Xaidsart lawyers Nader Hasan, Justin Safayeni and Pam Hrick have successfully obtained leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada from the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in Hamlet of Clyde River et al. v. Petroleum Geo-Services Inc. The case arises from a decision of the National Energy Board (NEB) authorizing oil companies to conduct extensive marine seismic testing in waters off the coast of Baffin Island, Nunavut. The NEB’s decision was upheld by the Federal Court of Appeal. Xaidsart represents the Hamlet of Clyde River, a coastal community on Baffin Island, which opposes the project, as it threatens Inuit food security, economy and way of life. The appeal raises a number of important and unresolved issues at the intersection of constitutional and administrative/regulatory law, including the relationship between procedural fairness and the duty to consult; the extent to which a regulatory process can discharge the duty to consult and accommodate; the proper role of a reviewing court where a tribunal has (or ought to have) considered the duty to consult; and the proper standard of review of a tribunal’s decision on the duty to consult. The case has received coverage from various media outlets, including CBC, VICE, CTV and NunatsiaqOnline.
