Beaver Lake Cree
• See the destruction for yourself - and how tar sands developments are destroying the Beaver Lake Cree’s traditional lands.