Indigenous Peoples

28/05/15

Note: Several Canadian law professors issued this joint statement May 26, 2015:

We write as professors of law at several Canadian law schools to recognize and commemorate the May 26, 2015 release of Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s Assessment of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline and Tanker Expansion (“TMEX”) Proposal(the “Assessment”).

27/05/15
Author: 
Carlos Tello
Rueben George holds a copy of Tsleil-Waututh's assessment of the Trans Mountain Pipeline project. Photo: Carlos Tello

In an old legend from the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, a two-headed serpent brings hunger and disease to the Burrard Inlet, killing off the salmon. In order to survive, the people had to confront the serpent and slay it.

“We’re now facing another long dragon that needs to be slain,” Tsleil-Waututh Sacred Trust Initiative member Rueben George told a crowd of 100 gathered at Whey-ah-Wichen Park in North Vancouver on Tuesday.

“That’s the Kinder Morgan pipeline.”

21/05/15
Author: 
Mychaylo Prystupa
Candace Campo, Audrey Siegl and Taylor George Hollis in front of the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza that was docked in North Vancouver on Friday. Photo by Mychaylo Prystupa.

A massive Greenpeace ship will depart the Port of Vancouver on Tuesday with a cross-Canada Aboriginal delegation. The delegation seeks to raise alarm about the potential surge in U.S. oil tankers set to ply past British Columbia’s coastlines in the future, should Shell's Arctic oil drilling plans go full steam ahead.

21/05/15
Author: 
Justine Hunter
The proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG project would be built on Lelu Island, near eelgrass beds that nurture young Skeena salmon. (www.lonniewishart.com/Pacific Northwest LNG)

The prospect of a liquefied natural gas industry in B.C. would be a game-changer for aboriginal communities, Premier Christy Clark said on Wednesday. But she sidestepped the question of what happens if some of those communities continue to say no to the developments.

Instead, Ms. Clark’s announcement about a major step along the path toward securing the Pacific NorthWest LNG plant – a proposal already rejected by the Lax Kw’alaams – left the door open to pushing the project through, despite the province’s preference to avoid a confrontation over aboriginal rights and title.

19/05/15
Author: 
Nelson Bennett
Four pipelines needed to carry natural gas to LNG plants on the B.C. pas through dozens of First Nations communities. | Source: Ecotrust Canada

From the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, what unfolded in B.C. last week must have looked strange.

While the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation was voting against a $1.1 billion offer of cash and land to support Petronas’ $11 billion Pacific NorthWest LNG (PNW) project in Prince Rupert, some members were reportedly giving a tentative thumbs-up to the Eagle Spirit Energy refined oil pipeline proposal.

18/05/15
Author: 
Erin Anderssen
Aboriginal artist Lianna Spence poses with her 12-year-old daughter Kiera on Finlayson Island, near Lax Kw’alaams. (Brent Jang for The Globe and Mail)

A senior aboriginal leader in British Columbia says First Nations will continue to oppose oil and gas developments in the province even if it means rejecting billion-dollar payouts – as long as environmental protections are not guaranteed.

13/05/15
Author: 
The Canadian Press
Lelu Island, near Prince Rupert, BC, is the proposed site of the Pacific Northwest LNG project, backed by the Malaysian energy company Petronas.

A natural gas benefit offer worth more than $1 billion has been rejected by a First Nation on B.C.'s northwest coast, but not everyone thinks it will necessarily scuttle the project.

Pacific NorthWest LNG was proposing to build a pipeline and terminal in the Lax Kw'alaams Band territory just south of Prince Rupert.

Band members were asked to vote on a $1.15 billion offer over 40 years in exchange for their consent for the project.

The vote in Vancouver on Tuesday was the third in a series conducted by the First Nation that rejected the project.

12/05/15
Author: 
The Canadian Press
West Moberly First Nation Chief Roland Willson holds a frozen bull trout in front of the Victoria Legislature on Monday, May 11, 2015 he says is contaminated with mercury. - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/first-nations-bring-contaminated-fish-to-legislature-to-protest-site-c-project-1.1931355#sthash.sD2Z9WZJ.dpuf

VICTORIA - West Moberly First Nations Chief Roland Willson held up a frozen bull trout Monday and said the large fish is contaminated with mercury.

"Typically, you'd be proud of this fish," he said. "But we can't eat this."

Willson and members of the McLeod Lake Indian Band, located in northeastern British Columbia, arrived at the legislature in Victoria with more than 90 kilograms of bull trout packed in two coolers.

09/05/15
Author: 
Ian Gill
Flora Bank

Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian and writer known for his work among the poor and the excluded, is credited with coining a phrase that is as true as any you'll ever hear: ''The opposite of poverty is not wealth -- it is justice.''

It is a phrase that has also been attributed to Bryan Stevenson, founder of America's Equal Justice Initiative and a man Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called, without qualification, ''America's Nelson Mandela.''

07/05/15
Author: 
Brent Jang
Chatham Sound

A major energy project seeking aboriginal support for a plan to export B.C. liquefied natural gas has run into strong resistance from a First Nations group worried about the plight of salmon.

The Lax Kw’alaams band is weighing the promises of LNG prosperity against the perils of losing a traditional way of life that relies heavily on salmon and other marine food and resources.

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