The battle to stop the construction of the South Fraser Perimeter Road will continue in a Vancouver courtroom as early as next week.
In May, Tsawwassen First Nation member Bertha Williams and William Burnstick, of the Cree Sioux First Nations, filed a civil suit in Vancouver Supreme Court against the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, the Minister of the Environment, and the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations claiming the road "go through a number of burial sites that are of spiritual and sacred significance."
They claim the government was well aware the highway project would have an impact on archeological and burial sites but took no steps to modify or redesign the plans.
The B.C. Supreme Court Hearing into the matter was set to begin Tuesday morning, however it was adjourned. Lawyer James Straith, who is representing Williams and Burnstick, said the case could be heard as early as next week.
Williams and Burnstick claim construction of the road will cause irreparable harm to sacred burial grounds.
The area contains a site referred to as St. Mungo's, which a government archeology and environmental assessment report stated contained human remains.
The site, on the shores of the river near the southern foot of the Alex Fraser bridge, was the home of a historical fishing village, and is believed to contain middens with artifacts from three different Coast Salish First Nations cultural periods dating back 5,000 years.
Tsawwassen First Nation is not involved in the lawsuit.
The TFN government took steps to publicly distance itself from the suit earlier this year.
TFN lands and natural resource manager Andrew Bak contacted the Delta Optimist after the suit had been launched to note his First Nation had a few concerns about the road but they have been addressed.
"It's a tremendously large and complex site of great antiquity and we wanted to make sure we had a hand in mitigating any potential impacts on the site, and we've had some great cooperation from the province," Bak said.
"We went one step further during our treaty negotiations to make sure that site would be given all the protection it's entitled to under the existing provincial legislation by asking the province of B.C. to designate it as a provincial heritage site, and they've done that."
Bak noted the design of the highway is still subject to adjustment and over the course of the environmental assessment there had been numerous changes to the route to address heritage and archeological concerns.
Beginning at the foot of the Alex Fraser Bridge and stretching roughly one kilometre eastward, it's one of the most important archaeological sites in Western Canada.
The TFN notes it continues to work with Gateway and the government on all aspects of the SFPR, including ongoing archaeological and environmental matters.
"Projects off this size and scope are always a little but fluid and they need to be because we don't know as much as we would like to about the archeological record. So we've been very fortunate to participate in a very meaningful way," added Bak.
