The ''Paulette'' Case refers to the filing of a legal caveat concerning the different interpretations of

Treaty 8 Treaty 8, which concluded with the June 21, 1899 signing by representatives of the Crown and various First Nations of the Lesser Slave Lake area, is the most comprehensive of the one of eleven Numbered Treaties. The agreement encompassed a ...

and

Treaty 11 ''Treaty 11'', the last of the Numbered Treaties, was an agreement established between 1921 and 1922 between King George V and various First Nation band governments in what is today the Northwest Territories. Henry Anthony Conroy was appoint ...

between the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

and the Denesoline in the Northwest Territories (NWT). In 1973, Fort Smith Chief Francois Paulette, along with sixteen NWT chiefs, attempted to file a caveat in

Yellowknife Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...

, Northwest Territories, to gain a legal interest in of land in the Northwest Territories. The chiefs claimed the land, by virtue of their

aboriginal rights Indigenous rights are those rights that exist in recognition of the specific condition of the Indigenous peoples. This includes not only the most basic human rights of physical survival and integrity, but also the rights over their land (inc ...

, and sought to prevent the construction of the proposed

Mackenzie Valley Pipeline The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, also called the Mackenzie River Pipeline, was a proposed project to transport natural gas from the Beaufort Sea through Canada's Northwest Territories to tie into gas pipelines in northern Alberta. The project wa ...

. The territorial government referred the caveat to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories. Justice William Morrow, the only sitting judge of that court at the time, held a six-week hearing process to establish whether signatories of Treaty 8 and Treaty 11 had fully understood the meaning of the treaties they had signed in 1900 and 1921 respectively. Hearings were held in a number of communities in the Northwest Territories (some only accessible by plane), with some hearings being held in informal settings. Many witnesses testified that the Denesoline signatories did not believe that Treaty 8 and Treaty 11 extinguished their Aboriginal rights to the land and that the treaties were unfulfilled. Justice Morrow agreed with these witnesses and ruled that the chiefs had established a case for claiming Aboriginal rights sufficiently to warrant the filing of a caveat. Although the ability to register the caveat was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada, Justice Morrow's findings in respect to Aboriginal rights were not overturned. The ''Paulette'' case resulted in the initiation of the Dene/Metis comprehensive land claim process. The ''Paulette'' and ''Calder'' cases prompted the Government of Canada to hold public hearings on the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline (hearings that become known as the Berger Inquiry).

External links

Morrow's 59-page ruling

References

First Nations history Aboriginal title case law in Canada History of the Northwest Territories Dene 1973 in Canadian case law Natural gas pipelines in Canada Indigenous peoples and the environment Treaty law {{Canada-law-stub