Tag Archives: Heiltsuk First Nation

Energy, Indigenous Nations, Justice

‘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. 

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Tourism, Waste

Beach clean-ups, the Misty Isles and life between two worlds

Jonas Fineman has been at sea for much of the last seven months: cleaning up beaches, showing tourists the marine wonders of our area and as the  captain of a scientific research vessel. He returned home briefly last week, before setting out again for the waters off southern Vancouver Island.  

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Energy

Is tidal energy the surge remote coastal communities need?

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Many remote West Coast communities rely on diesel for electricity generation, which poses a range of negative economic, social, and environmental effects.

But some sites along B.C.’s extensive coastline are ideal for tidal energy micro-grids that may well be the answer for off-grid communities to generate clean power, suggested experts at a COAST (Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies) virtual event Wednesday.

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Environment, Indigenous Nations

Coastal First Nations take steps to protect wild waters of Great Bear Rainforest

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A coalition of coastal First Nations has achieved a significant step towards protecting the wild shores and waters of the Great Bear Rainforest on B.C’s central coast. 

The Heiltsuk, Kitasoo/Xai’xais, Nuxalk and Wuikinuxv nations signed an agreement with Ottawa and the province of B.C. to do a feasibility study for a national marine conservation area reserve encompassing a significant section of the coast and offshore marine waters alongside the Great Bear Rainforest (GBR). 

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Environment, Indigenous Nations

Investing in Indigenous-led conservation key in Canada’s climate crisis fight

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Like most people heeding the red alert issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last week outlining humanity’s continued spiral towards irreversible climate catastrophe, Valérie Courtois was alarmed. 

“It scared the crap out of me,” Courtois, director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI), told Canada’s National Observer. 

“And I think it’s scaring the crap out of anybody who heard about it. At least, I hope it did.” 

No longer a distant calamity, the panel’s report indicates the Earth will likely surpass the 1.5 C warming threshold as early as the 2030s. 

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