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David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
Replying to @DavidRayAmos @FloryGoncalves and 49 others
Methinks Mr Higgs and everybody else knows what a joke the sneaky lawyer John Logan is to me N'esy Pas?
https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2019/10/top-legal-official-contradicts-higgs-on.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/blaine-higgs-duty-to-consult-requirements-first-nations-1.5316947
Top legal official contradicts Higgs on duty to consult to First Nations
Deputy attorney-general says 'the duty to consult is quite clear' after premier called it vague
· CBC News · Posted: Oct 11, 2019 5:00 AM AT
Premier Blaine Higgs said earlier this year the legal requirement for Indigenous consultations on resource projects was vague. (CBC)
The top official in charge of the province's legal battles has contradicted Premier Blaine Higgs on the duty to consult Indigenous people on resource projects.
Earlier this year, Higgs expressed frustration over the legal requirement for consultations, calling it vague.
But John Logan, the deputy attorney-general, told the legislature's Public Accounts committee on Thursday that "the duty to consult is quite clear."
He was responding to a question from Progressive Conservative MLA Stewart Fairgrieve, who said he attended a parliamentary conference in western Canada that featured discussions about how the requirement is "ambiguous" and "confusing."
"With respect, I would disagree with you," said Logan, an experienced lawyer whose non-partisan role is to oversee the Office of the Attorney General. Its lawyers represent the government in most court cases.
John Logan, the deputy attorney-general, told the legislature’s Public Accounts committee on Thursday that 'the duty to consult is quite clear.' The statement contradicts that of Blaine Higgs, who said the issue is vague. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
"The duty to consult is established over the course of decades of case law, but it's quite clearly articulated."
Logan said the duty to consult can be applied differently in different parts of the country, depending on whether there are treaties with Indigenous nations.
And he said there is also a "sliding scale" to the obligation, depending on an assessment of how much a government action would infringe on treaty or title rights.
Several Indigenous leaders condemned that decision, which they said happened without any consultations.
In the legislature, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jake Stewart said consultations weren't needed until after the cabinet decision. "We didn't even have a regulation until now so there was nothing to talk about," he said.
In his speech at annual national meeting of the Assembly of First Nations, Premier Blaine Higgs repeated his view that the duty to consult Indigenous people on resource projects, a legal obligation upheld by several Supreme Court of Canada decisions, remains vague and undefined. (CBC)
But Higgs said in a speech at the national conference of the Assembly of First Nations in Fredericton in July that the government didn't have "a clear understanding of just what consultation means."
He told reporters at the conference, "It's not well-defined so you don't know when you're done, and the timelines to achieve it. No one is arguing the point of going through the process. It's just, let's understand what the process is."
Fracking expansion plan halted
In August, Corridor Resources said it was putting on hold its search for investors for an expansion of its operations in Sussex. It said the province wasn't able to consider its application to lift the moratorium pending Indigenous consultations.
Corridor had extracted natural gas in the area since 1999 but suspended fracking after the previous Liberal government imposed the moratorium in 2016.
Logan told the committee that there's been a lot of public discussion "as to what we have to do as a minimum, what we should be doing as a norm, what we should be doing if we really want to build a relationship that we need to build with the Indigenous communities."
Corridor Resources, which had plans for hydraulic fracturing near Sussex, said in August it will spend its money outside New Brunswick. (Pierre Fournier/CBC)
The province's policy on the duty to consult, available online, says the obligation exists "when the Crown is considering an action or decision that may adversely affect Aboriginal and treaty rights" under Section 35 of the Constitution.
That includes the creation or implementation of regulations and policies that could "negatively impact the traditional use of Crown land and resources or the way a right is exercised."
The five-page document says First Nations are also expected to participate in consultations in good faith.
Higgs complained in July that Wolastoqi chiefs that had signed an accommodation agreement with the province in 2017 about the Sisson mine were still saying they were against the project. He suggested they should return the $3 million they received from the province.
Chief Patricia Bernard of Madawaska Maliseet First Nation said in July that agreeing to not challenge the mine in court was not the same thing as consenting to it, and did not limit her ability to say she didn't like the project.
43 Comments
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David Raymond Amos
Methinks Mr Higgs and everybody else knows what a joke the sneaky lawyer John Logan is to me N'esy Pas?
N.B. owes bank $50 million for Atcon
CBC News · Posted: Mar 15, 2010 3:51 PM AT
A lawyer for the New Brunswick government says the province will have to pay Scotiabank $50 million and then seek repayment as a creditor of the Atcon group of companies.
