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Tla'Amin reaches final agreement - The Powell River Peak

Wednesday Jun 16, 2010
 
Tla'Amin (Sliammon) First Nation, provincial and federal government negotiators have reached agreement on a final treaty.  Agreement was reached on Wednesday, June 9 in Powell River.

Provisions in the treaty include 8,322 hectares of treaty settlement land, almost $30 million in capital transfers and $7 million for an economic development fund, as well as additional funds for other projects.

Click here to view the map.

In 2009, 25 out of 26 chapters in the final agreement had been completed, with only the fish chapter outstanding. Tla'Amin and federal negotiators resumed talks in March this year on the fish chapter.

Roy Francis, Tla'Amin chief negotiator, said he was disappointed with the fish provisions in the final agreement. However, negotiators realized what Canada offered was as far as it was prepared to go. "We didn't celebrate or cheer," he said. "We weren't happy, but at the end of it we said we were going to roll it up, present it to the community and let the community decide whether this agreement is acceptable or not."

The agreement includes provision for 200 mixed-stock chinook a year, Francis said. "It's a number that we feel really bitter about," he said. "It's not something we like."

There is provision for more chinook as they return to their home streams in Tla'Amin's territory, as well as a treaty right to harvest sockeye, chum and pink for food, social and ceremonial purposes.

Negotiators were shooting for higher numbers, said Denise Smith, Tla'Amin negotiator. "When we look at the analysis in our community and how much fish we get currently under an AFS [Aboriginal Fishery Strategy] agreement, for example, versus what our people want, we think we need more," she said. "The reality is nobody is getting more fish right now. People are just lucky to get fish at all."

There are other provisions in the fish chapter that are beneficial to the community, Smith said, including funds for the Theodosia Roundtable and for a feasibility study to determine if it's possible to introduce sockeye back into Powell Lake. There is also a separate $1 million fish fund slated for enhancement and stewardship activities throughout the territory.

Additionally, there is provision to harvest commercially and any fish caught with commercial licences can be sold or used for food in the community. There is $1.4 million in the agreement to purchase commercial fishing licences.

The 8,322 hectares of treaty settlement lands is four times the amount of existing reserve land. There are parcels of treaty settlement lands on Savary and Texada island and within the City of Powell River boundaries near the airport. The agreement also includes Lund Hotel property.

Francis noted that there is almost 70 kilometres of waterfront in treaty settlement lands.

The agreement that was reached on June 9 is called the negotiators'
understanding. It triggered an approval process, which is starting now.
BC and Canada each have to obtain formal approvals within their respective systems before a formal initialing of the agreement can occur, an event that is expected to happen in September. The initialing triggers the appointment of a ratification committee, with representation from all three parties, that will oversee the community vote.

Francis said the vote might take place in January 2011. "We're going to be asking the community on whether we can accept this final agreement or not," he said. "In doing that, it's comparing what we have under the Indian Act world with what we would have in a treaty world. In my mind, the comparison is very positive for Sliammon."

Smith said the negotiator's mantra throughout the lengthy process was that they could not go to the community with a deal that was worse than what it was under the Indian Act. "The only way first nations are able to access more than the Indian Act is through treaty negotiations," she said. "If we stayed the way we are now, would we be getting more land, more money, more fish? All those things that we think are coming with the treaty will never happen under the Indian Act. Never."

Tla'Amin has been involved in treaty negotiations for 14 years.

Tla'Amin is holding a community meeting on Wednesday, June 23, to provide more information about the final agreement. Representatives from the BC Treaty Commission and federal and provincial negotiators are attending the event.

Two treaties in the BC Treaty Commission process have successfully reached conclusion. Tsawwassen First Nation's treaty became effective April 3, 2009, following ratification by the first nation, BC and Canada. The Maa-nulth First Nations also ratified a final agreement, as well as BC and Canada, but it is not yet implemented.
 

W&Co LLP Intervenes at SCC in Carrier Sekani Case

Friday May 28, 2010
 
Jay Nelson appeared at the Supreme Court of Canada on May 21 in the Rio Tinto Alcan Inc., et al. v. Carrier Sekani Tribal Council appeal, on behalf of the interveners Duncan’s First Nation and Horse Lake First Nation.

