Batchewana Chief Upset with Court Decision

It’s not the court decision Batchewana First Nation was looking for after a more than eight year legal process in which four of its members including Chief Dean Sayers were facing charges from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry for logging on crown land—Batchewana views the logging area in dispute as their traditional territory.
In Sault Ste. Marie court yesterday, a provincial court justice sided with the Crown in saying its is in the public interest that the charges under the Provincial Offences Act and the Crown Forest Sustainability Act be withdrawn.
Chief Sayers and the Batchewana First Nation see the withdrawl of the charges as a further stall tactic by the Crown and a lost opportunity to settle jurisdictional areas regarding treaty and aboriginal rights which they feel could have had enormous impacts for First Nations across the country.
The judge in his ruling suggested that he has no jurisdiction to settle treaty and aboriginal rights issues.
He awarded the defendants legal costs amounting to 390-thousand dollars.