Recent Judicial Developments Relating To Aboriginal Rights In The Context Of Ontario´s Mining Act And Its Reform

The Platinex Case

On May 28, 2008, the Ontario Court of Appeal granted an appeal by eight Aboriginal leaders seeking to reduce the sentences that the Ontario Superior Court had imposed on them after finding them in contempt for organizing a protest at a potential platinum mining site. In its submissions to the appeal court, the mining company, Platinex Inc., had acknowledged that the matter "would ultimately be settled only through negotiation, and that no good purpose would be served by keeping the appellants in jail any longer." The original sentences were to be for six months, and the leaders were released after having served 68 days of their sentences.

The appeal court's judgment in Platinex Inc. v. Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation is the most recent episode in a judicial saga involving Platinex, a junior exploration company, and the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation (KI), an Ojibwa/Cree First Nation occupying a reserve on Big Trout Lake in