The respondent, a registered Indian, was charged under the Forest Practices Code for cutting Crown timber.
He raised an aboriginal right defence before the Forest Appeals Commission.
The British Columbia Court of Appeal held that s. 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867 precluded the province from conferring jurisdiction on the Commission to determine aboriginal rights.
The Supreme Court of Canada allowed the appeal, holding that a province can validly empower an administrative tribunal to decide questions of constitutional law, including aboriginal rights under s. 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, arising incidentally in the course of its statutory mandate.
The Court found that the Code granted the Commission the power to decide questions of law, which presumptively includes the power to apply the Constitution.