This appeal raises for the first time the question of whether regulatory tribunals have a duty to ensure that the Crown has discharged its consultation duties to First Nations before issuing approvals.

Duncan’s First Nation and Horse Lake First Nation, two First Nations on the frontlines of energy development in Alberta, are affected every day by the decisions of regulatory tribunals approving oil and gas projects, oil sands extractions, pipelines and other development. They intervened before the Supreme Court of Canada in hopes of securing a voice in these regulatory processes that are deciding the future of their lands, their rights and their distinctive cultures.

To view Jay's submission, please click here.  His presentation begins at the 5 hour mark.
 

Fish Weirs, clam gardens offer proof of Aboriginal title - The Lawyers Weekly

Friday Apr 23, 2010
 

By Murray Browne and Drew Mildon
Photo by Ingmar Lee    

Provincial government lawyers and officials are typically quick to dismiss the possibility of aboriginal title to foreshore and submerged lands. This attitude is apparently based on an assertion that foreshore and submerged lands are “public” (and therefore controlled by the provincial government) and that First Nations could not possibly have owned or physically occupied foreshore or submerged lands historically.

Despite these assumptions, ownership of foreshore and submerged lands was an integral aspect of the common law historically.  Archaeological analysis of First Nation fish weirs and clam gardens provides extensive evidence of title to foreshore and waterlots, both under the common law and the law of aboriginal title. Many First Nations have strong aboriginal rights and title claims to foreshore and waterlot areas, and the provincial government should deal with these claims before proceeding with further privatization.

For the full article, please click here.


 

Everyone's downstream - The New Internationalist April issue

Wednesday Apr 21, 2010
 

The tar sands infrastructure straddles North America, and is fed by finance from all over the world. But its global reach is provoking global resistance.

'Legal action is the only way'

When the ancestors of the Beaver Lake Cree signed a treaty with Canada in 1876, they ceded vast tracts of land in Alberta in exchange for continued rights to hunt, fish and gather plants and medicines, as they had always done.  In recent years, the large-scale deforestation, wildlife disturbance and pollution resulting from tar sands developments have been eroding these treaty rights and now threaten the community's traditional way of life.

So in 2008, they launched a legal challenge aimed at halting the wholesale destruction of their ancestral lands.  It cites 17,000 infringements by oil companies of the Beaver Lake Cree's constitutionally protected treaty rights and seeks injunctions against new developments.

Chief Al Lameman is determined: "The governments of Canada and Alberta have made a lot of promises to our people and we intend to see those promises kept. Governments and industry ignore our concerns. This is our home.  This is where we live. We have a responsibility to our children to see that these lands remain inhabitable. A legal action is the only way to make our voices heard."

This could have huge implications for Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Total, all of which have actual or planned developments within the Beaver Lake Cree's ancestral lands. But if successful, all new tar sands projects could be brought to a halt. The case, which is financially supported by the Co-operative, is being led by lawyer Jack Woodward. He believes that: "Canada's aboriginal people will be the ones that rescue Canada from international embarrassment and rescue all the people of the world from the worst effects of tar sands exploitation."

Find out more and donate to the Beaver Lake Cree's legal challenge at www.raventrust.com/projects/beaverlakecree.html

For a copy of the article with photo of Chief Al Lameman, please click here.

 

'You're going to destroy us too' - Williams Lake Tribune

Thursday Apr 08, 2010
 
Byline: Erin Hitchcock

Prosperity mine panel hearings continued in Nemiah Valley last Wednesday, with presentations from numerous Xeni Gwet’in Nation members.

At the Xeni Gwet’in Community Band Hall March 31, Sean Nixon, legal counsel for the Tsilhqot’in National Government, told the federal panel reviewing the gold-copper mine project that the central position of the Tsilhqot’in National Government and Xeni Gwet’in Nation is that the mine would cause the permanent destruction of Fish Lake (Teztan Biny) and area, which would cause a “significant cultural loss for the Tsilhqot’in.”

