In 1996, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in R. v. Gladstone : the Heiltsuk Nation had an Aboriginal right to a commercial herring spawn-on-kelp fishery.

Gladstone was an important decision. For the first time, a Canadian court had recognized an Aboriginal right to a commercial fishery. The test to establish commercial fishing rights was onerous, but the decision in Gladstone revealed that it was possible. This was an important development, perhaps the single most important development in Aboriginal rights since R. v. Sparrow.

Nearly ten years after the Supreme Court's decision, this conference proposes a reconsideration of Gladstone and of its implications for First Nations in relation to the fisheries and marine resources, and to the development of Aboriginal rights and title more generally. The conference will bring together lawyers and legal scholars, historians and anthropologists, fisheries scientists and biologists, as well as participants in the fisheries, and members of the Heiltsuk and other First Nations communities to reconsider R. v. Gladstone.

Conference Papers

This conference has been made possible with the support of the following sponsors: