First Nations

Vancouver Declares City Is On Unceded Aboriginal Territory

June 27, 2014 Peter Meiszner, www.globalnews.ca Create! Canada, Colonialism, First Nations, Indigenous Rights, Vancouver

Vancouver city council has unanimously voted to acknowledge that the city is on unceded Aboriginal territory. Mayor Gregor Robertson declared a ‘Year of Reconciliation’ last summer, in the hopes of building new relationships between Aboriginals and Vancouverites. “Underlying all other truths spoken during the Year of Reconciliation is the truth that the modern city of Vancouver was founded on the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations and that these territories were never ceded through treaty, war or surrender,” reads part of the motion from the city. The city says it will now work with representatives from the Aboriginal community to determine “appropriate protocols” for conducting city business.

First Nations Being Courted To Back Tar Sands Refinery

June 24, 2014 Elizabeth Douglass, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Canada, Climate Change, Enbridge, Environment, First Nations

Companies behind refining proposals are trying hard to avoid the mistakes Enbridge made on Northern Gateway pipeline—but an uphill fight awaits Despite last week's approval from the Canadian government, uncertainty still dogs Enbridge Inc.'s Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline largely because of a vow from key aboriginal communities to block it. Others in the oil industry are trying hard to avoid the mistakes Enbridge made when it comes to approaching Canada's powerful First Nations about projects that could contaminate their lands and waterways. Pacific Future Energy Corp.'s recent refinery proposal is the latest example. Earlier this month, the company unveiled plans for a $10 billion refinery in British Columbia that would convert Alberta's tar sands bitumen into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for export to Asia and other markets. Pacific Future Energy pledged to form a "full partnership" with affected First Nations, provide permanent jobs and build the "greenest refinery in the world."

Battle To Stop Northern Gateway Pipeline Escalates

June 18, 2014 Justin Trudeau, Tom Mulcair, www.cbc.ca Resist! Canada, First Nations, Oil, Pipeline, Protest

The federal government has agreed to let Enbridge build its Northern Gateway pipeline, subject to 209 conditions recommended by the National Energy Board and further talks with aboriginal communities. Enbridge wants to build the pipeline from Bruderheim, Alta., to Kitimat, B.C. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair called it "folly" and "pure madness" to think anyone can put supertankers in British Columbia's Douglas Channel. Both Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said they would reverse the decision to accept the National Energy Board's pipeline approval.Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, environmental groups and First Nations reacted quickly to news of the federal approval, releasing statements opposing it. Al Monaco, president and CEO of Enbridge, said in a teleconference with reporters that the economic benefits of the pipeline are straightforward, but the company has some work to do in convincing the public.

Five Strategies To Stop The Northern Gateway Pipeline

June 17, 2014 Brent Patterson, www.canadians.org Strategize! Canada, First Nations, Law, Pipeline, Protest

The Harper government must announce its decision on the 525,000 barrels per day Northern Gateway tar sands export pipeline by midnight tomorrow. On CTV's Question Period yesterday, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, said, "We fully expected the Harper government to make every effort to ram this project through. But…there's enormous solidarity here in British Columbia between First Nations people, British Columbians, Canadians, and we'll do what's necessary and whatever it takes to stop this project." Even if the Harper government approves the pipeline today or tomorrow, a range of strategies are being proposed to ensure the pipeline is never built: BLOCKADE The Unist’ot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en people have set up a resistance camp on their traditional and unceded territory on the pathway of the pipeline. With the support of allies they are building and living in homes and structures to block the pipeline. Given the mountainous terrain of the area south of Houston in northern British Columbia, the pipeline cannot be rerouted to avoid the Unist’ot’en camp.

NEW VIDEO: Justice For Aboriginals – It’s Time

June 15, 2014 Staff, www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com Educate! colonization, First Nations, Indigenous Rights, Video

Why don’t you people just get over it? Well, umm…. Hello? That’s the gist of this video put together by Canada’s largest labor union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which celebrated National Aboriginal Day on June 21 by launching a new campaign,Justice for Aboriginal Peoples—It’s Time! “Aboriginal Peoples in this country have endured centuries of oppression and face many challenges in their struggle for justice. This struggle is not only for the First Peoples of this nation to take on,” the union says on its site. “Treaties were signed between First Nations and the Government of Canada—the people we elected to represent us. So we all have a responsibility to ensure that the terms and conditions of those treaties are met.”