“It would be a significant impact on their current use of the area, on cultural heritage in the area that could not be adequately mitigated through the fish compensation measure,” Nixon said.
If approved by the federal government, Prosperity Mine would be built about 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake at Fish Lake (Teztan Biny), which would be drained in order to build the mine.

Grade 5-7 students from the Naghtaneqed Elementary Junior Secondary School performed a play, Saving Fish Lake, for the panel to show how and why they care about Fish Lake.
Grade 9 student Leyton Setah said the mine will wreck his food sources.

“It will wreck our water source and it will wreck our life,” Leyton said. “Our life will be ruined because we wouldn’t be able to hunt our fish and that’s our way of life. Why would you guys do this to us? We never ruined your life.”

Shari Hughson, community health nurse for Nemiah Valley, said the Xeni Gwet’in people are rebuilding their lives and working hard to find a lifestyle that fits their beliefs and goals of self-sufficiency and a connection the land.

“ … The federal government needs to understand that anything they do or allow into this community that does not fit with the Xeni Gwet’in plan for recovery will probably damage the one community that could be the model for traditional First Nation success,” Hughson said.
She added that if the mine were to go through there would be metal health impacts due to the loss of territorial land that was a home to some communities and is a traditional and ongoing source of plants, animals, and fish, and has a historical and archaeological significance with pit houses present and is in a spiritual area.

She said it would “create considerable grief for some community members here.”
It would also, she said, lead to the loss of self-determination and the loss of control of part of their territory that wold have played a role in becoming more self-sufficient.
Alex Lulua said he has been hunting for all of his life and doesn’t know if he will be able to any longer if the mines goes through.

“And I don’t know if I’ll be hunting anymore if those animals get into that tailings pond or that tailings pond does leak and go down the stream into the rivers,” Lulua said, adding that he still lives off the land.  He added that medicinal plants, such as Hellebore or “Indian medicine,” grow in the area and cure many sicknesses. “And yet you guys are going to destroy that. You’re going to destroy us too.”

Brian Battison, Taseko’s vice president of corporate affairs, responded to a previous undertaking regarding Mining, Your Future, and said the program is an initiative to help local people qualify for work in mining.

He said five objectives to support that goal include: helping the company meet its current and future employment needs; helping to maximize local employment opportunity, as it helps the company meet its first objective of earning respect, creating opportunity, and delivering value; designing the program using local input; building broad participation in the program; and encouraging First Nations participation in the program.

He noted that Taseko is a mining company and its expertise lies in mine-site operations.
“We are not a social service agency,” he said. “We are a mining company. And the program and the people must meet our needs.”

He said the provincial government, through its revenue sharing program, has pledged to share with local First Nations communities the revenue and mineral tax revenue generated by the mines, including Prosperity Mine.

Susie Setah said her parents taught her at a young age how to live off the land, hunt, fish, gather berries, and collect medicines. Now, as manager of the Charlene Williams Daycare, she teaches children those skills. While showing photos to the panel, Setah said she takes the children to lakes, including Fish Lake, to learn how to hunt and pick acorns and berries.
“And we name the berries in the language so the kids can learn the names,” she added.

Sami-Joe Perry, a Xeni Gwet’in First Nation member, said her grandparents have hunted and camped along Fish Lake long before she was born. “It does not take a scientist to figure out the damage it (Prosperity) will do to the land,” Perry said. “We see our lands as sacred and valuable as it is. We do not look at our trees, minerals, or waters as money. We look at them as Mother Earth’s gifts to help us heal, live and protect.”

April William said mining is hurting her people. “What if I was rich, really rich and I came and bought the mine and took over everything and shut everything down and took your guys’ jobs away, your ability to pay for your mortgage, you car, everything?” William asked. “That’s what you guys are doing towards us, doing that to our land, and we all stand up here trying to show you and trying to make you guys hear us, what our land is to us.”

To read more presentations and to read full transcripts of the hearing proceedings, visit the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency website. Click Canadian Environmental Agency Registry and type in Prosperity.
 

Public hearings on mine proposal will include Tsilhqot'in documentary - The Tyee

Wednesday Mar 24, 2010
 
Byline: Andrew MacLeod

Taseko Mines Ltd. has failed in its bid to prevent a documentary about the Tsilhqot'in people's connection to Teztan Biny, or Fish Lake, from being shown at a public hearing on a mine proposal southwest of Williams Lake.

