Current Problems: Treaties and Land Claims
Exploring Theme: "Indigenous Laws and Governance"
Updates on this page: 27
February 22, 2023
Launch of Manito Aki Inakonigewin Toolkit
NationTalk: Grand Council Treaty #3 and the Territorial Planning Unit, in partnership with Treaty #3 Communities and Knowledge Keepers is pleased to announce the official launch of the Treaty #3 Manito Aki Inakonigewin Toolkit. The Manito Aki Inakonigewin Toolkit was mandated by the Treaty #3 Chiefs in Assembly through resolutions CA-19-26, to educate everyone on the...
December 19, 2022
Conflict over new Indigenous lobster fishery continues to smoulder amid some progress
Toronto Star: HALIFAX – Federal conservation officers have seized more than 7,000 lobster traps in the two years since violence flared in Nova Scotia when a First Nation tried to assert a treaty right by fishing out of season. Earlier this month, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans confirmed it had confiscated almost 2,000 traps...
March 16, 2022
Opposition to Ottawa’s Ring of Fire Environmental Assessment
Mar. 16, 2022: Timmins Today – A coalition of conservationists, environmentalists and lawyers want Ottawa’s Ring of Fire environmental assessment process to be broadened in size and scope to include industrial centres like Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. In a March 15 letter sent to three federal cabinet ministers, the group is calling for a...
February 8, 2022
Wet’suwet’en protests against Coastal GasLink
Canada’s National Observer – Gidimt’en land defenders are calling for the United Nations to visit Wet’suwet’en unceded territory to witness the alleged violation of Indigenous rights. On Monday, the land defenders filed a formal submission to the UN Human Rights Council’s expert mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People arguing Canada is violating several articles...
January 21, 2022
Natural Laws of the Creator
Northern Ontario Business – On Wednesday, Jan. 19, Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, Neskantaga, Kashechewan and Eabametoong First Nations chiefs sent a joint letter to federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault. According to the letter, the chiefs met virtually with Guilbeault on Jan. 17 and expressed concerns about the terms of reference (TOR) for...
November 18, 2021
Wet’suwet’en protests against Coastal GasLink
“Toronto Star – Fifteen people, including Indigenous elders, media and legal observers, had been arrested by the afternoon, according to Jennifer Wickham, a spokesperson for the hereditary chiefs and their supporters. Wickham stressed they had been acting peacefully. Wickham said armed RCMP officers in tactical gear with canine units and heavy machinery moved into the...
October 20, 2021
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office – Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs (Assembly) met with Minister Bernadette Jordan, Department of Fisheries and Oceans; Minister Carolyn Bennett, CIR and Minister Marc Miller, ISC to further discuss how the Mi’kmaq will be exercising their right to fish for a moderate livelihood. The Assembly pushed for Canada to accept...
September 21, 2021
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
Global News – …a flotilla of non-Indigenous fishermen removed about 350 lobster traps off the coast of southwestern Nova Scotia…under the watch of RCMP, coast guard boats and police helicopters. “The gear that we were collecting was what was in violation of the law,” Colin Sproul, President of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association...
June 7, 2021
Hišuk ma c̕awak Declaration
Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht, and Pacheedaht First Nations – have been stewards of the forest, fisheries, and all resources within their ḥahahuułi (traditional territories). On June 4, 2021, the three Nations signed the Hišuk ma c̕awak Declaration to take back their power over their ḥahahuułi. For more than 150 years they have watched as others decided what...
May 12, 2021
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
Ku’ku’kwes News: In a letter dated April 30, the chair for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) asked Leslie Norton, Canada’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland to explain what Canada has done to: Investigate alleged acts of racism, violence and vandalism against Mi’kmaw fishers and supporters Investigate...
May 11, 2021
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office – The community of Potlotek First Nation has now filed a legal proceeding against DFO challenging the validity of the DFO regime in its limitations of Mi’kmaw livelihood harvesting activities. “We are filing for a declaration that the Fisheries Act and Regulations are invalid as against authorized Mi’kmaw harvesters who are...
April 23, 2021
Declaration on Natural Resources on Treaty 5 Territory
Fisher River Cree Nation, Treaty 5 Territory – Manitoba First Nations protest Bill 57 “Protection of Critical Infrastructure Act” — also called the anti-protest bill. Fisher River Cree Nation, Treaty 5 Territory – The Treaty 5 Nations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario will resist all permits, licenses or other land dispositions issued by the governments...
April 5, 2021
Natural Laws of the Creator
NationTalk – Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, and Neskantaga First Nations in the James Bay lowlands have declared a moratorium on April 1 on any development in or to facilitate access to the Ring of Fire mining area in accordance with: Our Indigenous Laws including the Natural Laws of the Creator; Our Inherent Rights (arising from the...
