The BC Supreme Court has dismissed an application for injunction against the Salteau First Nations Band. In 2018, farmer John Moore purchased a plot of land near Vanderhof, knowing that the access roads were in dispute, as they crossed the Salteau First Nation’s land.

The Salteau and the previous owner’s, the Smiths, had entered an agreement, whereby the Smiths paid an annual fee of $1,200 to access the land. However, after Moore purchased the land, he refused to pay the annual fee, claiming the roads were Crown land, and the fee was “fraudulent and amounted to extortion”. The injunction would have prevented the Salteau from decommissioning the roads, when Mr. Moore refused to pay the fee.

However, BC Supreme Court Justice Gary Weatherill dismissed the injunction application, on the basis that the Salteau’s interim solution of paying to cross their land was sufficient, until a final decision on whether the roads were public or private could be made. The Justice went as far as to say that granting Moore access “would violate the respondent’s jurisdiction over reserve land and possibly subject either Canada or the Province to liability”.

While Moore tried to claim, his lack of access to his property was doing monetary, and psychological damage, Justice Weatherill asserted “…much of the frustration and anxiety he is experiencing is self-induced.”

Per the Justice’s final decision, so long as Moore pays the fee, he will have access to the road by way of a gate, and will be given the only key to the gate.

The trial over whether the road amounts to Crown or reserve land will continue separately.