If a court or a government official has made a decision that has a negative impact on you as an Indigenous person or collective (First Nation, Metis or Inuit group or other Indigenous collective) our lawyers will support your efforts to have that decision overturned or corrected. Appeals and judicial reviews are ways to have that decision changed.
Westaway Law Group has experience in judicial review applications (the process for getting government decisions overturned), and in all levels of appellate litigation. We have acted as Agents and often appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada. Likewise, We have represented individuals and groups who have chosen to get involved in important public interest litigation as intervenors.
Additionally, Westaway Law Group has been part of key legal teams involved in the cases of Taku River Tlingit First Nation, Haida Nation, Mikisew Cree, Marshall and Bernard, Cunningham, Manitoba Metis Federation, Rio Tinto, Laywomen and Lefthand.
OUR SERVICES
We can help Indigenous individuals, First Nations or other representative organizations with:
- Appeals from decisions in provincial prosecutions that adversely impact the exercise of Aboriginal or Treaty rights.
- Judicial review applications from government decisions impacting on the individual or collective rights and interests of Indigenous people (e.g., decisions taken under the Indian Act, decisions approving developments on traditional lands, etc.).
- Interventions in significant appellate litigation that has the potential to shape the law with respect to Aboriginal or Treaty rights under s. 35 of the Constitution Act, the duty to consult and accommodate, the division of powers between the different levels of government in Canada, environmental issues, etc.
- Submissions before the Supreme Court of Canada and other Appeal Courts. Some recent cases where lawyers from Westaway Law Group have advocated include Daniels, William Lake Indian Band, Powley, Sappier & Gray, Tsilhqot’in Nation, Lax Kw’alaams and the Climate Change Reference at the Ontario Court of Appeal.
