On December 11th, 1997, then-Chief Justice Antonio Lamer of the Supreme Court of Canada handed down a significant decision for the future of Aboriginal land claims. Delgamuukw vs. British Columbia is considered from several angles in Beyond the Nass Valley; National Implications of the Supreme Court's Delgamuukw Decision (Fraser Institute $19.95). The collection of essays includes "Solution or Problem?"; by Melvin H. Smith and Geoff Plant, considering the potential of Delgamuukw to set a problematic precedent of negotiation on a case-by-case basis, calling it a "recipe for bureaucratic, if not economic, paralysis."; Alexander von Gernet, in "What My Elders Taught Me,"; considers the Delgamuukw decision to effectively lower the standard of proof in Aboriginal and treaty rights cases.The landmark case affirmed the use of oral testimony, and Gernet argues that "members of any given culture are not inherently better qualified to give an accurate representation of themselves and their history."; 0-88975-206-0

[Lisa Kerr / BCBW 2001]