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3 Queen's L.J. 3 (1976-1977)
The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry

handle is hein.journals/queen3 and id is 11 raw text is: The Corry Lecture 3 The Second Annual Lecture in Honour of Professor J.A. Corry The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry MR JUSTICE THOMAS R. BERGER Editor's Introduction On Thursday, November 25, 1975, Mr Justice Thomas R. Berger, Commissioner of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, delivered the second annual Corry Lecture at Queen's University. The Corry Lecture was established in honour of Dr J.A. Corry, Past Principal of Queen's University and the first Dean of Queen's Univer- sity Faculty of Law. The annual lecture series was established in 1974 and examines some aspect of the relation between law and politics. Mr Justice Berger was born in Victoria in 1933. He studied law at the University of British Columbia and was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1957. Even in the early years of his practice he argued cases leading to precedent setting decisions. Among these decisions was Battaglia v. Workmen's Compensation Board, (1960) 24 D.L.R. (2d) 21, which involved a silicosis victim who was the first to win redress against the Workmen's Compensation Board's denial of benefits for this type of injury. Early in the 60's he took up the cause of native peoples; first defend- ing them individually then representing them in band claims to timber, hunting and fishing rights. He represented the Metis and Indian trappers of the Athabasca Delta in their dispute with B.C. Hydro over the drying up of their muskrat trapping grounds following construction of the Peace River Dam. Mr Justice Berger's eight years experience as counsel for native people in B.C. culminated in the 1971 Nishga Indian aboriginal rights decision in the Supreme Court of Canada. Chief Justice Laskin, Mr Justice Hall and Mr Justice Spence upheld his argument that the B.C. Indians not only had aboriginal title to their land when the white men first arrived, but retained this title. This judgment is the main legal basis for the assertion of native rights in Canada today. Mr. Justice Berger was appointed Commissioner of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry on March 21, 1974. As Commissioner, he is