First Nations

Some First Nations Ready ‘To Rise’ If Poilievre Lifts Oil Tanker Ban

March 27, 2025 Daniel Mesec, DeSmog. Resist! Canada, Energy, Environment, First Nations, Fossil Fuels, Oil Spill

On a clear day overlooking the inner harbour of Prince Rupert, a northwest British Columbia town home to Canada’s third largest port, chances are you’ll see a spurt of water coming from the surface of the ocean. “I’ve lived here my whole life and every once in a while, you might get a glimpse of a humpback, but there have been so many humpback whales lately in the harbour, I’ve never witnessed that in my life. It’s a sign that our waters are healthy and abundant,” says Arnie Nagy, a member of the Haida Nation. Traditionally, Nagy is known as Tlaatsgaa Chiin Kiljuu, or Strong Salmon Voice, because of his years fighting to ensure the survival of the fishing industry and wild salmon on B.C.’s North Coast as a member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union. “I’ve lived here my whole life and every once in a while, you might get a glimpse of a humpback, but there have been so many humpback whales lately in the harbour, I’ve never witnessed that in my life. It’s a sign that our waters are healthy and abundant,” says Arnie Nagy, a member of the Haida Nation.

One First Nation Is Taking Back Control Of Their ‘Devastated’ Lands

February 25, 2025 Zoë Yunker, The Tyee. Create! Canada, Environment, First Nations, Land Reform, Land Restoration

Kasandra Turbide finds her footing on the dry, rocky exterior of Sinkut Mountain, one of the highest peaks in Saik’uz First Nation territory, an hour’s drive west of Prince George. The forest below looks mottled, as if it has been gouged by giant razor blades and painted in shades of yellow and green. “This is what we’ve been up against historically,” says Turbide. “And it’s what we’re trying to save.” Located in the saucer-plate indent of the Nechako Plateau, Saik’uz territory is home to one of B.C.’s few truly wide-open skies. Lumbering glaciers etched its sloping hills millions of years ago, forming fertile valleys threaded with rivers, lakes and wetlands. More recently, the territory became an easy-access buffet for the farming, mining and logging that gripped the region. And now, after a century of persistent development, many of its ecosystems risk collapse.

First Nation Shuts Down Highway Following Discovery Of Human Remains

October 31, 2024 Jon Thompson, Ricochet. Resist! Blockade, Canada, First Nations, Indigenous culture, Parks

Members of Red Rock Indian Band and their supporters brought all traffic to a halt between eastern and western Canada at the Nipigon Bridge for an hour on Monday morning. The shut-down came after pre-contact human remains were found at a nearby park construction site. Demonstrators from across the Robinson-Superior Treaty area called on Parks Canada to cease construction and acknowledge what the First Nation says are systemic mistakes that caused this to happen. In May, four unique sets of human remains were overturned in development of Parks Canada’s $37-million Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area visitor’s centre in Nipigon, 100 kilometres east of Thunder Bay.

Northern Ontario First Nations Say No To Nuclear Waste Project

October 2, 2024 Jon Thompson, Ricochet. Resist! Canada, First Nations, Indigenous Rights, Nuclear Waste, Ontario

Nine northern Ontario First Nations signed a joint letter to the head of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization on Friday, voicing their opposition to nuclear waste burial in the region. “Our Nations have not been consulted, we have not given our consent, and we stand together in saying ‘no’ to the proposed nuclear waste storage site near Ignace,” their letter reads, in part. “We call on you to respect our decision.” In November, the NWMO is expected to issue a final decision on the chosen site of a deep repository to bury Canada’s most radioactive nuclear waste. The 20-year-long process has narrowed options to either a site near Ignace and Wabigoon First Nation, or burying it nearby where the nuclear energy was produced.