The federal review panel this morning dismissed Taseko's motion that last week asked that the film Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot'in Fight for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) not be shown at the public hearing, said Jay Nelson, a Victoria lawyer acting for the TNG, in an email. “It held that its rules of procedure did not prohibit presenting information in this form,” he said.

A lawyer acting for Taseko did not respond to a message by posting time. The submission to the panel said Blue Gold is a “propaganda film, produced to influence the opinions or behaviour of people, by providing deliberately biased content in an emotional context,” the Tyee reported.

The film's director, Susan Smitten, said she laughed when she heard the company's lawyer had called the film “propaganda.”

“The film's power comes in its authenticity,” she said. It was made as a way to help the Tsilhqot'in people express what the threatened lake means to them, she said. “They come from a position of love.”

Views of Blue Gold tripled the day after Taseko asked that the film be kept out of the hearing, she said. Filmed in two days with a budget under $10,000, it has been watched by people around the world, she said.

The film can be seen on the Hook or on Vimeo. It will be shown during the panel's evening hearings on March 24.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria.

To view the film, Blue Gold, click here.


 

All that glitters is not a gold mine - Vancouver Sun (Op-Ed)

Tuesday Feb 16, 2010
 

By Marilyn Baptiste and Anne Marie Sam

The recent rush to promote mining as the saviour of the B.C. economy is an understandable, but dangerous and indefensible trend that serves neither British Columbians nor investors.
Yes, The Vancouver Sun's Jan. 26 editorial did at least say there are problems, but its suggested solution was not to deal with the real root issues, but rather that we become more like Chile. It endorsed doing whatever the industry wants.

For the most part, however, coverage has been artificially positive. Simply stating there is a boom and ignoring all the facts does not make a boom. Nor does it increase the chances that there will be one in the foreseeable future.

There is a temptation to use the 2010 Vancouver Olympics spotlight to sell B.C. as an investment magnet, and if this involved delivering a full and balanced message to would-be investors, okay. To send highly misleading messages is quite another matter.

Consider the recent giddy coverage. First there was the Federal Environmental Assessment Review approval of Terrane Metal's proposed Mount Milligan low-grade gold and copper project at Shus Nadloh on Nak'azdli first nation traditional lands. This followed provincial environmental assessment approval, and news coverage made it sound like nothing could stop the mine.

The articles ignored Nak'azdli's news releases, its appeal against the provincial approval (due to be heard in March), and its application for a judicial review of the federal approval.
When main backer Goldcorp announced a day after Nak'azdli filed for a judicial review that it would not exercise its option to partner in Terrane's mine, this story was down-played. Again, no mention was made of the legal challenges.

Interestingly, Goldcorp's CEO stated in a keynote address to last week's AME BC Roundup that one of three things his company looks for is "safe jurisdiction." Legal uncertainty over the future of disputed proposed projects on first nations territorial lands does not offer safe jurisdiction. Nor does it help to manage costs, which was the second factor cited. (High-grade ores was the third.)

Then came coverage of the province's environmental assessment review approval of Taseko Mines Ltd.'s proposed Prosperity Mine on Xeni Gwet'in traditional lands in the heart of Tsilhqot'in National Government territories. This mine would kill the pristine and culturally and ecologically important Fish Lake by turning it into a massive toxic tailing pond.  The implication was this mine was a done deal. It was noted the company hopes to start land clearing and road building in the spring.

The facts tell a different story. A separate federal environmental review has yet to be conducted and its hearings are weeks, if not months, away. The Xeni Gwet'in was not part of the provincial review, but is part of the federal one. Meanwhile the Tsilhquot'in has a court case underway to establish fishing rights and protect Fish Lake.

This is surely information with which investors should be provided.

The Sun recently ran a guest column by Gavin Dirom, president and CEO of the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia, which again promoted both the above projects as proof that mining is on the way back after 13 years of no major new metals mines being opened in B.C.  It did not mention first nations, or the need to work with them to end the uncertainty that plagues the industry in B.C. Nor did it get into environmental impacts, or mention that nearly 1,200 closed or abandoned mines continue to pollute our waters and lands.

