Nine First Nations applied for judicial review of the Western oil pipeline
Nine First Nations have applied for judicial review before the Federal Court against the Canadian government’s approval of Pacific Link, a crude oil pipeline and tankers project from Bruderheim, Alberta, to British Columbia’s southern coast, under Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act (BCA).
Based on their inherent title and rights, these First Nations launched legal challenges: Boston Bar First Nation, Cheam First Nation, Lower Nicola Indian Band, Kwantlen First Nation, kʷikʷəƛəm (Kwikwetlem) First Nation, Skeetchestn Indian Band, St'át'imc Nation, Tsartlip First Nation, and T’Sou-ke First Nation.
The applicants asked the Federal Court to:
- Declare that Canada had breached its duty to consult them before listing the project as a “project of national interest” under the BCA
- Quash the listing decision
- Declare that Canada’s consultations should respect the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Chiefs’ claims
According to a media release from the St’át’imc Chiefs Council, the chiefs asserted that the federal government listed Pacific Link as a “national interest” project:
- in an unlawful and unconstitutional manner
- through an insufficient and rushed process
- in breach of its duty to consult
- without an impact assessment
“The threat of an oil spill affecting Fraser River salmon, our fishing rights and our way of being, is heinous,” said Kukpi7 Justin Kane, SCC chair. “Yet this project was approved under the BCA without any impact assessment at all, and without any consultation with the St’át’imc Nation as a whole.”
The chiefs alleged that the listing decision:
- legally shifted any future consultation to “how” Pacific Link would move forward, not “whether” it should
- meant that the project was “deemed” to have satisfied all legal requirements for its approval under the Fisheries Act, 1985, the Species at Risk Act, 2002, and other federal environmental legislation, regardless of the actual consequences on fish and fishing rights
Pipeline project impacts
According to the St’át’imc Chiefs Council, last September, the Canadian government wholly deleted pipelines from the list of projects that should undergo assessment under the Impact Assessment Act, 2019.
In the media release, the chiefs emphasized Pacific Link’s possibly devastating effects on:
- Fraser River wild salmon, upon which their title, rights, culture, food sovereignty, and traditions depended
- many First Nations’ inherent fishing rights across the Fraser Watershed and the salmon’s ocean migration routes
“The collusion of the federal and provincial governments along with a few industry and corporate elites, who cloak themselves as economic saviours, will force First Nations further into third-world conditions contributed to by the extinction of the Fraser River wild salmon and the collapse of First Nations’ culture and traditions relating to wild salmon,” said Kukwpi7 Art Adolph, St’át’imc elder.
Fraser Watershed project risks
“This plan to transport another million barrels of crude oil a day through the watershed is extremely risky,” said Kukpi7 Bonnie Adolph. “The health of Fraser River salmon has only worsened over the past two decades.”
In 2010, the St’át’imc found the risk of a Fraser Watershed project too significant amid the cumulative impacts of development and climate change on Fraser River salmon.
The St’át’imc and other First Nations drafted and established the Save the Fraser Declaration, a prohibition under Indigenous law on tar sands oil pipelines from the Fraser Watershed and the salmon’s ocean migration routes.
Representatives from more than 100 First Nations signed the declaration.
More news stories on pipelines
Last May, three lawyers for Ecojustice authored a letter advising the federal government, its ministers, and Crown corporations of potential constitutional challenges in the event of new or expanded public financing or subsidies for a new oil pipeline or large-scale fossil fuel projects such as Ksi Lisims LNG and LNG Canada phase 2.
In September 2025, on behalf of a local resident and community groups, Ecojustice lawyers challenged the BC government’s decision to consider the Prince Rupert gas transmission fracked gas pipeline “substantially started” and to permit it to proceed based on a 2014 environmental assessment.
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