Current Problems: Treaties and Land Claims
Exploring Stakeholder: "Government of British Columbia"
Updates on this page: 29
(Filtered by Theme "Aboriginal Rights and Title")
March 25, 2024
Chief Na’Moks: The RCMP’s specialized C-IRG unit exists to crush Indigenous resistance
One year since a system review was launched, the hostile situation between Indigenous communities and RCMP has only got worse Nation Talk: Ricochet – This month marks one year since the RCMP’s civilian watchdog, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, launched an investigation into C-IRG. The RCMP’s Community Industry Response Unit (C-IRG) was created to police Indigenous peoples like...
January 17, 2024
Dogs, Snipers and Axes: Inside the RCMP’s Actions in Wet’suwet’en Territory
RCMP officers testify in BC Supreme Court hearing about potential Charter rights violations. The Tyee: RCMP officers considered shooting a security camera and sending a police dog to pull people out of a small structure as they moved to make arrests on Wet’suwet’en territory in November 2021, according to testimony in a B.C. Supreme Court...
January 8, 2024
Trial of prominent Wet’suwet’en leader and land defenders begins
Three accused are charged with criminal contempt over Coastal GasLink pipeline blockades CBC News: The trial is underway for three people charged with criminal contempt for breaking a court order forbidding them from blocking access to the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Among the accused is Sleydo’, also known as Molly Wickham, who has been the public face of...
December 15, 2023
Breaking into TMX: Secwépemc allies, wrapped in chains, drop tobacco into borehole
While some of the last of the pipeline expansion tears through Pípsell in Secwepemcúl’ecw, a last-ditch effort is made to defend the sacred site First Peoples Law Report: IndigiNews.com – Over the course of two trips in the past month, a team of journalists on joint assignment for Ricochet, IndigiNews and The Real News Network...
November 22, 2023
Indigenous rights collide with $35B Western Canada pipeline expansion
NationTalk: Global News – Trans Mountain, the company that’s building the federal government-owned pipeline expansion from Alberta through B.C., says its project, which is billions of dollars over budget, is now 95 per cent complete. The company hopes oil will start flowing within weeks. Except there’s a problem. Some residents of an Indigenous community are...
August 29, 2023
Better dialogue with First Nations could have avoided Joffre Lakes closure, critics say
Closing of park by two First Nations can be traced to B.C. government’s failure to negotiate treaties with Indigenous communities, Indigenous lawyer says NationTalk: Times-Colonist – The closing of a popular provincial park by two First Nations is a consequence of the B.C. government’s failure to negotiate treaties with Indigenous communities, says a prominent Indigenous...
August 16, 2023
First Nations Coalition Supports Minister’s Decision to Close Open Net-Pen Fish Farms in the Discovery Islands
NationTalk: (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil Waututh) /Vancouver, B.C.) — The Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, ‘Namgis First Nation, St’át’imc Chiefs Council, Stó꞉lō Tribal Council, Musqueam Indian Band, and the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (together the “First Nations Coalition”) have jointly applied together to the Federal Court for leave to intervene in...
July 27, 2023
RECONCILIATION AND ABORIGINAL TITLE: CASE COMMENT ON THE NUCHATLAHT V BRITISH COLUMBIA
By Kate Gunn and Nico McKay Last month, the BC Supreme Court issued its decision in The Nuchatlaht v British Columbia. The Court held that the Nuchatlaht failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish their claim to Aboriginal title on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The decision represents a setback both for the Nuchatlaht and for the...
July 21, 2023
Tahltan Nation Opposes Doubleview Gold Corporation’s Operations in Tahltan Territory
NationTalk: DEASE LAKE, BC, JULY 21, 2023 – The Tahltan Central Government has provided notice to Doubleview Gold Corporation (“Doubleview”) that the Tahltan Nation opposes Doubleview’s continued operations at the company’s Hat Property located to the northwest of Telegraph Creek within an area of Tahltan Territory that has been identified as being a highly sensitive...
May 17, 2023
Trial Begins for a Hereditary Chief Charged in the CGL Pipeline Conflict
Chief Dsta’hyl says he was acting as an enforcement officer for the Likhts’amisyu Clan when he seized construction equipment. The Tyee: Security was unusually tight at the courthouse in Smithers on Monday, with sheriffs using metal detectors and searching the bags of those who attended the first day of the trial of a Wet’suwet’en Hereditary...
May 12, 2023
Nuchatlaht First Nation has 14 days to decide how to proceed with landmark claim
CBC News: : A British Columbia Supreme Court judge ruling on a First Nations land title lawsuit says it did not prove it had rights to its entire claim area, although he suggested it may be time for the provincial government to rethink its current test for such titles. The Nuchatlaht First Nation, a community...
April 21, 2023
Coastal GasLink faces new fines for filing ‘false and misleading’ information
When B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office reviewed reports filed by the pipeline it found discrepancies; now it says the company should pay up for misleading the government The Narwhal: Coastal GasLink is facing a new fine for allegedly misleading enforcement officers and sending them false information about the company’s efforts to protect an area around the...
April 12, 2023
Trudeau says premiers’ claims about natural resources power grab have ‘no grounding in truth’
Premiers criticized justice minister for saying Ottawa will look at resource agreement CBC News: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing the premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba of misinterpreting remarks by a federal minister on whether Ottawa might review agreements that give those provinces control of natural resources. “Let me be very clear. The minister of...
April 11, 2023
Western premiers blast Lametti for suggesting Ottawa might ‘look at’ provinces’ power over natural resources
Lametti told an AFN meeting he would examine calls to rescind Natural Resources Transfer Act CBC News: Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and three western premiers are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to disassociate his government from comments made by his justice minister — who promised last week to “look at” a decades-old law that...
