Court sends a chill through the woods

PATRICK BRETHOUR, Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s forestry industry is about to find out who is really in charge of deciding what trees can be cut, and where. Hint: It isn’t the Ministry of Forests.
The Gitanyow First Nation has won a big legal victory in its six-year quest to exert control over forest licences being granted in what it sees as its territory – 1.7 million hectares in the province’s northwest. The decision from the B.C. Supreme Court is very clear that the Gitanyow don’t have a veto on forestry on those lands. Yup, no veto, none at all – just the ability to scupper the decisions of the Forestry Ministry if they clash with the positions of the band.