The Territorial Basis of Métis Hunting Rights

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Case commented on: R v Hirsekorn, 2013 ABCA 242.

There is something special about the Cypress Hills area of southeast Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan. I remember my first visit to this beautiful area some twenty years ago and although I have not been back more than a handful of times since, the region still resonates vividly in my memory of landscapes and seascapes. The special nature of this region was also recognized by the aboriginal peoples of the plains long before colonial settlement although it was clearly contested territory as between Blackfeet peoples to the west and Cree peoples to the east. Indeed, as the record in this case amply demonstrates, the Cypress Hills was a place for visits and for forays but not a place to stay for a long time. And if this was true for the Blackfeet and Cree it was even more so for the Métis who could not safely stay in the area before the North West Mounted Police established a presence there in 1874.

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Obama Climate Change Speech Sets New Standard for Keystone Pipeline Debate

By: James Coleman

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Speech Commented On: Remarks by President Obama on Climate Change, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/25/remarks-president-climate-change

On June 25, President Obama unveiled a Climate Action Plan in a speech at Georgetown University (see here). This plan highlighted upcoming U.S. greenhouse gas standards for fossil-fuel power plants, directing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue new proposals for both new and existing power plants. But the speech is making the most news for an unexpected reference to the Keystone XL pipeline, which is designed to transport oil sands bitumen from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska.

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Safe Sites for Illegal Drug Consumption: In Need of Insight

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Legislation / case commented on: Bill C-65, An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, First Session, Forty-first Parliament, 60-61-62 Elizabeth II, 2011-2012-2013 (“Respect for Communities Act”); Canada (AG) v PHS Community Services Society, 2011 SCC 44.

Last week I attended the Law on the Edge conference in Vancouver, which Jonnette Watson Hamilton recently blogged on. One of the highlights for me was a field trip led by UBC Professor Margot Young to visit Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection site for intravenous drug users. Insite was the subject of constitutional litigation that went to the Supreme Court of Canada (see Canada (AG) v PHS Community Services Society and previous ABlawg posts on the case here and here). In brief, the Supreme Court ordered the federal Minister of Health to extend Insite’s exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, SC 1996, c 19 (CDSA), on the basis that the refusal to do so violated Insite users’ section 7 Charter rights to life, liberty and security of the person in a manner that was arbitrary and grossly disproportionate in light of the government’s aims. In June 2013, the federal government introduced amendments to the CDSA in the so-called “Respect for Communities Act” that would make it more difficult for other communities to open safe injection sites. What does the Insite experience suggest in terms of the impact these amendments might have on other efforts to establish safe injection sites in Canada?

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Adapting and Using the Law in the Recovery from a Natural Disaster

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Law on the Edge panel discussion commented on: “Law at the Limits: A Canterbury Tale: Adapting and Using the Law in the Recovery from a Natural Disaster”

The Canadian Law & Society Association and the Law & Society Association of Australia & New Zealand held their first joint conference, “Law on the Edge,” from July 1 – 4 in Vancouver in Allard Hall, UBC Law’s spectacular home.  There were over 100 plenary and other panels and roughly 400 participants, mainly from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. One of the most interesting panel discussions that I attended was the “Law at the Limits: A Canterbury Tale: Adapting and Using the Law in the Recovery from a Natural Disaster” panel on July 2, with presentations by five professors from the School of Law at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Until this panel, I had not released the breadth of legal issues involved in recovering from natural disasters. The type of legal issues dealt with by panel members emphasized the systemic effects of natural disasters and recoveries, rather than the impact on individuals, such as the landlord/tenant, insurance, employment, credit/debt, mortgage, condo, and family issues being fielded by the volunteers with Calgary Legal Guidance, Pro Bono Law Alberta, Legal Aid Alberta, Pro Bono Students Canada and Student Legal Assistance in their Southern Alberta Flood Legal Help information and advice sessions. Nevertheless, the “Canterbury Tales” about price gouging, construction cartels, expropriation of condemned properties, unmediated discretion, volunteers’ liability, and other topics should be of broad interest to southern Albertans.

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Summary Judgement Ordered In Outstanding Coal Bed Methane Cases

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Case commented on: Encana Corporation v ARC Resources Ltd, 2013 ABQB 352.

Previous decisions of the Court of Queen’s Bench and the Court of Appeal (Encana Corporation v ARC Resources Ltd, 2011 ABQB 431, aff’d 2012 ABCA 271) gave summary judgement on many of the coalbed methane (CBM) cases that had been filed in the Alberta courts. Summary judgement was granted in these cases on the basis of an amendment to the Mines and Minerals Act, RSA 2000, c M-17 (now s10.1) adopted in 2010 which declared CBM “to be and at all times to have been natural gas”. See post here.

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