Category Archives: Indigenous Nations

Indigenous Nations

Court decision recognizes UNDRIP as law, but leads province to look at revising legislation

By Nora O’Malley, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

First Nations in B.C. may be entitled to raise their UNDRIP rights if they are not adequately consulted on natural resource projects within their territory, following a precedent-setting B.C. Court of Appeal decision released on Dec. 5.

Ehattesaht Chief Counsellor Simon John says the court decision “provides important legal recognition of UNDRIP as a tool to help ensure that First Nations’ interests are respected and their role in decision making is realized.” 

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Energy, Indigenous Nations

BC Coastal First Nations vow to fight pipeline pact

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

Coastal First Nations are vowing to use every legal tool to stop the proposed Alberta-to-BC pipeline deal and tanker ban changes.

Marilyn Slett, president of the Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative and elected chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, said in a news conference that her nations “cannot support and will not support” the pipeline agreement signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith that would see bitumen shipped from Alberta’s oilsands to BC’s northwest coast.

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Energy, Indigenous Nations, Politics

Federal minister gets cool coastal welcome in BC after pipeline pact

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

British Columbia Premier David Eby kept his cards close about Friday’s meeting with federal Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson — a day after Ottawa struck a pipeline deal with Alberta.

It’s Eby’s first federal face-to-face meeting after being shut out of talks between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith around a possible pipeline crossing BC to the north coast — which would also involve carve-outs to the legislated oil tanker ban in provincial waters. 

Days before the Alberta-Ottawa memorandum of understanding (MOU) was revealed, Eby told Carney it was “unacceptable” the deal was brokered without input from BC. 

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Disaster, Forests, Indigenous Nations

Amid climate impacts, leading Secwépemc firekeeper shares ‘a better way of looking after the land’

By Aaron Hemens, IndigiNews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Growing up in Nlakaʼpamux and syilx territories in the 1970s, Joe Gilchrist can’t remember a single summer when wildfire smoke ever trapped him indoors. 

The Merritt, B.C., region’s semi-arid landscape still saw scorching summer temperatures back then, he recalled, but not the record-breaking fire seasons of recent years. 

“That was thanks to our work that the Indigenous ancestors did on the land,” said Gilchrist, a Secwépemc Nation member who now lives on Skeetchsn Indian Band’s reserve with his daughter.

“Then, everything was still fairly spaced out; the fires were easier to handle.”

Although settlers’ wildfire suppression efforts had become the dominant form of land stewardship when he was young, Indigenous communities in the Nicola Valley were still using fire to “cleanse” the land, Gilchrist said.

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Indigenous Nations

Cariboo nation calls B.C. out on misinformation about Aboriginal title

By Andie Mollins, The Williams Lake Tribune, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Tŝilhqot’in National Government (TNG) is calling on governments to set the facts straight around Aboriginal title and to stop what TNG calls fear-mongering.

“It’s been working well, it’s been happening for 11 years…I don’t know why B.C. is not coming forward and sharing those facts” said Jenny Philbrick, executive director of the TNG, about the nation’s own declaration of title.

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