March 30, 2021
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
APTN – Mi’kmaw lobster harvesters in Nova Scotia have launched legal action against Canada’s attorney general, RCMP, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and 29 non-Indigenous fishers including the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association (BFIFA) for the events around the launch of the Moderate Living Fishery in September 2020...
March 3, 2021
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
Department of Fisheries – Introduced a path forward for Moderate Livelihood Fishing Plans based on three key principles: implementation of First Nations Treaty rights conservation and sustainability of fish stocks, and transparent and stable management of the fishery. The Sipekne’katik First Nation and the The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs reject the plan The...
February 3, 2021
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
Global News – The Sipekne’katik First Nation has filed a court action against the Attorney General of Nova Scotia to challenge a provincial regulation on purchasing fish products, saying it’s unconstitutional. This regulation orders that any fish products sold in Nova Scotia must be caught and registered under a commercial licence with the Department of...
December 21, 2020
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
The Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance (UFCA) – a newly formed alliance of commercial fishery stakeholders, is calling on the Government of Canada to establish clear, lasting, responsible, regulatory oversight for all fisheries – commercial, food, social, and ceremonial. Established in Nov. 2020, the UFCA represents thousands of multi-species commercial fishermen, fishery associations, and associated businesses from...
October 23, 2020
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office – Representatives of the DFO Conservation and Protection (C&P) officers, who seized traps from Potlotek and Eskasoni authorized harvesters, refused to attend the consultation discussions (between DFO and Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs) to explain their actions and DFO representatives in attendance said they would not exercise authority over C&P...
October 21, 2020
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
Sipekne’katik First Nation awarded an interim injunction “authorizing police to arrest anyone whose interference, blockades or threats keep the community from carrying out its fishery… Chief Michael Sack has indicated that “The plan…includes conservation measures, regulations for the boats and their safety and compliance officers”. The main concern for the non-Indigenous fisherman is the sale...
October 15, 2020
Wet’suwet’en protests against Coastal GasLink
(Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Vancouver, B.C. – On Oct. 13, Coastal GasLink called in the RCMP to remove a group of Wet’suwet’en women and community members who are holding ceremony at a proposed drill site for Coastal Gaslink’s pipeline. Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) – UBCIC stands in solidarity with the...
October 1, 2020
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office – Mi’kmaw harvesters from the Potlotek Mi’kmaw community will exercise their inherent right to fish for a moderate livelihood under their communities own self-governed fisheries plan. The harvesters will take to the waters of St. Peter’s Bay on the annual celebration of Treaty Day, a date to recognize and honor the...
September 18, 2020
Mi’kmaw Netukulimk Moderate Living Fishery
Toronto Star – “In its 1999 Marshall decision – borne of a court case against Mi’kmaw fisherman and icon Donald Marshall – the Supreme Court affirmed the right of First Nations to hunt, fish and gather in pursuit of a “moderate livelihood.”” 21 years later, the federal government has failed to define “moderate livelihood. The...
February 6, 2020
Wet’suwet’en protests against Coastal GasLink
Union of BC Indian Chiefs – RCMP began aggressively raiding Wet’suwet’en traditional and unceded territories under the watch of the Provincial and Federal Governments. Chief Don Tom, Vice-President of the UBCIC concluded “Using armed force to take Indigenous peoples off their unceded and traditional territories against their will is not reconciliation, it is colonialism in...
January 6, 2020
Wet’suwet’en protests against Coastal GasLink
Unist’ot’en Camp – Hereditary Chiefs of all five Wet’suwet’en clans have rejected BC Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church’s decision granting an interlocutory injunction, which criminalizes Anuk ‘nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law), and have issued and enforced an eviction of CGL’s workers from the territory. “Canada and the B.C. government have both pledged to implement the UN Declaration...
August 14, 2019
People of the Longhouse
CBC – The Federal Government continuing to rely on a Specific Claims process that according to Peter Di Gangi, a board member at the First Nations-led research centre Yellowhead Institute, is the federal government’s conflict of interest. “The claims are against the federal government. At the same time, it controls the negotiation process, controls the...
January 10, 2019
Wet’suwet’en protests against Coastal GasLink
“What happens when you engage Hereditary Chiefs in the Process vs excluding them? Union of BC Indian Chiefs – “There are not a lot of similarities between the Broughton and the Unist’ot’en engagement with the Province (as stated by Premier John Horgan). In June, government-to-government work between our three Nations and the Province was confirmed...
November 20, 2018
Muskotew Sakahikan Enowuk, the traditional Government of the Lubicon Lake Nation
Muskotew Sakahikan Enowuk, the traditional Government of the Lubicon Lake Nation, outlined a number of remaining concerns faced by the First Nation, despite a recently announced Treaty Land Entitlement Settlement between Lubicon Lake Band #453 (the “Band”), Alberta and Canada. The Nation is the traditional governance structure of the Lubicon Cree people which has functioned...
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