Instead it promised a rosy picture of future great wealth and prosperity. The question is, for whom? The $500 billion that Dirom says has been generated by mining over the past 150 years have come from first nations lands and resources that were never ceded through any treaty. What first nations have got out of it is abandoned and polluting mines, and they are worried this could be all they will get out of any future mines in the long term.

First Nations Women Seeking Responsible Mining supports the BC First Nations Mining and Energy Council and other first nations leaders in the struggle to bring urgently needed reform to mining legislation in B.C.

Anne Marie Sam and Chief Marilyn Baptiste are members of BC's First Nations Women Seeking Responsible Mining.

To see the online version in the Vancouver Sun, click here.

For information on the federal (CEAA) environmental review panel hearings, set to begin March 22, 2010 in Williams Lake, BC, please click here.  The panel will be deciding whether to allow Taseko Mines Ltd. to proceed with its proposed mine and the total destruction of Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) and surrounding watershed.  Please raise your voice against the destruction of our fresh water, for the future of all Canadians.
 

Speakers tell tales and trials of tar sands - The Driftwood

Wednesday Jan 20, 2010
 
Jack Woodward, Chief Al Lameman, Alan Bibby and James Hoggan keep issue in the news

Byline: Meghan Howcroft

A large group of Salt Spring Islanders received a wake-up call last Saturday night at the Truth, Trials and Tar Sands event taking place at ArtSpring.

Sponsored by I-SEA, RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values & Environmental Needs) and DeSmogBlog, the evening featured presentations by four Canadians making a difference in the fight against climate change: James Hoggan, PR executive and author of the book Climate Cover-Up; Alan Bibby, a local documentary filmmaker; Jack Woodward, the pre-eminent authority in Aboriginal law; and special guest Chief Al Lameman of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation.

At a time when Canada is mopping up its shame after an embarrassing display of broken promises at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, Canadians are at a critical junction when it comes to climate change action.  Hoggan got right to the point. "Climate change is a story of public relations and the most widespread mis-information campaign... This is a story about greed and irresponsibility on an epic scale, deception and widespread media manipulation."

For the full article, including comments by Chief Al Lameman and Jack Woodward, please click here.
 

Aboriginal Group Uses Constitutional Challenge to Oppose Tar Sands - CJSW

Wednesday Dec 09, 2009
 
Jack Woodward is a lawyer representing the Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Lac La Biche. Woodward and the group are arguing that the Cree's constitutionally protected right to hunt and fish on that land has been obstructed by tar sands development in Alberta's North.

Click here for an interview done by CJSW's Joe Burima, plus links to the speech noted below.

On Friday November 27th, an event titled, "Tar Sands on Trial: The Beaver Lake Cree Fight Big Oil to save the Boreal" took place at Calgary's John Dutton Theatre. CJSW News' Sarah Thompson was on hand to record Andrew Nikiforuk's speech.

Jack Woodward's Tar Sands on Trial presentation - part one (MP3 format)

Jack Woodward's Tar Sands on Trial presentation - part two (MP# format)
 

Little First Nations Band A Threat to the Oil Industry Says Former Harper Aide - EDI Weekly

Wednesday Dec 09, 2009
 
A special investigative report for EDI Weekly by Derek Armstrong.

A tiny First Nations band, the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, hopes to do what many large, well funded international organizations such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club would love to accomplish: stop the Alberta tar sands. This impoverished little band of nine hundred is suing the government of Alberta for violating its treaty rights in developing the tar sands. The statement of claim lists more than 12,000 "developments," mostly individual leases granted to oil companies for forestry, road building, laying of seismic lines, drilling and SAGD development. All of these developments, the claim maintains, are infringements of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's treaty rights and are therefore illegal and unconstitutional.

David and Goliath: remember who won

The fight has just begun, but already has attracted international attention. The Co-operative Bank of Manchester, England (slogan: "Good with money"), has donated about $250,000 so far to help the band in its fight, admitting that the "David versus Goliath" aspect of the case attracted them. Last summer, representatives of the bank attended a First Nations pow wow at Beaver Lake, accompanied by a BBC film crew.

