Court upholds aboriginal fishery rights

The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled that the native-only commercial fishery on the West Coast does not violate the constitutional rights of non-aboriginal fishermen.

The federal government has allowed aboriginal-only commercial fisheries for more than a decade on the Fraser and other B.C. rivers.

The non-aboriginal fishermen have argued for years that the separate fisheries amount to racial segregation of the industry and give an economic advantage to First Nations groups.

They had gone to court appealing an B.C. Supreme Court ruling that stemmed from a protest fishery in 1998 claiming the controversial fishery violates their constitutional rights. But the B.C. Court of Appeal disagreed Thursday.

• LINK: B.C. Court of Appeal decision

The head of the B.C. Fisheries Survival Coalition, the group that has led the fight against the separate fishery, said the judges wouldn't have allowed a similar situation in the judicial system.

"Certainly if these judges had been faced with a similar program in their workplace, where on Monday only judges who were Musqueam and Tsawwassen were allowed to work, I know this program would have been struck down in a second," said Phil Eidsvik.

He said the coalition will seek leave to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court of Canada. In the meantime, he hopes the new Conservative fisheries minister uses his power to cancel the Liberal government-created program.

However, Chief Ed John of the First Nations Summit is urging Ottawa to allow the aboriginal-only fishery to go ahead this summer.