OTTAWA, Oct. 21, 2016 /CNW/ - Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde will visit Treaty 8 territory threatened by the proposed Site C Dam in northern British Columbia. On Saturday, October 22 on behalf of the AFN, National Chief will stand with Treaty 8 First Nations in opposing the project. Treaty 8 First Nations are currently taking legal action to overturn federal approvals of the controversial hydroelectric project.
The protests began Saturday in Labrador, and expanded Monday into government offices
Nine people arrested during protests at the Muskrat Falls site in Labrador were released with conditions Monday.
The six women and three men are charged with disobeying a court order to leave the site, where they were protesting the planned reservoir flooding at the hydroelectric project.
While the protesters have been ordered to stay clear of the entrance to the worksite, they are allowed to be on the other side of the road.
A little more than a year ago, B.C. activist Ingmar Lee told a reporter that the petroleum-hauling vessel Nathan E. Stewart was a “disaster waiting to happen.”
Early Wednesday morning, that fear was realized when the American-owned articulated tug and barge ran aground near Bella Bella. Although the barge was empty after dropping off its cargo in Alaska, the tugboat began leaking fuel into the water, threatening the traditional clam fisheries of the Heiltsuk First Nation.
“It’s unfortunately a terrible thing to see it sunk there,” Lee said Thursday.
COASTAL FIRST NATIONS RENEWS CALL FOR OIL
TANKER BAN ON BC COAST IN AFTERMATH OF BELLA BELLA SPILL
Vancouver, BC (October 14, 2016) – Coastal First Nations renews its call today for a ban on crude oil tanker traffic and says First Nations must be at the table to determine what went wrong in Thursday’s diesel spill near the Heiltsuk First Nation of Bella Bella, BC.
“We don’t want what happened to us to happen to the people in Dakota,” Piaguaje told teleSUR.
Indigenous groups affected by the contamination of Chevron in Ecuador—led by Humberto Piaguaje—joined the Native Americans protesting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in the state of North Dakota in the U.S.
As many Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving, Idle No More demonstrators gathered in Yonge-Dundas Square on Monday said they have "little to be thankful for" and urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to keep his election promises to protect Indigenous rights and the environment.
Becky Big Canoe, co-founder of Water is Life: Coalition for Water Justice, said while Trudeau has vowed to support Indigenous people across the country, he's already reneging on some election promises.
NEW YORK, Oct 11 2016 (IPS) - Resistance towards the controversial Dakota Access pipeline continues after a federal court rejected requests to halt construction on Monday.
Since August, members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and thousands of allies from across the North American nation have gathered in North Dakota to protest the 1,172 mile long pipeline.
Indigenous leaders and activists who oppose pipelines and other natural resource development projects, such as the proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG project recently approved by the federal government, say they are not being heard by the federal government.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, who is president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said there is a distinct difference between listening, and hearing, and that the federal government is failing at the latter when it comes to the concerns of indigenous people.
The fresh new face Canada showed the world at the Paris COP21 climate meetings held out hope for many Canadian climate activists that a national course change was in the works.
In its less than a decade in power, the Harper government extinguished multiple important Canadian environmental laws, muzzled climate scientists, harassed environmental NGOs, created "anti-terrorism" legislation that targets First Nations and other pipeline activists, and generally introduced regressive and reactionary social policy while promoting Canada as the world's new petro-state.
