Law360 Canada ( February 2, 2018, 1:24 PM EST) -- Appeal by the Williams Lake Indian Band (Band) from a judgment of the Federal Court of Appeal allowing Canada’s application for judicial review of a decision of the Specific Claims Tribunal (Tribunal). From 1860 on, settlers displaced the Band from the site of its village and surrounding lands at the foot of Williams Lake. This appeal concerned the failure of the Sovereign of Great Britain and its colonies (Imperial Crown) to prevent the Band’s Village Lands from being taken up by settlers. It also concerned the failure of the Imperial Crown and the Crown in right of Canada to rectify the situation over the 20 years that followed. At issue was the validity of the Band’s claim to compensation under the Specific Claims Tribunal Act (Act) for losses arising from these events. The Tribunal examined the Band’s history in the Williams Lake area and the events surrounding the reserve creation process. The Band’s village and lands, the Tribunal concluded, ought to have been marked out as a reserve under the applicable colonial legislation. The Imperial Crown was under a legal obligation to take the appropriate measures to do so. The Tribunal concluded that the Band had a valid claim because the responsible colonial official in the Williams Lake area had not taken such measures. The Tribunal also determined that, after British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871, federal officials had failed to take appropriate measures to address the consequences of the Imperial Crown’s earlier omissions. This, it found, constituted valid grounds for a specific claim. Before the Tribunal had the opportunity to make a decision on compensation, Canada applied for judicial review of the Tribunal’s validity decision. The Federal Court of Appeal allowed Canada’s application and substituted its own decision, dismissing the Band’s specific claim. In its view, the Crown in right of Canada had not breached a legal obligation to the Band. Further, its eventual allotment of reserve land elsewhere had cured any prior breaches by the Imperial Crown. The Band appealed this decision....