http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/200...cellphone.html
Quote:
Manitoba First Nations are seeking compensation from Manitoba Telecom Services for every cellphone signal that passes through First Nations land, saying the airspace should be considered a resource like land and water.
"[The request is] based on the understanding that we do have some fundamental rights as indigenous people to land, water and airspace," said Chief Ovide Mercredi of the Grand Rapids First Nation.
"When it comes to using airspace, it's like using our water and simply because there's no precedent doesn't mean that it's not the right thing to do," he said.
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Details in the article are sparse, for sure.
I don't know much about Aboriginal rights with respect to airspace but the analogy with water rights strikes me as inappropriate. The air is not being congested, polluted or used up the same way water would if it was used for transportation or industry. Cellphone signals don't really pollute the air in the same way that dumping sewage into the Bow River might.