Canada indigenous people appeal seismic testing case to Supreme Court News
Canada indigenous people appeal seismic testing case to Supreme Court

[JURIST] Canadian indigenous people, including Inuits of Nunavut and the Chippewa, were granted an appeal [docket] to the Supreme Court of Canada [official website] earlier this month, challenging the use of seismic testing to find natural gas under the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. Lead by Jerry Natanine, the former mayor of Clyde River in Nunavut, the Canadian natives contend that they were not adequately consulted before the National Energy Board (NEB) [official website] granted a Norwegian consortium permission to test. Under the Constitution [text], the Canadian government has an obligation to consult [backgrounder] indigenous peoples when taking action that may adversely affect them. The indigenous people fear that the testing, which is described as “about 100,000 times louder than a jet engine,” will drive away native species the Inuit rely upon. A hearing date has yet to be set, but if nothing is done before the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay waters thaw, the consortium will be permitted to go ahead with testing until the Court makes a decision.

The rights of indigenous peoples is a controversial topic in North America. Last month, a New Mexico federal judge approved [JURIST report] an almost $1 billion settlement between the Obama administration and Native American tribes based on claims that the US government had for decades underfunded contract costs for tribes to manage federal services. In 2012 UN Special Rapporteur on Rights of Indigenous People James Anaya visited [JURIST report] the US in order to launch the UN’s first ever investigation into the rights situation of Native Americans. The US endorsed the Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2010, after being one of four member states originally opposed to the treaty when it was adopted by the UN [JURIST reports] in 2007. The other countries opposed to it, Canada, New Zealand and Australia [JURIST reports], have all also changed their views and have since endorsed the treaty. This non-binding treaty outlines the human rights issues faced by the more than 370 million indigenous people throughout the world and encourages nations not to discriminate against them. The declaration was debated for more than two decades before it was passed.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.