Case information

Aboriginal law — Aboriginal title — Aboriginal rights — First Aboriginal group advancing rights and title claims against Crown — Second Aboriginal group seeking to join first action as defendant and advance third party claim of rights and title against Crown within same territory — Case management judge granting standing to Chief of second group, ordering joinder of second group as defendant in first group’s action, and permitting it to file third party claim — Court of Appeal varying first judge’s decision and setting aside order permitting third party claim.

Civil procedure — Third party claim — Whether competing Aboriginal claims with respect to same territory should presumptively be dealt with in same proceeding where third party claim is at issue — Whether chambers judge’s order granting second Aboriginal group permission to file third party claim should be restored — Supreme Court Civil Rules, BC Reg. 168/2009, rr. 3-5(1), 22-5(1).

Civil procedure — Parties — Standing — Joinder — Whether second Aboriginal group has standing to be joined as defendant in first group’s action — Whether second group entitled to be joined as a defendant, based on criteria of necessity, direct interest, and whether it is just and convenient to do so — Whether second group’s application for standing and joinder constitutes abuse of process — Supreme Court Civil Rules, BC Reg. 168/2009, rr. 6-2(7)(b) and (c).

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

The respondent Gitanyow Nation asserts Aboriginal rights and title over certain lands in British Columbia, and has advanced claims against the federal and provincial Crown. Another group with claims to Aboriginal rights and title which, it alleges, overlap with those of the Gitanyow in the same territory, the Tsetsaut/Skii km Lax Ha Nation (the “TSKLH Nation”), sought to be added as a defendant in the Gitanyow litigation and to be permitted to file a third party claim against the Crown, to advance its own claim for Aboriginal rights and title over part of the same territory. The Hereditary Chief of the TSKLH Nation, the appellant, Darlene Simpson, also known as “Skii km Lax Ha”, also sought to be granted standing in the litigation.

A case management judge at the Supreme Court of British Columbia allowed the requested relief, granting standing to Darlene Simpson and ordering that the TSKLH Nation be added as a defendant and be permitted to file a third party claim against the Crown. A unanimous panel of the Court of Appeal allowed the Gitanyow Nation’s appeal, in part; it upheld the orders granting standing to Darlene Simpson and adding the TSKLH Nation as a defendant in the Gitanyow litigation; but it set aside the order permitting the TSKLH Nation to file its own third party claim.