First Nation sues port firm, governments for allegedly disrupting ancestral remains

A First Nation is suing the British Columbia andfederal governments and the company behind a railway terminal portin the province's southern Interior, claiming it wasn't property consultedabout the project it says has "desecrated"its ancestralterritory.

Bonaparte First Nation Chief Frank Antoine said an inland portdevelopment by Ashcroft Terminal Ltd. whereancestral remains have been found continues unabated with the support of the federaland provincial government.

The nation filed a lawsuit Wednesday, saying it has beenwrongfully misled and shut out of the development process.

In June 2021, Antoine said members of the Bonaparte staged asit-in protest on the site of Ashcroft Terminal's inland port, just over 200 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, whereexpansion activities unearthed ancestral remains and otherculturally significant artifacts.

"They just put it in a box, put it in a trailer and left itthere until our membership decided to say enough is enough,"Antoine said.

"From that day forward ... we've been tryingto sit down and have these open discussions and honest discussionswith them and it just seems that they don't want to sit down withus. They just keep moving forward."

The Bonaparte First Nation lawsuit names Ashcroft Terminal Ltd.and several others, claiming railway infrastructure development forthe inland port has destroyed and disturbed ancestral burialgrounds.

In a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court, the FirstNation alleges Ashcroft Terminal misled the band about the scope ofconstruction activities for the 300-acre railway terminal port just outside the village of Ashcroft, B.C.

The lawsuit alleges the terminal is on the site of Bonaparte'shistorical village, which it says carries deep spiritual andcultural significance to the nation and its members. The First Nation claims the site contains "numerous"burialgrounds and carbon dating places the Bonaparte on the territorydating back nearly 8,000 years.

The lawsuit says Ashcroft Terminal's construction and excavationactivities have disturbed the remains and other archeologicallysignificant artifacts on the site.

The allegations in the lawsuit have not been tested or proven incourt and the defendants have yet to file responses to the claim.

AshcroftTerminal Ltd. and the federal government did notimmediately provide comment on the lawsuit. B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation said it could not comment on amatter before the courts.

Antoine said the companies involved in the expansion are "bypassing"what they want them to stop doing and will "keeppushing forward until this terminal is completely built."

Months after Bonaparte members protested at the site, AshcroftTerminalsigned an investment deal with Canadian Tire Corp., givingthe company, which is not a party to the lawsuit,a 25 per centstake in the project.

'They can't just bypass us anymore'

Antoine said things "went quiet"afterwards, leaving the FirstNation, again, shut out of discussions about development activity ontheir unceded traditional territory.

"We have a list of stuff that we want to work with them on, andif this is what they call UNDRIP or Truth and Reconciliation,they're definitely doing it on the wrong side of the tracks,"Antoine said, referring to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"They're not working with us; they'd ratherwork away from us."

The lawsuit alleges the provincial and federal governments failedto adequately consult the band about the project, which has receivedmillions in subsidies since development plans were unveiled back in2006.

The Bonaparte First Nation claims in court that they were misledabout the size of the inland port development plans, allegingAshcroft deceptively presented the 300-acre terminal as "small-scale, piecemeal, bite-sized mini projects and proposals."

"Each of which posed a small fractional threat to [BonaparteFirst Nation's]interests compared with the true scope of [Ashcroft Terminal Ltd.'s]development,'' the lawsuit states.

Antoine said the Bonaparte's attempts to have a dialogue withgovernments and Ashcroft Terminal have been unsuccessful, leavinghim and the First Nation's approximately 1,000 members with littleother choice than to take the matter to court.

"They need to understand that they can't just bypass us anymore.We're not a group of Indigenous people that doesn't understand thegovernment, how government works,"he said.

"We are part ofgovernment now and we want to be self-sufficient, we want to beindependent and we want to be partners and build a relationship.They just don't seem to want to build that relationship."