First Nations Will Not Allow Pulp Operation To Re-Open

June 14, 2014 Aaron Beswick and Michael Gorman, www.thechronicleherald.ca Resist! First Nations, pollution, Protest, Water

One of the largest industrial employers in Pictou County remains shut down. The Pictou Landing First Nation is holding to its demand that it won’t allow Northern Pulp to reopen until they get a firm commitment from the province to remediate and clean up the Boat Harbour industrial waste treatment site. The province, which owns the site, doesn’t yet know how much it would cost to clean up the waste that has poured into the former tidal lagoon from the kraft pulp mill since it opened in 1967. “We’ve done a number of cost analyses on it, both looking at cleanup at various stages and various options,” said Premier Stephen McNeil on Thursday. However, McNeil said his government needs an update on what is actually in Boat Harbour before it can estimate the plan for and cost of a cleanup. That information, he said, might not come until later this year. But until the province commits to the Pictou Landing First Nation band council with firm timelines for cleanup, Chief Andrea Paul is maintaining that she won’t lift her community’s blockade of the site of the broken effluent pipe.

Chemical Leak In Canada Sparks A First Nations Blockade

June 13, 2014 Miles Howe, www.news.vice.com Resist! Canada, Environment, First Nations, pollution

On Tuesday morning, staff at the Northern Pulp-owned Abercrombie Point pulp and paper mill in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, observed that a pipe carrying raw effluent to its final destination of the Boat Harbor Treatment Facility had sprung a leak and was spewing its contents into the adjacent waters of Pictou Harbor. Northern Pulp spokesperson Dave MacKenzie could not verify how many hours the leak had been going on for, nor if the pipe itself had been absolutely severed — and was thus spewing its total contents into the harbor. The official mill stance is that the leak was discovered at about 7AM and the shutdown process: “began immediately and took a couple of hours.” Pictou Landing First Nation resident Jonathan Beadle, however, suspects that the leak had gone undetected through the previous night — and that the pipe itself was completely ruptured at the leak point.

First Nations Vow: No Tar Sands Pipeline

June 13, 2014 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Resist! Canada, First Nations, Pipeline, Protest

There will be no tar sands pipeline. That is the message stressed by First Nations communities who say that even if Canada's Prime Minister Harper gives the federal OK to Enbridge's Northern Gateway project, First Nations law and their "responsibilities to future generations" will stop the project dead in its tracks. A federal decision on the project, which includes a 1,200-kilometer pipeline that would carry half a million barrels per day of crude from the Alberta tar sands to coastal Kitimat, British Columbia, is expected in the coming days. Chief Fred Sam of the Nak’azdli First Nation, one of the Yinka Dene First Nations communities who have joined in opposition to the Northern Gateway, stated, "Our decision to refuse consent for the Enbridge pipeline is a decision according to our own laws. It is binding and clearly set out in the Save the Fraser Declaration." That declaration, the Yinka Dene Alliance explained, bans Enbridge's pipelines and tankers from First Nations territories.

Harper and Enbridge Face First Nations Resistance

June 12, 2014 Will Horter, www.dogwoodinitiative.org Resist! Canada, Enbridge, First Nations, Harper, Oil and Gas

It’s 2007 and we’ve been running our No Tanker campaign for a couple years. Our Oil Tankers are Loonie campaign had gone viral attracting press and supporters from around the world, but we’d never met with Enbridge. So there I am, dressed in my only suit, accompanied by a few colleagues finally meeting with the Enbridge CEO and his senior staff in a conference room in the Bentall Tower in Downtown Vancouver. The meeting was cordial – Patrick Daniel is a charming man and he attempted to assure us that he was on the side of angels by being concerned about global poverty. The initiative he was most proud of was the energy4everyone foundation he had set up to help disadvantaged communities in Africa. We told him we shared his concerns for the world’s disadvantaged, but didn’t think the best way to improve their circumstances was to take some of the world’s dirtiest oil, jam a pipeline through unceded First Nations lands, ship it across a thousand streams and put it on oil tankers bigger than the Exxon Valdez for shipment through some of the most dangerous waters for ships – let alone massive tankers. After sharing stories about working in the developing world, Patrick Daniel assured us Enbridge would only operate in communities where it was welcome. We were happy to hear this, but rightly took it as a rhetorical comment – not as an enforceable commitment.

