The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court decision to dismiss a guide outfitter and trapper's lawsuit against the provincial government and a long list of sawmill operators and logging companies.
Harry Chingee first launched the lawsuit in June 2013, seeking damages for the clearcut logging on his tenures - 169,000 hectares surrounding McLeod Lake and northeast of McLeod Lake.
In April 2016, a B.C. Supreme Court Justice dismissed Chingee's claims finding they had no reasonable chance of success. The judge found Chingee's action failed to go beyond complaining about logging that had been authorized and that he had a chance to raise his concerns during the process leading up to granting of permission to harvest.
In Chingee's appeal, he argued the issue was not so much that logging occurred but that clearcut logging was used and substantially reduced the amount of widlife on the land by also removing non-merchantable timber. The areas logged would take up to 40 years to become viable for trapping once again, he contended.
But the Court of Appeal found Chingee's action still lacked any reasonable prospect of success because his pleadings did not state the material facts as to the damage done with sufficient specificity.
