Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous Nations and allies of British Columbia unite to say No Pipelines! This weekend, Christy Clark’s worst nightmare converged on unceded Coast Salish Territory, Vancouver. After her surprise election, won on promises of a natural gas and resource extraction bonanza, her political future is staked to her claims of 100,000 jobs and $100 billion in royalties.

Cumulative impact is something the B.C. government does not like to talk about when consulting First Nations about resource developments. Government prefers to look at projects in isolation. So, Site C on the Peace River, for example, is assessed on its own, not in the context of all the oil-and-gas activity taking place in the region. That is not how native communities see things. To them, the question is not only what impact an individual project will have – but also what it will mean alongside all the other industrial activities in an area.

Since 2008, Warner Naziel has gone by his traditional name, Toghestiy. It means “man who sits beside the water”.  As one of the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, he takes neither tradition nor his duties lightly. On November 20, 2012, Toghestiy did what his ancestors would have done to people not welcome in their territory. Confronting surveyors for a gas pipeline planned in Northern B.C, he handed them an eagle feather in accordance with Wet’suwet’en law.

Monday March 31st, Mi'kmaq'i territory (Mi'kmaq Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy) an L'nu mother & daughter shut down a closed door meeting between the Nova Soctian Minister of Energy & Oil/Gas Industry representatives. Corporations such as Encana, Shell and others were present. This action was supported by the youth climate convergence Power Shift Atlantic, which met in Halifax over the weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18THVaAelnk

The Hupacasath First Nation may not have succeeded the first time around, but its fight to keep the federal government from ratifying the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act (FIPPA) is heating up again. The tiny Vancouver Island nation has filed an appeal with the Federal Court of Appeals and expects the Crown to file by March 17.

Rail service between Ottawa and Toronto and Toronto and Montreal is expected to gradually return to normal on Saturday following a blockade near Napanee. Via Rail says the interruption affected a few thousand passengers and forced four trains to stop in Belleville or Kingston, while three other trains were precluded from operating. Some delays were to be expected for passengers travelling on Saturday, but Via said it doesn’t anticipate any significant delays to its operations on Sunday as a result of Saturday’s events.

Sovereignty, ecology, and decolonizing the female body 

Interview with Alex Wilson of Idle No More movement, by Ragina Johnson and Brian Ward, March 7, 2014

The First Nations-led movement Idle No More emerged in Canada in December 2012 to protest legislation that threatened both the rights of First Nations and environmental protections. The movement has since spread into the U.S. and beyond--and has become one of the central voices in the struggle for Indigenous and ecological justice. Alex Wilson is one of many organizers of Idle No More, based in the Opaskwayak Cree Nation. She talked to Ragina Johnson and Brian Ward about the state of the movement.

Between an increase in mining exploration work and development of a potential liquefied natural gas export industry, British Columbia’s First Nations are heavily engaged in consultations over resource projects in the province. It puts the First Nations Energy and Mining Council, an aboriginal-created advisory body, in an important position at a critical time for aboriginal communities, both in terms of managing the impact of resource projects and realizing benefits. “We need (the council),” said Ed John, Grand Chief of the B.C.