To the Nuu-chah-nulth Nations:
On behalf of the entire Nuu-chah-nulth Fisheries Litigation Team at Ratcliff and Company, we wish to congratulate you on today’s very significant win at the Supreme Court of Canada. As a result of today’s decision, your aboriginal rights to fish and sell fish are affirmed and fully protected by the Constitution of Canada. The constitutional protection and the final decision from Canada’s highest court means that no court or government can take your rights away.
This decision represents the broadest aboriginal rights success in Canadian history. No other First Nation has established an aboriginal right to commercially fish a full range (or almost full range) of fisheries resources available in your territories. The decision that was confirmed today recognizes the long history of Nuu-chah-nulth as a fishing people and affirms that your fishing culture has a proper and prioritized place in Canada’s modern fishing economy. It is very much to your credit to have relentlessly pursued this case through a lot of barriers and uncertainties, and the win is well deserved.
Related Stort: http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2014-01-30/nuu-chah-nulth-fishing-rights-upheld-supreme-court
It has been a great privilege for us to work on this case for you and with you, and to be part of such a monumental event in Nuu-chah-nulth’s history. Congratulations!
John Rich
Matthew Kirchner
Lisa Glowacki
Kate Blomfield
Kevin Lee
