Alberta Judge Rules Indigenous Consultation Must Occur Before Province Finishes Ignoring Indigenous People
O’Leary Digital’s effort to kill a First Nation’s legal challenge has failed after an Alberta judge ruled that “consultation” apparently requires more than informing Indigenous people which billionaires will be using their water.
Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is challenging whether Alberta fulfilled its duty to consult over a water licence connected to Kevin O’Leary’s proposed $70-billion Wonder Valley data centre.
O’Leary Digital tried to have the case struck, despite one inconvenient detail: the licence belongs to the MD of Greenview, not O’Leary Digital.
The ruling neither cancels the licence nor stops Wonder Valley. It simply permits the Nation to continue asking whether Alberta obeyed the law before helping facilitate another enormous resource project.
The province remains confident its consultation process works exactly as designed: Indigenous communities are consulted right after the government finishes deciding what’s going to happen to them.
SHARE ON:
