Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016 12:00 AM

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 Struggle at Standing Rock:

Pipeline Protest, First Nations’ Uprising

“What white man can say I never stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet they say that I am a thief.” — Sitting Bull, Lakota Holy Man, Grand River.

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.

The site where the Pacheedaht people originated — their Garden of Eden — is stunning.

The Jordan River exits a 500-metre-deep canyon, then tumbles toward the sea through a jumble of immense boulders polished as smooth as beach pebbles.

It was here, about 70 kilometres west of Victoria, in a past so ancient it predates legends of a great flood that inundated the world, that the Pacheedaht took their name from foam on the river.

Today, there’s still foam on the river. It signals not the birth of a people, but the death of their river.

EDMONTON — First Nations and environmental groups want the federal government to revisit its approval of British Columbia’s Site C dam which they worry would threaten a national park that is a World Heritage Site.

Groups including the Mikisew Cree and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society say the risk to Alberta’s Wood Buffalo National Park from the dam and upstream oilsands development is so dire that they will ask UNESCO investigators to put the area on its list of threatened sites.

We speak with 350.org’s Bill McKibben about how the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and members of hundreds of other tribes from across the U.S., Canada and Latin America have resisted construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, even as police carrying assault rifles responded to them with armored vehicles, tear gas and helicopters. "We cannot pump more oil," McKibben says.

Meanwhile, a Reuters investigation finds pipeline spill detection system severely flawed

Close to 100 scientists have signed onto a letter decrying "inadequate environmental and cultural impact assessments" for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), and calling for a halt to construction until such tests have been carried out as requested by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

September 29, 2016

Yes, that's salmon trying to punch Daddy Canada in the face. Photo via Facebook.

A group of First Nations plans to launch a slew of legal challenges against the federal government over its approval of the Petronas liquefied natural gas (LNG) project near Prince Rupert, BC.

PRESS RELEASE

The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy? Dzawada’enuxw demand removal of their traditional territory from the Great Bear Rainforest

(Friday, September 30, 2016) This week the Great Bear Rainforest, declared the “jewel in the crown” of Canada’s protected areas when it was established early in 2016, was endorsed as part of the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited B.C.’s central coast during their Canadian tour.