In the News Detail

2008   |   2007  

Richard King and Valerie Helbronner discuss the practice of Aboriginal law and the paradigm of Aboriginal relations in Canada.

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Excerpt

"The best way to approach any dialogue is with respect, by both parties," says Valerie Helbronner, a partner with Ogilvy Renault LLP in Toronto.

It's a truism that seems trite and obvious. But in the arena of Aboriginal relations, it seems that it needs to be repeated, again and again. Would the situation between KI and Platinex deteriorated to its current point if both the First Nation and the company had approached their negotiations with mutual respect - and the will to agree? Would the New Relationship Agreement been possible without commitment, by both teams of negotiators, to honest, transparent and respectful communication?

Here's the tough part: you can't legislate respect - no matter how many times the Supreme Court of Canada includes the word in its decisions relating to Aboriginal rights. For Richard King, the very case law that mandates consultation and cooperation may be one of the obstacles to mutually respectful dialogue.

"In some ways, it is unfortunate that the method of consultation and cooperation has been legalized as it has," says King, a partner with Ogilvy Renault in Toronto.

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