Category Archives: Indigenous Nations

Indigenous Nations

First Nation chief says landowner waited too long to challenge Cowichan title case

By Sonal Gupta, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A First Nation chief says a major landowner waited too long to challenge the Cowichan Aboriginal title case after a BC court rejected the company’s bid to reopen the trial this week. BC Supreme Court Justice Barbara Young rejected Montrose Properties’ attempt to reopen the case, calling it an “abuse of process” after a 513-day trial over Cowichan title in part of Richmond, a Metro Vancouver city where homes, businesses and public land already exist.

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Communications, Indigenous Nations, Water

AI Data Centres: Can Bill C-37 deliver real authority to First Nations over water?

By Aaron Walker, Windspeaker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As First Nations leaders challenge one of Canada’s largest proposed artificial intelligence data centres over its potential impact on fresh water, many say Ottawa’s newly introduced clean water legislation leaves a fundamental question unanswered: Who ultimately decides what happens to waters in First Nations territory?

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Arts, Indigenous Nations History

NameSake: A filmed Journey towards Recognition, Reconciliation and Place

The radio version of this story opens with a short clip from the documentary NameSake in which Dr Evan Adams welcomes viewers to Tla-amin territory. Then he adds,  ”A lot of people who live here now don’t know us. They forget that all of this used to be ours, and that this city is still in our territory.” 

NameSake will be playing in the House of the Klahoose People, on Cortes Island, at 2 PM on Tuesday, June 30. It is about the Tla’amin People’s connection to the ancestral village site that was taken away from them and renamed Powell River. Then they asked the city to change its name back to  Tiskʷat. The film was screened at Hot Docs in Toronto, the DOXA Festival in Vancouver and will be shown at the Victoria Film Festival this coming July. In this morning’s interview we talk to Dr Evan Adams, who just welcomed you to Tla’amin territory, and Executive Producer Claudia Medina. 

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Energy, Indigenous Nations

Canada’s first 700-bar commercial heavy-duty hydrogen fuelling station opens in South Delta, BC

By Radha Agarwal, Delta Optimist, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

HTEC officially opened Canada’s first commercial heavy-duty hydrogen refuelling station at the Chevron Commercial Cardlock on Tsawwassen First Nation (TFN) land in Delta Thursday morning (June 18).

“This station is an important step in bringing hydrogen into heavy-duty transportation. It gives fleets the confidence to operate fuel cell trucks in day-to-day logistics,” said Colin Armstrong, President and CEO, HTEC.

The CEO noted that the commercial freight industry remains one of Canada’s most challenging sectors to decarbonize.

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Indigenous Nations

‘Everybody will benefit’: What the K’omoks Treaty means for economic development in the Comox Valley

By Dave Flawse, The Discourse,  Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

At the end of May, the B.C. government gave a third and final reading of the K’omoks Treaty Act, which will now go to the federal legislature to be ratified, a moment that has been over thirty years in the making. If passed, the treaty will give K’ómoks First Nation the ability to self-govern and bring economic development to newly acquired lands in the Comox Valley.

“The economic opportunities are huge,” says K’omoks First Nation Chief Nicole Rempel in an interview with The Discourse, adding that “it’s all about working together.”

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