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The attorney general of Canada and the Yukon government are asking the territory\u2019s Supreme Court to toss a lawsuit from the First Nation of Na-Cho Ny\u00e4k Dun (FNNND) over decades of alleged mining mismanagement on its traditional territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both the federal and territorial governments filed statements of defence this month denying all the wrongdoing claimed by the First Nation, including not living up to treaty obligations or properly assessing and managing the impacts of placer mining.<\/p>\n
Na-Cho Ny\u00e4k Dun sued in December 2025<\/a>, about a year and half after the catastrophic failure of the cyanide heap leach pile at the Eagle Gold mine<\/a>. Its statement of claim argues the disaster was a prime example of the consequences it\u2019s suffered because of Canada and the Yukon allowing \u201cunsustainable\u201d development.\u00a0<\/p>\n Among other things, the First Nation accuses the Yukon of breaching its final agreement by failing to develop and implement a regional land use plan and adequately consult on mining projects. It also accuses Canada of doing the same by failing to monitor and protect fish and waterways from the impacts of mining, and of failing to \u201cact diligently\u201d to fulfil treaty promises.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe federal Crown denies all such allegations and says that throughout the treaty relationship it has acted, and continues to act, in accordance with the treaty and in a manner consistent with the honour of the Crown,\u201d Canada\u2019s statement of defence reads.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCanada has not breached the Treaty as alleged.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Both Canada and the territory claim they\u2019ve adequately consulted the First Nation when required, but that consultation isn\u2019t mandatory in every case. The Yukon also suggests that Na-Cho Ny\u00e4k Dun has been, at times, difficult to work with, and that the First Nation is to blame for delays to revamping the territory\u2019s minerals legislation and creating a regional land use plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYukon remains, and has remained, committed to implementing the Final Agreement and maintaining a productive government-to-government relationship with FNNNND, notwithstanding multiple cases over the past three decades in which FNNND has refused Yukon\u2019s good-faith efforts to engage,\u201d the Yukon\u2019s statement of defence reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n The territory accuses the First Nation of issuing ultimatums during negotiations, including hinging its participation on the issuance of a staking moratorium or allowing it to veto any projects on its traditional territory. It also alleges the Yukon has offered to provide \u201cadditional resourcing\u201d to help the First Nation\u2019s capacity issues when it comes to the volume of files it\u2019s asked to look at, but that Na-Cho Ny\u00e4k Dun has, on occasion, rejected those offers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, the territory claims it\u2019s continued to invite the First Nation to participate in discussions and negotiations on future minerals legislation, and signed a memorandum of understanding with it in 2025 to work on land-use planning \u201cwithin areas\u201d of its traditional territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Yukon also denies any responsibility for the Eagle Gold mine disaster, saying the territory met its \u201clegal obligations to regulate, monitor, inspect, enforce, investigate, respond to, remediate, or otherwise manage matters\u201d related to the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYukon has acted at all material times pursuant to statutory authority, in accordance with the Final Agreement and its constitutional obligations, and in the exercise of its public responsibilities,\u201d the statement reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n The First Nation is seeking a number of declarations and injunctions from the court, including a permanent ban on Canada and the Yukon authorizing any development on its traditional territory that isn\u2019t \u201csustainable\u201d and a halt on staking areas of its traditional territory until a land use plan is in place. It\u2019s also asking for undefined monetary damages, as well as $150 million in aggravated damages from the Yukon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Canada and the territory argue none of that should be granted.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The case is scheduled to go to trial in January. The Yukon Chamber of Mines has applied to be an intervenor in the case.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-948702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}