This case was heard in the New Brunswick Provincial Court.

The defendant, Thomas Peter Paul, was charged with removing timber from government owned land without authorization in violation of New Brunswick’s Crown Lands and Forests Act. Mr. Paul argued that as a Mi’kmaq, he had an Aboriginal or treaty right to harvest the timber and offer the logs for sale to buyers. 

The Provincial Court found that the Mi’kmaw-British Treaty of 1752 gave Mr. Paul a right to harvest and sell timber from Crown lands, and that Mr. Paul’s treaty right had not been extinguished by the Crown Lands and Forests Act. The Court held that provincial legislation could set limits on treaty rights under certain circumstances, but that the circumstances in this case did not justify prohibiting Mr. Paul from harvesting and selling a few logs.

For these reasons, the Court acquitted Mr. Paul.

The Crown appealed the Provincial Court’s decision in R. v. Paul (T.P.), 1997 CanLII 17799 (NB QB).

View the Decision on CanLII: https://www.canlii.org/en/nb/nbpc/doc/1996/1996canlii12436/1996canlii12436.html

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