Today in Victoria, lawyers representing two First Nations will be in B.C. Supreme Court arguing that the provincial government violated First Nation rights by rushing to approve the controversial $9 billion (and counting) Site C dam on the Peace River.
Regardless of the outcome of the case, which is one of three B.C. First Nations legal proceedings against Site C currently underway, First Nations opposition to Site C is understandable.
The Tsawwassen First Nation will proceed with a vote on plans to build an LNG export facility just north of the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, it announced on Monday.
"The preliminary concept looks at a plan somewhere between three million and five million metric tonnes per annum," said Tsawwassen First Nation spokesman Chris Hartman.
"In terms of tanker traffic associated with that, probably somewhere in the range of four to five LNG carriers a month, or about one a week."
The Mohawk community at the centre of the Oka Crisis is leading plans to hold a ceremony aimed at solidifying an Indigenous alliance against the proposed Energy East pipeline.
Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon said the ceremony is expected to take place in British Columbia this coming spring.
The Treaty 8 Tribal Association has set up an observation shack overlooking the Peace River at the Site C dam site where opponents and other interested parties can watch what critics say is the destruction of the Peace River valley.
The new Liberal government has promised to implement the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples just over a year after Stephen Harper raised objections to it.
The collapse of major salmon runs in B.C. this fall and the controversial expansion of fish farming on the West Coast have prompted First Nations to request “an urgent meeting” with newly appointed federal Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo.
Chief Bob Chamberlin, chair of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance, said the disappearance of millions of pink salmon headed for the Fraser and the collapse of the Adams River sockeye run underscore the need for immediate government action.
With the world focusing on climate change leading up to the COP21 United Nations gathering in Paris at the end of November, some Indigenous elders in Canada say it’s an issue that they’ve been witnessing unfold for decades.
Francois Paulette from Smith Landing First Nation in the Northwest Territories (NWT) has been speaking out about changes to the landscape in his home territory.
“The north is a very sensitive, delicate place with impacts from pollution to the air and water,” said Paulette.
A MEMBER of a local environmental group hopes the new federal Liberal government pays attention to a letter it sent calling for the rejection of a planned LNG export plant on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert.
“I am feeling very optimistic about that,” says Christie Brown of Northwest Watch of the switch in Ottawa from the previous Conservative government. “It's exciting to have a new party in power.”
Council of the Haida Nation seeks plan to protect oceans
The 2015 House of Assembly, the legislative body of the Haida Nation, passed a resolution expressing opposition to British Columbia’s LNG agenda and demanding that the mass export of any fossil fuel through its territory be prohibited.
Council of the Haida Nation seeks plan to protect oceans
The 2015 House of Assembly, the legislative body of the Haida Nation, passed a resolution expressing opposition to British Columbia’s LNG agenda and demanding that the mass export of any fossil fuel through its territory be prohibited.
