Protest - Revolt

The International Criminal Court announced Thursday it will now hold corporate executives and governments legally responsible for environmental crimes.

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The fight by the Standing Rock Sioux to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline has emerged as one of the defining climate justice fights in the United States.

It has also become a central focal point of the ongoing worldwide struggle by indigenous peoples to have their treaty and land rights respected by other governments and corporations. (The fact that corporations operate as de facto government is a galling example of the need for the Green Party).

Friends,

The Federal Court of Appeal has quashed a bid by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation to have the National Energy Board process for the Trans Mountain pipeline declared unlawful.

At issue in the suit filed in 2014 was whether the Crown and NEB had failed in their constitutional duty to consult the Tsleil-Waututh as a First Nation.

The federal court of appeal issued a 44-page decision last week rejecting the claim, stating the Tsleil-Waututh could have raised its concerns about the project with the federal government at numerous times over the last several years.

Nine years ago today, on September 13, 2007, the United Nations took an important step towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples when the General Assembly voted 144-4 to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. While 11 countries abstained, four countries voted against the Declaration: Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

First Nations leaders from British Columbia were in Ottawa this week to tell federal politicians they have been betrayed by a government that promised a new relationship with indigenous people then approved the construction of a massive hydro dam that threatens their traditional way of life.

The $8.8-billion BC Hydro project on the Peace River, known as Site C, received authorizations from the federal departments of Fisheries and Transport earlier this summer.

For Indigenous activists fighting pipelines across Canada, the following names are unforgettable: Energy East, Enbridge Northern Gateway, the Trans Mountain expansion.

The struggle to stop these projects has been carved forever into their memories, but as of last Monday, it has also been carved into the journey of a wooden totem pole that travelled more than 8,000 kilometres from the Lummi Nation in Bellingham, Wash. to the heart of Treaty One territory in Winnipeg.

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