New Brunswick·NewLawyers for Wolastoqey Nation say just because the Crown gave away land, doesn’t extinguish their claim to it, including the hundreds of thousands of hectares they want returned from New Brunswick forestry companies.Indigenous rights lawyer says N.B. case will likely go to Supreme Court of CanadaCBC News · Posted: Jun 19, 2025 1:03 PM EDT | Last Updated: 24 minutes agoThe Wolastoqey Nation’s title claim over more than half of New Brunswick has been the subject of two days of arguments about whether land privately owned by forestry companies should be excluded from the litigation.The Wolastoqey say exclusion would amount to putting the property interests of private industry over the constitutional rights of the First Nation.The matter is before the New Brunswick Court of Appeal this week after a judgment last year that removed the industrial defendants from the lawsuit — including J.D. Irving, H.J. Crabbe and Acadian Timber.The three timber firms are appealing the lower court’s judgment. JDI has argued the title claim puts its privately owned land at risk, including more than 600,000 hectares. JDI says that land should be removed from the claim if the company cannot be in court to defend its interests. No decision about us, without us, say forestry companies Renée Pelletier, lawyer for the Wolastoqey, says just because the companies were removed from the lawsuit doesn’t mean their land can’t be touched. “If the effect is that once the Crown gives the land away it can never be returned to the First Nation, there’s an injustice there,” Pelletier said. “Because these are rights that are supposed to be constitutionally protected.”Pelletier said the claim is very clear. It seeks the return of the land owned by the industrial defendants — mainly the forestry companies. Pelletier said the claim was structured to ask the court, after a declaration of title, to decide which lands should be returned.The Wolastoqey title claim covers more than five million hectares the chiefs identify as Wolastoqey traditional lands, including land now owned by forestry companies and other industrial interests. (Submitted by Wolastoqey Nation of New Brunswick)Last year’s lower court decision by Justice Kathryn Gregory suggests a two-step process that would put negotiations about land return and other remedies, between the Crown and the Wolostaqey.”Maybe that means we don’t get all the land back,” Pelletier said. “It’s unclear what that means. There would be a negotiation between the Wolastoqey and the Crown to figure out what is the proper remedy.”The Court of Appeal is allowing some other interested parties to appear Thursday, including Elsipogtog First Nation and the other Mi’gmaw First Nations of New Brunswick. It’s not clear when the court will give its decision.
We want land returned, Wolastoqey say as they fight to keep forestry parcels in claim