It's a fight that could take years. Drew Mildon, one of the lawyers working on the Beaver Lake claim, points out that the governments of Canada and Alberta have already issued motions to strike the claim and will likely do so many times before it ever goes to court. With both governments ranged against them, the Beaver Lake Cree Nation have few resources with which to fight their claim.

"The tragedy is that First Nations have rights but can't afford to fight for them," Mr. Mildon said.

(In the context of the Copenhagen climate summit)

While Copenhagen focuses on the future, the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's lawsuit highlights the ugly, immediate consequence of unbridled exploitation of the environment. They face the imminent, irrevocable destruction of the land that sustains their way of life. Climate change and CO2 levels hardly matter if their land and livelihood is already lost.

For the full article, please click here.



 

TNG report raises Prosperity water concerns - Williams Lake Tribune

Thursday Nov 19, 2009
  Byline: Erin Hitchcock

A study prepared for the Tsilhqot’in National Government says Taseko Mines Ltd. underestimated the potential risk of the proposed Prosperity mine to surrounding lakes and rivers. Stratus Consulting concluded in its study that information provided to date “does not permit a reasoned evaluation of potential adverse effects to water quality, water quantity, fish and wildlife under variable conditions.”

As a result, the TNG is concerned about the future of salmon runs.

“This study raises the alarm,” says Xeni Gwet’in Chief Marilyn Baptiste. “As the traditional caretakers of these lands and waters, we have asked the Panel reviewing this project to demand more credible and accurate information from Taseko so we can properly understand the environmental and human health risks that we are facing.”

The report says Taseko’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project “vastly underestimate the uncertainties in site water balance.”

The report says Taseko has relied on limited data to predict or prepare for extreme weather events. “After operations, they propose leaving their mine waste in place with no active controls,” the report says.

“One extreme weather event at any point in the future could lead to an uncontrolled release of mine waste, which could have severe adverse consequences for the trout and salmon fishery of the Taseko River.” The TNG says Taseko River flows into the Chilcotin River, which empties into the Fraser River.

Stratus Consulting’s report says that because of the known impacts of hard-rock mining, it is critical that Taseko identifies reasonable potential effects and include short-term and long-term mitigation and management measures and monitoring in its mine proposal.

“This report makes it clear that we cannot rely on Taseko’s own assessment of the potential impacts of its project,” Baptiste says. “Since time immemorial our people have relied on the pristine waters of the Teztan Biny watershed and the Taseko River as a source of life.”

For the full article, please click here.
 

Get off our property! - The Varsity.ca

Thursday Oct 29, 2009
 
Lawsuit seeks to halt expansion of Athabasca tar sands into Cree territory
Byline: Alex Ross

In May 2008, the Beaver Lake Cree launched a lawsuit against the government of Canada and the province of Alberta to prevent the expansion of the tar sands into their territory, located in Lac La Biche, Alberta.  According to the lawsuit, an 1876 treaty between the Cree and Alberta states that, "in exchange for the surrender of land," the Cree have "the right to hunt and fish through the tract surrendered."  But development of the tar sands will render the land uninhabitable, the Cree say. 

"What this case is about, for the Cree people, is protecting the integrity of their land and protection of the land in which they hunt and fish. And they are guaranteed that right to hunt and fish in their treaty," Jack Woodward told the audience at George Ignatieff Theatre on October 28th at Tar Sands on Trial. The event was sponsored by Environmental Defence.


For the full article by Alex Ross, please click here.

To read Jack Woodward's speech, entitled "Tar Sands on Trial: The Beaver Lake Cree Nation v. The Crown," please click here.



 

Treaty Stalling Frustrates Snuneymuxw - Nanaimo Daily News

Friday Oct 16, 2009
  The Snuneymuxw First Nation is running out of patience with a bogged-down treaty process that it has been participating in for years.

Murray Browne, an aboriginal rights lawyer from the firm of Woodward & Co who works with Snuneymuxw on treaty and specific claims, said the band agrees with statements from the leadership of the First Nations Summit, which represents dozens of First Nations in the ongoing treaty negotiations, that there is "little light at the end of the tunnel" at this point for the negotiations to be successful.

