In recent years the licence has provided an annual harvest of 1.2-million cubic metres of wood. CHN president Guujaaw said the petition is arguably the biggest case before the courts at this time. The Haida are taking the petition to court because when talks fail the court provides another potential remedy. Recently, negotiations and consultation with industry and government were not adequately addressing Haida concerns about how the land is managed on Haida Gwaii. What's at stake here is Haida Gwaii and our culture.
Corruption is institutionalized throughout the entire forest industry.
The very licence that gives them the 'right' to cut has always been illegal and this is what we've set out to prove. The CHN petition comes on the heels of a 1997 BC Supreme Court decision which found that aboriginal title, if it exists, constitutes an encumbrance on crown land, and as such must be considered when land-use decisions like timber allocations are made. A lot of us thought that would change the way things are done. Unfortunately, those changes never materialized. The CHN has consistently maintained the Haida have title to the land in question.