An Indigenous group in northern B.C. has attempted to use Aboriginal title to claim the airspace above Crown land, expelling a local helicopter company and B.C. government forestry officials.
The conflict, which occurred over the summer, grew to involve the federal and provincial governments, before Ottawa declared in writing to four B.C. cabinet ministers in a Dec. 12 letter that Aboriginal title cannot be used to restrict any flights in Canadian airspace.
It’s the latest in a series of escalating, and confusing, interpretations of Aboriginal title in British Columbia.
