Tag Archives: aboriginal rights and title

Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

The First Nations calling for a renewal of fish farm licenses

Editor’s note: The licenses for 79 fish farms will come up for renewal by the end of June, 2022. If the Department of Fisheries fails to reissue them, there will only be seven farms left in the province. These are all in the Broughton Archipelago and their licenses come up for renewal in 2023. 

On March 21, a group of what was supposedly 17 First Nations supporting the fish farming industry put out a press release. Cortes Currents is not on the First Nations for Finfish Stewardship email list, and at that point had not heard of the group. We subsequently asked Dallas Smith, spokesperson for this coalition, for an interview. When he did not reply, Cortes Currents published a write-up largely based on that original press release. Within hours of posting a link through social media, someone directed Cortes Currents to independent biologist Alexandra Morton’s Facebook page where there was evidence that this group of 17 was at best 12 and more likely 11 First Nations. Since then, the list has grown smaller. 

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Politics

2021 as seen by Rachel Blaney, MP for North Island-Powell River

Rachel Blaney, Member of Parliament for North Island – Powell River, gave Cortes Currents an overview of the important political issues and her family life during this past year. 

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Indigenous Nations, Justice

Hundreds of academics call for RCMP’s ‘immediate retreat’ from Wet’suwet’en territory

By John Woodside,  National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Hundreds of academics have signed an open letter calling for government intervention in the wake of RCMP enforcement of an injunction granted to Coastal GasLink to build a pipeline through unceded Wet’suwet’en territory.

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

The BC Salmon Farmers Association new ‘independent’ sea lice report 

The opinions that follow belong to the people expressing them and are not necessarily shared by Cortes Radio, its board, staff, producers or listeners.

The BC Salmon Farmers Association has just released what they claim is an independent study of ‘Sea lice in the Discovery Islands.’ 

Their study is filled with terms like – “independent data,” “independently collected data,” “independent professional biological consultants,” “independently collected and analyzed scientific data,” “independent monitoring,” “independent sampling,” and “independent biologists” – but does not say who actually did the research. 

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Energy, Indigenous Nations

‘We are not here to get killed’: Wet’suwet’en solidarity actions met with armed police response

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

From a bridge above train tracks in New Hazelton, B.C., supporters of the Gitxsan Nation watched on Nov. 18, as Gitxsan children and teens tossed marshmallows at a fleet of heavily-armed RCMP units descending upon the tiny town in the northwest part of the province.

“They had tactical units, sniper teams and riot suppression gear and we had children with marshmallows,” Kolin Sutherland-Wilson, a Gitxsan member of Wilp (house group) Git’luuhl’um’hetxwit, told The Narwhal in an interview. 

Continue reading ‘We are not here to get killed’: Wet’suwet’en solidarity actions met with armed police response →