The deadlock in negotiations revolves around the constitutional status of treaty lands, governance, the co-management of traditional territories and other issues.

George Abbott, B.C.'s Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, said he "appreciates the frustrations" of the First Nations with the slow pace of the negotiations but he expects a "break in the logjam" could come soon.

"We find ourselves at an incredibly fragile and dangerous point in time as many B.C. First Nations attempt to negotiate fair, just and honourable treaties with Canada and B.C.," said Grand Chief Edward John, a spokesman for the First Nations Summit. "Only two agreements have been reached after 16 years of negotiations."

John said that failure for governments to "act now" and reach substantive progress in the treaty negotiations could result in the "dissolution of the treaty process."

Browne said senior levels of government are refusing to negotiate with the Snuneymuxw based on the legalities of the Douglas Treaty, signed in 1854.

"The Snuneymuxw members and their council keep asking why they should have faith in a new treaty when the governments keep violating the Douglas Treaty," he said.

For the full article, please click here.
 

Aboriginal Law Since Delgamuukw Now In Print

Monday Sep 21, 2009
  Aboriginal Law Since Delgamuukw was just published by Canada Law Book, with two chapters contributed by Woodward and Company's lawyers.

David Robbins & Jack Woodward co-wrote Chapter 11: “Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia: A Decade After Delgamuukw." And Murray Browne wrote Chapter17: “The Promise of Delgamuukw and the Reality of Treaty Negotiations in British Columbia.”

Canada Law Book states: “With the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1997 seminal decision in Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, the complexity, nature and substance of Canadian jurisprudence on Aboriginal law continues to rapidly evolve. This text analyzes the major legal developments since Delgamuukw and provides practical guidance for those who work in this quickly changing legal landscape.”
 

Fight Looms over Fish Lake - Georgia Straight

Thursday Aug 27, 2009
  Mining firm promises a new lake, but Tsilhqot'in leader says that's the Creator's job.

"Sports fishers can get slapped by the law for netting a single fish over the limit, yet a large Vancouver-based mining company is proposing to destroy a lake and the tens of thousands of trout that inhabit it." 

please click here for more information (PDF file)
 

Tar Sands: Tearing the flesh from the earth - The Ecologist

Tuesday Aug 18, 2009
  As the price of oil increases again, Canada's tar sands once more look like a giant cash cow to the industry. Now, the only thing standing between the 400 ton bulldozers and rampant environmental destruction may be a small group of First Nations' people...

please click here for more information (PDF file)
 

Co-operative Financial Services to Visit Beaver Lake Cree Pow Wow

Wednesday Jul 01, 2009
  Co-operative Financial Services, a socially responsible investment group, is visiting the Beaver Lake Cree Nation Pow Wow this weekend to make its second sizable donation to Beaver Lake's action against tar sands expansion. Bank officials will tour the tar sands in the air and on the ground to view local impacts. They will be bringing a number of international journalists with them.

A copy of the Pow Wow press package is here in .pdf format. 



 

Prosperity Panel Delayed

Wednesday Jul 01, 2009
 
The Tsilhqot’in Nation is raising its voice in the federal Panel review of Taseko Mines Ltd.’s proposed Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine, which would be located in the heart of its traditional hunting and trapping grounds, and require the complete destruction of a pristine mountain lake (Teztan Biny/Fish Lake) that has been a traditional Tsilhqot’in fishery for centuries. The Panel recently issued a decision agreeing with the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s submissions that Taseko’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project is deficient and key information is still required before the Panel can proceed to public hearings. The Panel noted, in particular, that more information is required on the potential impacts of the project on traditional use of the area by First Nations.

The panel's decision is available here.
 

Aboriginal Rights Lawyers Respond to Proposed Recognition Legislation

Thursday Jun 04, 2009
  Jack Woodward and Murray Browne, of Woodward & Company, are among a group of prominent Aboriginal rights and title lawyers who have sent a critical response to the British Columbia Government on its proposed recognition legislation.