Under the terms of a loan guarantee to Atcon, the government will pay the bank as early as this week, John Logan told the Court of Queen's Bench in Miramichi on Monday.
A court-appointed monitor was also expected to report to the court Monday on ways to restructure the Miramichi-based company or sell assets.
Five Atcon companies were placed into receivership on March 1, while another five were placed under creditor protection.
Atcon owes creditors about $250 million.
The company's main lender, Scotiabank, called in its loans on Feb. 25.
Last year, the New Brunswick government extended three different loan guarantees to Atcon worth a combined $50 million.
N.B. owes bank $50 million for Atcon
CBC News · Posted: Mar 15, 2010 3:51 PM AT
A lawyer for the New Brunswick government says the province will have to pay Scotiabank $50 million and then seek repayment as a creditor of the Atcon group of companies.
Under the terms of a loan guarantee to Atcon, the government will pay the bank as early as this week, John Logan told the Court of Queen's Bench in Miramichi on Monday.
A court-appointed monitor was also expected to report to the court Monday on ways to restructure the Miramichi-based company or sell assets.
Five Atcon companies were placed into receivership on March 1, while another five were placed under creditor protection.
Atcon owes creditors about $250 million.
The company's main lender, Scotiabank, called in its loans on Feb. 25.
Last year, the New Brunswick government extended three different loan guarantees to Atcon worth a combined $50 million.
Sally Ride
The CBC loves to stir the pot.
David Raymond Amos
Reply to @Sally Ride: Yea but methinks its only when it embarrasses conservatives N'esy Pas?
Michel Jones
Reply to @Sally Ride: They are left leaning period.
Les Cooper
Sounds like Higgs has an incompetent advisor and wasn't given the proper info from Jake Stewart?
David Raymond Amos
Reply to @Les Cooper: Methinks Mr Higgs has the best advisers the Irving Clan can provide N'esy Pas?
Mac Isaac
I
think it's pretty CLEAR how Mr. Higgs sees this consultation thing...if
he doesn't understand it, that means Consultations are vague. I'm
sorry, Mr. Higgs but that sounds dangerously like something DJT would
say. If a premier doesn't understand something it's up to that premier
to get the experts to explain it to him/her. Until he DOES understand a
policy neither he nor his/her government should state a policy nor act
on faulty understanding. That, Mr. Higgs, is just one of the reasons you
have those experts employed in government departments. David Raymond Amos
Reply to @Mac Isaac: Its not rocket science
Terry Tibbs
Reply to @David Raymond Amos:
But he could be "special needs".
But he could be "special needs".
Paul Bourgoin
I don't understand what is not clear in this consultation process or is it just a stalling TACTIC! Who has the authority as if our Indigenous consultations on resource projects was vague. Who is stalling? Deputy attorney-general says 'the duty to consult is quite clear!
Paul Bourgoin
Reply to Jacques Poitras: Who do you represent on the censuring CBC Committee?
David Raymond Amos
Reply to @Paul Bourgoin: Let me know when you get an answer will ya?
Terry Tibbs
A little hard to play the confused old man card now eh Blaine?David Raymond Amos
Reply to @Terry Tibbs: FYI I still don't have my drivers license either
Terry Tibbs
Reply to @David Raymond Amos:
I feel for you buddy. The driver's licence is the tough one to get at no ServiceNB, once you have that, and a vehicle registered, your health card is clear sailing.
I feel for you buddy. The driver's licence is the tough one to get at no ServiceNB, once you have that, and a vehicle registered, your health card is clear sailing.
Terry Tibbs
Reply to @David Raymond Amos:
Maybe declare yourself a Syrian?
Maybe declare yourself a Syrian?
Marguerite Deschamps
Like Harper before, the CONservatives are like Trump in the US; they flaunt the law. Harper has been rebuked many times by the Supreme Court of Canada with his illegal laws. Either that or they have no clue about the law.
David Raymond Amos
Reply to @Marguerite
Deschamps: You SANB dudes can cry me a river right after you explain why
the RCMP are not investigating Trudeau the Younger until after the
election
Keith Newcastle
Reply to @Marguerite Deschamps: "they flaunt the law" LOL
Michel Jones
Reply to @Marguerite
Deschamps: You sound tired Marguerite, the Supreme Court exist to
clarify issues one way or another, not because somebody broke the law.
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