Latest News

News Release
October 27, 2020

UBCIC Congratulates NDP for their Historic Win and Calls for Pivotal Action to Advance Indigenous Title and Rights     

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – October 27, 2020) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) congratulates Premier John Horgan and the NDP for securing a historic victory on election night that will see them form a majority NDP government for the first time in over 20 years, and is calling for immediate joint action on Indigenous priorities.

News Release
October 22, 2020

UBCIC Statement on Lobster Fishery and RCMP Inaction to Protect the Mi’kmaq from Violence

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – October 22, 2020) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is enraged about the blatant illegality of the RCMP indifference to violence against the Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia.  The failure to act to keep the peace and secure the rights and safety of the Mi’kmaq people is a clear dereliction of duty.  

News Release
October 21, 2020

Federal Government’s Ties to Fish Farm Industry and Monopoly on Research Hastening Demise of Wild Salmon

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – October 21, 2020) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is demanding transparency and accountability from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) regarding their continued jeopardization of wild salmon stocks. Following the DFO’s recent announcement that open-net pen farms in BC’s Discovery Islands pose a minimal risk to wild salmon, Dr. Kristi Miller-Saunders, head of the DFO’s molecular genetics laboratory, has stated that the DFO remains beholden to the open-net farm industry, underplaying the risks to wild salmon in order to hold aloft a controversial industry.

Statement 

October 15, 2020

FNLC stands with the Mi’kmaq and calls on Federal Government, Government of Nova Scotia and the RCMP  to step in and stop the racist violence

(Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C.) The First Nations Leadership Council (a collaborative working relationship between BC Assembly of First Nations, First Nations Summit and Union of BC Indian Chiefs – [FNLC]) strongly denounces the abhorrent violence and disregard for the law by non-indigenous protesters who have disrupted and interfered with the legal and constitutionally protected rights of the Mi’kmaq people. Inciting hostility and undermining the Mi’kmaq right to earn a moderate living from fishing, they have attempted to hinder and deny the Nation’s fishing activities, including their Atlantic lobster fishery in Saulnierville, Nova Scotia for the past several weeks.

Statement
October 15, 2020

Violence Must Not Threaten the Safety and Rights of Land Defenders and Matriarchs Holding Ceremony and Protecting the Sacred Wedzin Kwa Headwaters

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – October 15, 2020) On October 13, 2020, 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.

To: Leaders of BC political parties

Green: Sonia Furstenau
Liberal: Andrew Wilkinson, Paul Barbeau
New Democratic: John Horgan, Craig Keating 

October 14, 2020

OPEN LETTER: Call for a BC Action Plan on MMIWG2S

Dear Leaders,

We, members of the Coalition on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls in BC (the Coalition), are writing to express grave concern and disappointment that no political party’s released platform includes a plan to implement the Calls for Justice of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. With less than three weeks until voting day in BC, residents in this province are extremely concerned that the safety and security of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people is not a priority when it is literally a matter of life and death.

News Release
September 30, 2020

Catastrophic Decline in Pacific Salmon will be Hastened by DFO Fish Farm Decision that Flouts Critical Cohen Recommendation

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – September 30, 2020) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is appalled and gravely concerned over the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ (DFO) decision regarding recommendation no.19 from the Cohen Commission. This recommendation set a deadline for September 30, 2020, for the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to prohibit net-pen farming in the Discovery Islands and address the risk farms like these pose to the health of migrating Fraser River Sockeye salmon. However, on September 28, 2020, the Minister made bleaker the future of our salmon; based on scientific assessments of nine pathogens associated with fish farms, the Minister concluded that open-net pen farms in the Discovery Islands pose a minimal risk to wild salmon.

News Release
September 29, 2020

Death of Youth in Care Sparks Calls by First Nations Leadership and Advocates for Immediate Action

((Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C. – Date) Regional and national Indigenous organizations are calling for immediate action and accountability in B.C. over the death of a First Nation youth in a group home.