Alberta’s highest court has overturned regulatory approvals for a $440-million oilsands project that would have encroached on land a First Nation considers sacred.
In a strongly worded judgment, three Alberta Court of Appeal justices ruled that the Alberta Energy Regulator violated the honour of the Crown when it approved the proposal even though the development infringed on an agreement between the province and the Fort McKay First Nation.
The dispute arose over an area known as Moose Lake.
The band says it is the last place its members can go to practise treaty rights and live in a traditional manner.

An Alberta judge sentenced a teen to 21 months for shooting a German tourist in the head on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.
Horst Stewin was driving with his family in a black SUV on Stoney Nakoda First Nation land on Aug. 2, 2018.
A bullet shot from another vehicle then struck Stewin in the head. His SUV veered off the road and crashed into some trees.
The victim was transported back to Germany, where doctors removed eight bullet fragments from his brain.
Courts heard the shooting was likely a case of mistaken identity — and that the accused had been drinking vodka and smoking meth. They shot at the SUV believing it to belong to someone else.
The accused, an 18 year old who cannot be named, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and seven months of house arrest.
He was incarcerated for 15 months before the trial and has been released from jail.

Canada’s urban Indigenous population is being left behind by the federal response to the COVID-19 crisis, according to the The National Association of Friendship Centres.
Friendship centres across the country have been on the front lines of the crisis and have been inundated with requests for help as their communities struggle to cope.
The federal government pledged $305 million to help First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities, with $15 million set aside for organizations providing services to those living off reserves or in urban centres.
Conservative MP Gary Vidal told the committee that, while more than half of Indigenous Peoples in Canada do not live on reserves, the organizations that serve them received only five per cent of the funds.

Hospitals facing urgent COVID-19 needs are banding together to close funding “gaps” for their institutions and embattled health-care workers.
Dubbed “The Frontline Fund,” the national campaign seeks donations on behalf of more than 100 institutions across the country for supplies, staff support and research.
Organizers say the money would help hospitals source personal protective equipment and ventilators, fund drug trials and vaccine research, and provide mental-health support to exhausted staff. Ten per cent of funds will also go towards the northern territories and Indigenous health.
Organizers say $8.5 million has already been promised by lead corporate partners. That includes $5 million from the Canadian Medical Association Foundation, $2.5 million from Maple Leaf Foods and $1 million from TD Bank Group.
Riseboro says the goal is to raise $50 million. Canadians can donate at www.frontlinefund.ca.