Ontario's highest court has ruled that the province has the right to ``take up'' treaty land for mining and forestry.The Grassy Narrows First Nation challenged Ontario's right to permit industrial logging on its traditional lands, saying it infringed on their hunting and trapping rights under a treaty they signed in 1873.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled Monday that the province doesn't need the federal government's approval to ``take up'' the lands, a decision that overturns a lower-court ruling.
The First Nation has spent 13 years in court fighting the province's decision to issue a licence to Resolute Forest Products for clear cut operations in parts of the Keewatin portion of Treaty 3 territory.
