VANCOUVER - The Canadian government paid a nearly $18-million settlement to the Lax Kw'alaams Band in 2002 over land that was given to a different band then sold to a railway more than a century ago, but now the First Nation in B.C. is going to court to right what it calls "historical wrongs."
The Lax Kw'alaams Band filed a lawsuit in Federal Court last week, claiming it was underpaid by millions of dollars in its deal with the federal government after the Metlakatla Band got $150 million -- more than eight times more -- for the illegal sale of the same land, in a 2023 settlement.
The lawsuit says the land in northwest B.C. was illegally divided in 1888 then unlawfully sold to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Co. in 1907.
The Lax Kw'alaams Band says the Metlakatla settlement was based on