Canada Owes First Nations Billions After Making ‘Mockery’ Of Treaty Deal

July 29, 2024 Leyland Cecco, Portside. Resist! Canada, First Nations, Indigenous Rights, Legal System, Treaties, Victory

An “egregious” refusal by successive Canadian governments to honor a key treaty signed with Indigenous nations made a “mockery” of the deal and deprived generations of fair compensation for their resources, Canada’s top court has ruled. But while the closely watched decision will likely yield billions in payouts, First Nation chiefs say the ruling adds yet another hurdle in the multi-decade battle for justice. In a scathing and unanimous decision released on Friday, Canada’s supreme court sharply criticized both the federal and Ontario governments for their “dishonourable” conduct around a 174-year-old agreement, which left First Nations people to struggle in poverty while surrounding communities, industry and government exploited the abundant natural resources in order to enrich themselves. But while the closely watched decision will likely yield billions in payouts, First Nation chiefs say the ruling adds yet another hurdle in the multi-decade battle for justice. In a scathing and unanimous decision released on Friday, Canada’s supreme court sharply criticized both the federal and Ontario governments for their “dishonourable” conduct around a 174-year-old agreement, which left First Nations people to struggle in poverty while surrounding communities, industry and government exploited the abundant natural resources in order to enrich themselves.

First Nations And Allies Resist Radioactive Waste Repository

July 3, 2024 Warren Bernauer, Laura Tanguay, Elysia Petrone, and Brennain Lloyd, Canadian Dimension. Resist! Canada, climate crisis, Energy, Environment, First Nations, Fossil Fuels, Indigenous Rights, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Waste

On April 30, 2024, First Nations leaders organized a rally in Anemki Wequedong (Thunder Bay) to protest a proposed nuclear waste repository in northwestern Ontario between Ignace and Dryden. The speakers included representatives of Grassy Narrows First Nation, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation, Gull Bay First Nation, and Fort William First Nation. Michele Solomon, Chief of Fort William First Nation, welcomed all the participants to her traditional territory and stated that her community is “strongly opposed to the transportation of nuclear waste through our territory and we will stand by that, we will continue to stand by that, and we stand with all those who are also opposed.”

First Nation Sues Alberta Energy Regulator Over Tailings Pond Spill

March 10, 2024 Taylor Noakes, DeSmog. Resist! Canada, Energy, First Nations, Indigenous Rights, Legal System

A northern Alberta Indigenous community is suing the Alberta Energy Regulator for the effects of an ongoing environmental disaster at an Imperial Oil tar sands mine. Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) Chief Allan Adam served the CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) with a statement of claim indicating his community intends to hold the regulator legally responsible for the aftereffects of the Kearl mine disaster that began in 2022. Chief Adam hand delivered the lawsuit to CEO Laurie Pushor during an AER townhall meeting in Fort Chipewyan on Tuesday March 5.

First Nations Say They’re Not Wildfire Evacuees, But Climate Refugees

August 31, 2023 Emma Paling, The Real News Network. Educate! Canada, climate crisis, First Nations, Indigenous Rights, Wildfires

Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by wildfire evacuations and thousands of these evacuees have been displaced for the long term, like Michell and his family. Indigenous peoples make up five per cent of Canada’s population but experience 42 per cent of wildfire evacuation events, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. This year, 25,000 people from 79 First Nations have had to leave home because of wildfires, Indigenous Services Canada told The Breach by email. In the past decade, 70,824 First Nations people have been evacuated from their communities because of wildfires, the department’s data shows.

First Nations At The Frontline Of Canada’s Fires

June 10, 2023 Brandi Morin, The Real News. Educate! Canada, climate crisis, First Nations, Wildfires

As he watched the last plane lumber down the runway, Chief Allan Adam was finally able to breathe freely again. He had just posted a live video from the Fort Chipewyan airport on the evening of May 31, documenting the last flight out with evacuees fleeing impending disaster. A wildfire was advancing approximately seven kilometres from his remote community, which is accessible only by boat or plane. But the relief was short-lived. The straight-shooting leader of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, one of three Indigenous communities in Alberta who call Fort Chipewyan home, was abruptly hit with biting pain.

