The Wednesday news briefing: An at-a-glance survey of some top stories
Highlights from the news file for Wednesday, July 26
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COURT QUASHES SEISMIC TESTING AT CLYDE RIVER: The Inuit Hamlet of Clyde River won a nearly six-year battle Wednesday to stop seismic testing in the Arctic that could kill or maim the marine mammals upon which they rely for food and jobs. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled the National Energy Board failed miserably at properly consulting Inuit and didn’t adequately assess the impact on treaty and Indigenous rights of the proposed oil and gas exploration project before approving it in 2014. The court quashed the NEB’s approval, meaning the testing cannot proceed. In a separate but related decision, the court upheld the approval granted to Enbridge to reverse the flow and increase capacity of its Line 9 pipeline between Ontario and Quebec. In that case, also a unanimous decision, the court found the NEB properly consulted the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation in southwestern Ontario. In both cases, the court upheld that the NEB is capable and allowed to fulfil the Crown’s duty to consult Indigenous groups about development projects in their traditional territories, as long as that consultation is robust.
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