Indigenous Peoples

A British Columbia First Nation has launched a court challenge to overturn the National Energy Board’s recommendation that the federal cabinet approve the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The Squamish Nation, whose traditional territories span a large swath of B.C.’s south coast, filed an application for judicial review on Thursday in Vancouver’s Federal Court of Appeal. It seeks to quash the NEB’s decision and refer it back for reconsideration.

Vancouver mayor seeking 'definitive no' on pipeline expansion (CP Video)

The Kanesatake Mohawks are challenging the Energy East pipeline application, claiming it’s incomplete because it doesn’t address potential environmental risks the structure would pose as it crosses the Ottawa River.

If regulators accept the application as complete, it would be “the height of irresponsibility,” according to a legal letter filed Monday by the Mohawks’ lawyer to the National Energy Board.

Pipeline plans have local communities up in arms

MAY 27, 2016

About 70 members of First Nations and the B.C. communities south of the Fraser River met on May 24 at the Sumas First Nation Community Hall to talk about the threat of Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

The federal government has rejected a call from the Royal Society of Canada and some 250 scientists and academics to put a halt to British Columbia’s Site C hydroelectric project despite concerns that the federal-provincial approval in 2014 ignored serious environmental impacts and trampled on First Nations’ rights.

Local First Nations leaders were quick to call the federal Liberals hypocrites for formally adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) while construction proceeds on the Site C dam. 

But a pair of constitutional law professors from the University of British Columbia (UBC) say they shouldn't be so quick to judge. 

Canadian scientists have collected stories from more than 90,000 people whose traditional ways of life rely on nature, in an effort to capture signs of climate change where weather stations are absent.

Their findings, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, fill a knowledge gap in climate change science, which is dominated by data and computer models, said the six researchers from Simon Fraser University.

It’s going to come down to science, not job creation.

That’s the message that a group of B.C. First Nations leaders received from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) when they travelled to Ottawa and Parliament Hill to voice their opinion that the Pacific NorthWest LNG proposed LNG export terminal on Lelu Island does not have universal support from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities alike in the northwest.

First Nation whose territory is directly affected by pipeline development sign on to oppose tar sands development

The former mayor of the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation is upset that his successor is backing Pacific NorthWest LNG’s plans to build an $11.4-billion terminal.

Garry Reece, who lost to John Helin in November’s mayoral race, said the new mayor overstepped his authority in declaring the elected Lax Kw’alaams Band Council’s conditional support for exporting liquefied natural gas from Lelu Island in northwestern British Columbia.