Among other issues, the group noted that:
  • the form of Aboriginal title proposed for recognition appears to be a significantly watered down version;
  • it is legally problematic to pursue artificial amalgamation of First Nations or Bands who happen to share a language or region; and
  • there is a high risk that the proposed legislation would remove the ability of First Nations to negotiate accommodation based on infringements of rights and title.

You can download the Commentary here.
Coverage from the Vancouver Sun is available here.
 

Woodward & Company Lawyers Author Guide to Benefits Sharing Agreements

Wednesday Jun 03, 2009
  Murray Browne and Krista Robertson recently co-authored a publication entitled Benefit Sharing Agreements in British Columbia: A Guide for First Nations, Businesses, and Governments.

The Guide was prepared for the Ecosystem-Based Management Working Group, and results from a comprehensive review of Impact Sharing Agreements, also known as Impact Benefits Agreements or Socio-Economic Participation Agreements, in a number of industries operating in BC and elsewhere.

We want to congratulate Krista and Murray on completing this momentous task.
 

Beaver Lake Cree Get International Help In Their Fight Against the Tar Sands

Wednesday Mar 04, 2009
  Woodward & Company traveled to London, England last week with Chief Al Lameman of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation to meet with representatives of the Manchester-based bank Co-operative Financial Services ("CFS"). CFS is a social-goals oriented, membership-driven bank with a progressive economic vision. Last year, they turned their sights on the madness of the Alberta tar sands and this year prepared to launch a campaign against the use and development of unconventional fossil fuels.

As part of their campaign, CFS wanted to help fund the Beaver Lake Cree's efforts to protect the land from the ravages of tar sands development. During the visit to London, Jack Woodward presented on Tar Sands and Traditional Use to Friends of the Earth and People and Planets and lectured at both the London School of Economics and London University. Beaver Lake Cree representatives met with British Members of Parliament to discuss tar sands and climate change and attended a protest in Trafalgar Square before the Canadian Embassy.

please click here for more information (PDF file)
 

Beaver Lake Cree Nation Draws a Line in the (Oil) Sand

Wednesday May 14, 2008
  Lac La Biche, Alberta, May 14, 2008 - Beaver Lake Cree Nation, a small Cree band from north eastern Alberta, has watched with growing anger and frustration as their traditional hunting, trapping and fishing lands have been rapidly destroyed by the oil and gas industry. They have seen the forests they depend on for their livelihood riddled with oil wells, criss-crossed with roads and seismic lines and emptied of wildlife. They have seen their constitutionally protected rights disregarded and the local environment degraded. And today Beaver Lake Cree Nation says “Enough!”

Beaver Lake has filed a court case aimed at halting the wholesale destruction of their traditional hunting, trapping and fishing areas.

“The Governments of Canada and Alberta have made a lot of promises to our people and we intend to see those promises kept,” said Chief Al Lameman. “Governments and industry ignore our concerns. This is our home. This is where we live. We have a responsibility to our children, and to our children’s children, to see that the lands where the Cree live, and will always live, remain inhabitable.”

Legal papers filed in the Edmonton Registry by BLCN’s legal counsel, Jack Woodward, claim that Alberta and Canada have infringed Beaver Lake’s Treaty rights by approving oil and gas and other developments throughout the First Nation’s core traditional territory. Attached to the statement of claim is a schedule listing more than 15,000 asserted infringements of Beaver Lake’s constitutionally protected rights.

Full press release here.

For the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's Declaration, click here.
 

Band's anger over haying could kill chance of deal - Globe & Mail

Wednesday Feb 27, 2008
  Byline: Justine Hunter

A dispute over the right to cut some hay in a remote area of B.C.'s interior is threatening to re-open a massive native land claims court battle.  B.C. foresty officials are set to decide as early as this week on an application to renew a grazing licence on lands that were recognized last November by the B.C. Supreme Court as the aboriginal territory of the Xeni Gwet'in.

For the rest of this Globe and Mail article, click here.
 

William land-claims decision contested - Globe & Mail

Saturday Dec 15, 2007
  The federal and B.C. governments yesterday set the stage for an appeal of a landmark native land-claims decision, brushing aside an offer for a temporary truce that would have allowed time to negotiate a settlement out of court.

For the rest of Justine Hunter's article, click here.