This appeal was heard in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, and it followed the decisions in R v Marshall, 2001 NSPC 2, R v Marshall, 2001 CanLII 4996 (NS SC), and R v Marshall, 2001 NSSC 157.

The appellants had been convicted at trial for cutting and removing timber from Crown lands without authorization, which is an offence under section 29 of Nova Scotia's Crown Lands Act. All of the appellants were Mi’kmaq. At trial, the accuseds had argued that they had a treaty right to harvest timber commercially, and they had also argued that their ancestors had held title to all of what now constitutes Nova Scotia, and that title was another source of their harvesting rights. 

The appellants made the same arguments on appeal, and so the Court considered whether the appellants had treaty rights or other Aboriginal rights that allowed them to cut timber as they had done. Ultimately, the Court found that Mi'kmaw commercial logging rights had not been recognized by any known treaties, and it also held that the appellants had not proven any Aboriginal right (including Aboriginal title) that allowed them to harvest timber commercially.

These issues came before the courts again in R v Marshall, 2002 NSSC 233,R v Marshall, 2003 NSCA 105,and R v Marshall; R v Bernard, [2005] 2 SCR 220, 2005 SCC 43.

View the Decision on CanLII: https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nssc/doc/2002/2002nssc57/2002nssc57.html

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