Williams Lake, BC (August 6, 2014): The Tsilhqot’in Nation is overwhelmed and disappointed by the Mount Polley Mine (owned by Imperial Metals) environmental disaster. The tailings pond that has been breached is the same model that Taseko Mines Limited (TML) has indicated repeatedly that they would use for the New Prosperity project. Of which, TML vice-president, Brian Battison and B.C. Energy and Mines Minister, Bill Bennett, held up as exemplary. This is proof of the faults and extreme risks within this model of tailings storage facility.
The chief of the Lower Nicola Indian Band south of Kamloops, B.C., whose territory is crucial to the $5.4-billion Kinder Morgan expansion project, wrote a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister today about his "serious reservations" about the project.
Enbridge is facing a startling number of new First Nations lawsuits, challenging the constitutionality of the Harper’s government decision in June to approve the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline.
Eight First Nations -- from Haida Gwaii to Yinka Dene territory west of Prince George – have launched legal challenges, since Friday. Nine more, were launched earlier this year, said the West Coast Environmental Law organization.
The B.C. government has written directly to about 60 hereditary chiefs of the Gitxsan First Nation, outlining a multimillion-dollar gas-pipeline benefits deal.
In the letter, the government offers the Gitxsan about $12-million, plus a signing bonus of over $2-million, if it will allow two pipelines to cross territorial lands.
A healthy majority of First Nations in British Columbia have joined the opposition to federal government approval of the Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline, arguing that it fails to respect the human rights of Indigenous peoples and violates Canada's legal obligations under both federal and international law. In particular, the "right to exclusive use and occupation of land" and the "right to choose to what uses land can be put" -- is specifically excluded from Joint Review Panel's mandate.
A new study suggests the Supreme Court of Canada ruling to extend Aboriginal territorial rights will mean a more active role for government to ensure oil and gas development.
It's hard to believe the current federal government could do more to actively promote Prime Minister Stephen Harper's longstated ambition for Canada to be a "global energy superpower" but that's what the Fraser Institute predicted in a report Thursday.
VANCOUVER -- British Columbia First Nations are wasting no time in enforcing their claim on traditional lands in light of a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision recognizing aboriginal land title.
The hereditary chiefs of the Gitxsan First Nations served notice Thursday to CN Rail, logging companies and sport fishermen to leave their territory along the Skeena River in a dispute with the federal and provincial governments over treaty talks.
New scientific research has found that wild-caught foods in northern Alberta have higher-than-normal levels of pollutants the study associates with oil sands production, but First Nations are already shifting away from their traditional diets out of fears over contamination.
The research, to be officially released on Monday, found contaminants in traditional foods such as muskrat and moose, and that aboriginal community members feel less healthy than they did a generation ago, according to an executive summary obtained by The Globe and Mail.
Last month, the Canadian government announced its approval of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. It was not unexpected. Neither was the reaction. On the one hand, it has given Harper’s opponents a convenient platform to score political points for the next election. On the other, it has given the NGOs the chance to try to boost their campaigns with predictable statements and rallies in the streets.
VICTORIA — Three decades ago Nisga’a Chief James Gosnell declared in the midst of the national constitutional debate that aboriginal people owned British Columbia “lock, stock and barrel.”
Back then he generated headlines and more than a little outrage and disbelief. Today, thanks to a judgment for the ages from the highest court in the land, we should admit that he was well on the way to being right.
