Indigenous Peoples

Resource development projects offer First Nations “an unprecedented opportunity” to gain economic benefits and resolve social issues in their communities, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said during an informal discussion at the Vancouver Board of Trade Monday. Harper, in response to questions from board of trade CEO Iain Black, vowed that his government would not approve pipeline projects “unless they meet the highest standards of environmental protection.” Ottawa will also live up to its constitutional obligation to consult with First Nations on resource development, he said.

Elsipogtog has shown us that people power is the only power that energy companies will yield to. It's important for activists everywhere to understand that the genocidal assault on Natives that was vital for the development of capitalism is still underway in the exploitation of these lands.

Fighting for Native American liberation means challenging a system that puts profits over people and the planet.

A total of 17 First Nations from around Alberta are trying to get legislation on access to public lands tossed out in a long-running case expected to go to trial this year.

Peaceful Occupation of Penn West Petroleum Site Begins Little Buffalo, AB/ The Lubicon Lake Nation people have been driven to enforce their Law against PENN WEST PETROLEUM LTD. (TSX: PWT); (NYSE: PWE) today on an oil lease site located in their Territory by peacefully occupying a nearby access road. The oil and gas giant. Penn West has indicated they intend to drill and use hydraulic fracturing at the location. The site is at the headwaters of a nearby lake, bordered by the traditional Lubicon community of Kinosew Sakahikan referred to provincially as Haig Lake.

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - More allies are forming to fight against the Northern Gateway Pipeline project. A solidarity accord has now been launched, and it is being backed by some heavy hitters. The BCTF, Unifor, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment are all on board. More than 130 First Nations have signed the ‘Save the Fraser’ declaration. Jim Dehart wit the BC Wilderness Tourism Association also maintains the project is simply too dangerous. “We feel a risk to our environment, to our homes and to our businesses is unacceptable.

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s special envoy has issued a blueprint to gain aboriginal support for proposed energy projects in British Columbia worth about $100-billion, but opponents of oil pipelines and tanker traffic – many of them aboriginal – warn it’s still not good enough. Shortly after the federal government released a report meant to forge energy partnerships between governments, industry and aboriginal communities, First Nations leaders said there is growing resistance to many projects.
 

Canada’s largest private-sector union has thrown its support behind First Nations in opposing the Northern Gateway pipeline project, vowing to hit picket lines in solidarity if the project goes ahead. Unifor, formed on Labour Day weekend with the merger of the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, now has more than 300,000 members across the country.

In December 2010, First Nations across BC and Alberta came together in a show of unprecedented solidarity to stop the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline by signing the Save the Fraser Declaration. Representatives of over 130 First Nations throughout BC and Canada are now signatories to this powerful legal document that protects the lands and waters we all rely on from devastating oil spills for all people and all generations. This is the critical time to show that citizens of British Columbia and Canada stand with First Nations to hold this wall.

COAST SALISH TERRITORY – Activists blocked access to the federal Port of Vancouver for an hour early this morning as part of an International Day of Action in Support of  Elsipogtog Land Defenders in New Brunswick. Access to the Port at the foot of Clark Drive was blocked for an hour. Traffic was backed up as far as as the eye could see.