According to Genevieve Guibert, AAND spokeswoman, the department is aware of the legal action filed by the George Gordon First Nation and will review the Statement of Claim once it is received.
"Our position will be outlined in our statement of defence, which will be filed with the court in due course," Guilbert said Wednesday. "As this is a legal matter it would be inappropriate to comment further."
The First Nation is suing the federal and provincial governments for $10 billion, claiming it is being "cheated out of" on potash and oil developments.
In the suit served on Tuesday, the First Nation alleges Canada and Saskatchewan improperly denied it access to billions of dollars worth of potash and oil and gas lands through misconduct by both levels of government during the George Gordon Treaty Land Entitlement Settlement Agreement process. The agreement was entered into by all three parties on Aug. 11, 2008.
"The general tenor of the lawsuit is that George Gordon First Nation, like many First Nations in Saskatchewan, are still owed land by Canada and Saskatchewan and before disposing of valuable oil and gas or potash lands to third parties . . . that there's an obligation on the governments to find out from the First Nations whether they are interested in acquiring those lands first, which they did not do," said Jeffrey R. W. Rath, an Alberta-based lawyer, who is representing the First Nation.
The province intends to fight the action.
"At this point, I can just say that we are confident in the province's constitutional authority to be able to manage and control the natural resources of the province, and we'll be defending the lawsuit vigorously," Linsay Rabyj, communications director at Saskatchewan Justice, said Tuesday.
Original Article
Source: Ottawa Citizen
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