A federal judge has rejected an attempt by the Lummi Nation to stall a major expansion of the Port of Vancouver.Justice Christine Pallotta ruled that Ottawa met its duty to consult while avoiding the broader question of whether an indigenous group based in the United States can claim rights in Canada.Pallotta wrote that the Lummi Nation “asserts unextinguished aboriginal rights in Canada” tied to historic use of lands and waters north of the border, but she said that issue “must wait for another day.” The case centred on the band’s effort to block a new shipping terminal approved in 2023 for the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.The Lummi Nation, based in Bellingham, Washington, argued the project sits on its ancestral territory near the Point Roberts Peninsula, just south of Delta, BC. Lawyers said Canada owed a meaningful consultation process but instead offered only a cursory exchange before green‑lighting the terminal..Justice Pallotta disagreed, concluding consultation was adequate and dismissing the challenge. She ordered the band to pay $15,000 in costs.The Nation also advanced a sweeping claim of “asserted but unproven aboriginal rights in Canada” across much of southwest BC, including the Gulf Islands, southern Vancouver Island and the lower mainland. The judge declined to weigh in, saying the Court did not need to assess the strength of those claims to rule on consultation.She added that determining whether the Lummi qualify as an “aboriginal people of Canada,” and what rights might follow, remains a question for future litigation.The Lummi Nation argues its people traditionally used and occupied territory on both sides of what is now the Canada–US border, which was drawn in 1846 under a treaty between Great Britain and the United States. The Court noted the Nation’s position that its historic presence north of the 49th parallel should entitle it to constitutional protections in Canada.