First Nations Say Oilsands Expansion ‘Environmental Horror Story’

June 9, 2014 Les Whittington, www.firstperspective.ca Educate! Environment, First Nations, Indigenous Rights, Oil Sands

They call themselves “the people of the land of the willow” and have survived for thousands of years hunting, fishing and trapping along the Athabasca River in northern Alberta. But today the 1,200 members of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) are caught up in one of the largest industrial developments on the face of the planet — the expansion of the sprawling, land-devouring oilsands operations intended to produce 5.2 million barrels of oil a day by 2030. The oilsands boom is seen by petroleum companies and the Harper government as essential to Canada’s future economic strength. But to the ACFN, it means something entirely different: Troubling cancer rates, contamination of vital waterways and damage to their homeland, livelihood and culture. “Canada has become a playground for oil and gas companies and my peoples’ traditional territory is what’s being sold,” ACFN spokesperson Eriel Deranger says. “Our entire area is going to be annihilated by this type of developmsent.” The ACFN’s conflict with oilsands developers has attracted international attention and emerged as a symbol of the struggle over Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s much-disputed approach to exploiting Canada’s energy riches.

First Nations Mount National Day Of Resistance

May 15, 2014 Staff, www.cbc.ca Resist! First Nations, Indigenous Rights

More than 1,000 people rallied in Ottawa today to protest the federal government's approach to aboriginal Canadians. They are calling it a day of resistance. While aboriginal people and supporters arrived by the busload on Parliament Hill, protesters also took to the streets in Kahnawake, Saskatoon, Sudbury and Winnipeg. The protesters said they are frustrated about the federal government's proposed education reforms for First Nations, and about Ottawa's refusal to call a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women. "When people are starting to be desperate, you see people like this turn out on the street," said Ontario Regional Chief for the Assembly of First Nations Stan Beardy. "I think we'll see more and more of that. People are getting very desperate." The protesters are determined to be listened to, something they say the Conservative government isn't doing. The poverty, social and health problems continue for many, both on and off reserve.

Walk In Solidarity With Aboriginals

March 26, 2014 Staff www.cbc.ca Educate! Canada, First Nations

The group’s 500-kilometre journey, which began March 8 in western Saskatchewan, will end Thursday in Edmonton at the Truth and Reconciliation hearings where they’ll hear about the effects of Canada’s residential schools. Ann Heinrichs, who has adopted two aboriginal girls, says they would still be with their parents if not for the residential school system. (CBC) About 150,000 First Nation, Inuit and Métis children were removed from their communities and forced to attend the schools between 1931 and 1996. Students endured substandard living conditions, emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Laurens Thiessen van Esch, who moved to Manitoba recently from the Netherlands, says the walk has given him a different perspective of Canadian history.

Canada Spy Agency Prepared For Idle No More Escalation

March 25, 2014 Justin Ling, www.nationalpost.com Educate! Canada, First Nations, Idle No More

Secret documents from Canada’s spy agency show that the Canadian government was getting ready in case last year’s Idle No More protests “escalated.” A heavily-redacted 11-page report — with one entire page missing — obtained under the Access to Information Act shows that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was involved in preparing an all-of-government approach to dealing with the First Nations protests, which began in late 2012. The redactions were, in part, because the information related to “the efforts of Canada towards detecting, preventing or suppressing subversive or hostile activities,” according to a letter from the spy agency.

Northern Gateway Pipeline: Canada Must Listen To First Nations

March 25, 2014 Amnesty International, ht.ly Educate! Canada, Energy, Environment, First Nations, Tar Sands

The Canadian government is expected to make a decision on the Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal in the coming months. Despite a lengthy review process, the federal government has still not adequately addressed the rights of First Nations who would be affected by the pipeline. In 2011, 61 First Nations in British Columbia whose traditional territories would be crossed by the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, or who depend on downstream or coastal waters, issued a declaration opposing the oil sands pipeline. They called the pipeline a “grave threat” to their cultures and to future generations.

Limitations of UN Declaration for Indigenous People

March 17, 2014 Steven Newcomb, www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com Educate! First Nations, Indigenous Rights

For nations and peoples typically called “Indigenous,” 2014 will be an important year in the international arena. This coming September, the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to convene a High Level Plenary Meeting (HLPM) regarding the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Plans are underway, and the planned event is generating considerable discussion, pro and con, amongst Indigenous Peoples’ representatives. According to a United Nations resolution, the HLPM is “to be known as” a “World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.” This gives the mistaken impression that it is a UN World Conference. It isn’t.

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