An environmental activist and the Wolastoq Grand Council are appealing the court decision that dismissed their case against the Mount Carleton snowmobile hub project.
In September, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Richard Petrie ruled the council is not a recognized Indigenous body and therefore has no right to be consulted or to claim treaty rights in this case. He also ruled a judicial review is not the correct avenue for this kind of challenge.
The grand council and former park manager Jean Louis Deveau want to stop the $1.4 million project because they believe expanding existing trails and building a snowmobile-fuelling station threatens the last wilderness park in New Brunswick.
They also argue the project breaks the province’s own conservation regulation.
“As a traditional governance our mandate has always been to protect our lands, our waterways and the earth,” said Grand Chief Ron Tremblay.
The application submitted in October says Petrie made 12 errors. It says he didn’t recognize the council’s “public interest standing,” failed to address the issue of the park’s own regulations, and failed to consider how the project would impact the applicants’ religious freedom.
In a July 2015 announcement, the then-Liberal provincial government promised a snowmobile trail-grooming hub with 343 kilometres of re-groomed trails, plus a fuelling station, in Mount Carleton.
In August, council lawyer Gordon Allen used affidavits from language and history experts to explain how the snowmobile trails plan contravenes a Peace and Friendship Treaty from the 18th century. The treaty promises to protect Indigenous peoples’ rights to observe their religion.
We’ve always had to go to the Supreme Court to win our rights.– Ron Tremblay, Grand Chief
Allen said Mount Carleton, the last wilderness park in the province, is an essential space for Indigenous people to practise their traditional way of life.
“The judge misapprehended evidence of the interpretation of the treaty of 1725-26,” the appeal application says.
Deveau previously said the basis of their submission was also that the government failed to take into account the park’s own zoning plan developed in the 1980s, which prohibits snowmobiling in areas that now will be used for snowmobiling.
‘Colonial government systems’
Tremblay said just because the council is not recognized by the Indian Act doesn’t mean it’s not legitimate.
“The colonial government systems and the judicial systems don’t see … our views,” he said.
In his decision, the judge said this is a unique situation, where the applicant is a traditional governance structure. He said there were not a lot of previous decisions he could rely on when making his own.
Tremblay said Indigenous people have never won in lower-level courts in the provinces.
“We’ve always had to go to the Supreme Court to win our rights,” Tremblay said. “We don’t have the resources like [the provinces] do.”
The council has been funding this legal battle with crowdfunding donations and selling council merchandise.
Stéphanie Bilodeau, spokesperson for the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture, previously said a new trail bridge at the mouth of the Little Tobique River is complete.
She said construction of the storage shed and the fuel station is underway.
Tremblay said if they win the appeal and the review, he’d like to see the new developments removed.