April 10, 2023
When anarchists attack
How police say a peaceful, Indigenous-led protest over a B.C. pipeline was hijacked by violent outsiders CBC News: A security guard was swarmed in a truck near a worksite by a group of people in masks and camouflage firing flare guns. He was then forced to flee into the dead of night, while the assailants...
April 8, 2023
Canada is sitting on a critical minerals motherlode. But is it ready for the new gold rush?
Proponents say Canada must do more to turn aspiration into action CBC News: Drive two hours north of Ottawa, put on a hard hat and bright orange vest, descend into a pit — and you find yourself on the frontline in the fight to be part of the new, green economy. A mining project might not...
March 2, 2023
Land Defenders Call on Courts to Dismiss Criminal Contempt Charges
Charter violations and use of excessive force by RCMP are alleged by Wet’suwet’en members and supporters in their application. The Tyee: A dozen Wet’suwet’en members and their supporters who currently face criminal contempt charges in connection with the Coastal GasLink pipeline dispute have applied to the B.C. Supreme Court to have the charges stayed, according to...
January 23, 2023
British Columbia First Nations Strike Landmark Deals Governing Development on Their Ancestral Lands – Yale E360
NationTalk: YaleEnvironment360 Two First Nations in Canada have forged historic agreements governing industrial development on their ancestral lands. The Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it, also known as the Tobacco Plains Indian Band, have signed an agreement with NWP Coal Canada giving the First Nation veto power over a proposed mining project on their ancestral lands near Sparwood,...
January 11, 2023
RCMP, Coastal GasLink deny conspiring to intimidate, harass Wet’suwet’en members
Mounties acted ‘reasonably’ while enforcing injunction, B.C. legal defence says CBC News: The RCMP denies it conspired with a natural gas pipeline builder and a private security firm in a campaign designed to harass Wet’suwet’en people off their unceded territory in northern British Columbia, court filings say. The RCMP, Coastal GasLink and Forsythe Security, named...
January 9, 2023
Indigenous land defenders criminalized, surveilled and harassed as pipeline construction continues on Wet’suwet’en territory: Amnesty International
NationTalk: Four years on from the first large-scale police raid on Wet’suwet’en territory, Indigenous land defenders in Canada are still experiencing serious human rights violations as the construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline continues on their unceded, ancestral and traditional territories, said Amnesty International today. The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs – the authorities of the...
December 9, 2022
Coastal GasLink protesters sentenced after pleading guilty to criminal contempt
3 protesters receive $500 fines; 25 hours of community service for 2 others CBC News: A B.C. Supreme Court judge sentenced five protesters Monday who pleaded guilty to criminal contempt of court for ignoring a court order forbidding them from blocking access to a controversial northern B.C. pipeline. Justice Michael Tammen accepted a joint submission...
October 6, 2022
The complicated truth about pipelines crossing Wet’suwet’en territory
Alberta-based energy giant TC Energy frequently points to its agreements with 20 First Nations along the route of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. This is true, but look a little deeper and it’s a lot more complex The Narwhal: Three years after starting construction on a gas pipeline in northern B.C., Calgary-based energy giant TC Energy...
June 28, 2022
‘They beat us into submission’: West Moberly’s decades-long fight against Site C dam is over
West Moberly First Nations reluctantly signed a settlement seven years into construction on the beleaguered hydroelectric project on the Peace River in northeastern B.C. The Narwhal: After a decades-long fight against the Site C dam, Monday was a bittersweet day for West Moberly First Nations Chief Roland Willson. The Nation and the province announced a partial settlement...
March 8, 2022
Nuchatlaht Nation Aboriginal Title case with BC Supreme Court
Windspeaker.com – The Nuchatlaht Nation began its legal battle in 2017 fighting BC and the federal government to get their land back. Their territory includes a large part of Nootka Island off the west coast of Vancouver Island. It has been impacted by industrial logging and fishing for almost a century since Nuchatlaht was displaced...
December 11, 2021
Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa decision,
Union of BC Indian Chiefs – UBCIC marks the 24th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada’s ground-breaking Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa decision, which confirmed the continuing existence of the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan Title and Rights, contrary to provincial claims that their Title, if it had existed, had been extinguished. On December 11, 1997 the six members of...
November 24, 2021
Coastal First Nations vs Government of Alberta and 2 Métis organizations
Coastal First Nations – In the wake of the news that two Métis groups received funding from the Alberta Government to legally challenge the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, Coastal First Nations (CFN) will continue to fight to protect our waters, lands and resources from potential oil spills. “We will do whatever it takes to protect...
March 3, 2021
Treaty 8 and Site C Dam
First People’s Law – The Site C dam, downstream of the WAC Bennett Dam, capitalizes on the destruction of Treaty 8 territory and the ongoing infringement of treaty rights. It will also cause additional, irreversible impacts on the lands and rights of Indigenous Peoples in Treaty 8 on both sides of the Alberta-BC border. In...
March 26, 2020
Site C Dam and COVID-19
Open Letter from Union of BC Indian Chiefs to Premier John Horgan and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health – to halt construction of Site C Dam due to concerns around COVID-19. Through UBCIC Resolution 2011-25, UBCIC highlighted the environmental dangers of the Site C Dam and pointed to the devastating effects it will have on...
May 24, 2019
Heitsuk Nation arguments ignored by Appeal Court
Heiltsuk Nation – the B.C. Court of Appeal handed down a decision that reduces the power of provinces to protect lands and waters from inter-provincial infrastructural projects and that fails to recognize the role of Indigenous peoples in protecting the environment. Heiltsuk and Haida made arguments related to their inherent Indigenous title and rights and...
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