Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 05/02) - The North Slave Metis Alliance is down but not out, said the organization's president after losing a court battle to stop the Dogrib land claim.

On May 31, Ottawa, Ont. Federal Court Justice Francois Lemieux ruled an injunction stopping the Dogrib claim would do more harm than good.

Clem Paul, president of the North Slave Metis Alliance, said the ruling was a blessing in disguise.

"The judge said we have more than enough evidence to prove we have rights," said Paul. "Now we can proceed with our court fight to prove our rights...and eventually reach our end goal of a land claim."

John B. Zoe, Dogrib chief negotiator, said "relief was shared" with Dogrib elders at news of their court victory.

"I think we had a good argument in court and we said things as they were," said Zoe. "We were comfortable. We were positive."

On April 30, 2001, the NSMA launched court action to stop to the Dogrib land-claim process until an acknowledgment and settlement of Metis rights in the Dogrib region. Lemieux concluded the Dogrib land claim would do no harm to Metis rights. Lemieux's view on rights could have an impact on other cases before the Federal Court. The Akaitcho Treaty 8 Nation recently launched court action against the Department of Indian Affairs over a decade-old boundary conflict with the Dogrib.

The Akaitcho fear a loss of rights under a Dogrib claim which covers land Akaitcho claims is historically theirs.

Paul is also a member of the Dogrib Rae band, which is a member of the Dogrib Nation -- the very people he launched this court action against.

Paul said his grandparents signed Treaty 11. "But that doesn't make me Dogrib," said Paul. "You can do DNA testing on me, I don't have an ounce of Dogrib blood in me."