Ashcroft Terminal Accused of Failing to Consult First Nations on Construction Plans and Archeology Concerns

In a response filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in May, Ashcroft Terminal claims to have consulted [la Première Nation] comprehensively about its construction plans as well as about its archeology concerns.

In April, the Bonaparte First Nation filed a civil lawsuit accusing the company and the provincial and federal governments of failing to consult.

The construction work, located about 200 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, also destroyed and disrupted ancestral burial sites, the First Nation alleges.

They started moving bodies around and destroying the land without really telling us that anything was going on.Kukpi7 chief Frank Antoine argued last month.

Court documents reveal that numerous human remains and artifacts were unearthed from the site. Archaeologists have spent dozens of hours at the rail terminal.

The company says it has never disturbed human remains without the involvement of the First Nation.

She also adds that she spent months negotiating a long-term agreement with the Aboriginal community, but that the latter stopped responding in November after receiving a draft agreement.

Ashcroft Terminal also refutes that the Bonaparte First Nation has ancestral rights to the lands of the railway terminal while the latter asserts that this place was the site of the former village of the community.

The site has passed through the hands of multiple owners since the mid-1860s without the indigenous community objecting to legal authorizations for expansion, the company argues. According to her, the lawsuit is an indirect attack against the many permits and subsidies that the company has for this terminal.

The Bonaparte First Nation requests that all construction activities cease until a consultation and accommodation process is concluded.

She is also seeking compensation for past violations of her right to consultation and accommodation.

None of the allegations have been proven in court. The First Nation is still awaiting responses from the provincial and federal governments.