Oil Company Gave $200k To Group Accusing Pipeline Opponents Of Taking Secret Money

May 3, 2023 Geoff Dembicki, Desmog. Educate! Energy, First Nations, Oil and Gas, Pipelines

A First Nations advocacy group whose leader has accused pipeline protesters of being beholden to hidden financial interests has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from one of Canada’s top oil and gas producers, newly reviewed corporate documents reveal. Stephen Buffalo, CEO of the Alberta-based Indian Resource Council, is one of the most outspoken Indigenous voices in favor of oil and gas expansion, testifying several times to Canada’s federal government and appearing frequently in mainstream media outlets. On multiple occasions he’s used his platform to attack the credibility of First Nations people and environmentalists who oppose new oil and gas development, alleging they are being controlled by secretive funders and one time asking “who’s really pulling the string here?”

How Tribes Of The North Are Taking Climate Matters Into Their Own Hands

February 19, 2023 Stephanie Masterman, Last Real Indians. Create! Alaska, climate crisis, First Nations, Indigenous Activism

It can be difficult to understand the true impacts of climate change when you are not directly facing its harsh effects. We see that communities in different regions and terrains around the world are experiencing different rates of global warming with different consequences. We also know that the Arctic, in particular, is experiencing climate change more rapidly and more severely than other parts of the world. In order to understand the diverse impact climate change has on different communities, it is also important to understand what community-based solutions are in place for adaptation and mitigation of climate change.

Why We Must Do More To Recognize The Application Of Indigenous Law

February 1, 2021 Gavin Smith, West Coast Environmental Law. Educate! Canada, First Nations, Legal System, Pipelines

In the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1996 decision in R v Van Der Peet, Justice Beverley McLachlin[1] famously made reference to a “golden thread”: The history of the interface of Europeans and the common law with aboriginal peoples is a long one. As might be expected of such a long history, the principles by which the interface has been governed have not always been consistently applied. Yet running through this history, from its earliest beginnings to the present time is a golden thread – the recognition by the common law of the ancestral laws and customs of the aboriginal peoples who occupied the land prior to European settlement. For Wet’suwet’en people reading the BC Supreme Court’s December 31, 2019 decision in Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd v Huson, it may have seemed more like an “invisible thread.”

Battle Brewing In Canada Over Rights Of Indigenous Peoples

December 27, 2020 Brett Forester, APTN News. Educate! Canada, First Nations, Indigenous Sovereignty, United Nations

Non-Indigenous opponents fear it would give First Nations, Inuit and Metis too much power. Indigenous opponents fear it won’t give them enough. Supporters tout it as a leap forward on rights, title and reconciliation. Detractors say it strengthens the shackles of the colonial status quo. A battle is brewing over UNDRIP in and outside the halls of power – and a whole lot remains unclear. “As with any law, there’s unknowns,” said professor and legal scholar John Borrows, reached by phone a day after Justice Minister David Lametti tabled Bill C-15 in the House of Commons. “There’s unknowns with our Constitution. There’s unknowns with UNDRIP. But the fact that this has got a process to work through those unknowns is better than the free for all we have right now.”

First Nation Chief Tells Mayors To Butt Out

December 10, 2020 Binny Paul, Cowichan Valley Citizen. Resist! Canada, First Nations, Salmon, Sovereignty

A Vancouver Island First Nation chief schooled four North Island mayors on how Aboriginal Rights work in response to them asking to be let in on Discovery Island fish farm consultations with the federal government. Last month in a letter addressed to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Bernadette Jordan, mayors of Campbell River, Port Hardy, Port McNeill and Gold River asked to be a part of the ongoing consultation process between the minister’s office and seven First Nations with regards to the transitional plight of 18 fish farms in the Discovery Islands.

Mi’kmaq First Nations Coalition Takes Control Of Major Seafood Company

November 12, 2020 Kaniehtonkie, Indian Time. Create! Canada, First Nations, Fishing, Indigenous Rights

In a joint statement released by Mi’kmaq Coalition and Premium Brands, the purchase of Clearwater Seafood is being called the single largest investment by Indigenous group. The Halifax-based Clearwater Seafoods was purchased by Premium Brands of British Columiba and a coaltion of Mi’kaw First Nations. The billion-dollar deal was announced on Monday, November 9, 2020. The Mi’kmaq Coalition is a new legal entity formed for the purpose of this investment in Clearwater. The Mi’kmaq Coalition is owned collectively by participating Mi’kmaq First Nations in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 »

Daily movement news and resources