Rights Groups React to Prisoner Death in Custody; Call for Public Inquest and Immediate Release of Prisoners to Stop Dangerous Spread of COVID-19
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rights Groups React to Prisoner Death in Custody; Call for Public Inquest and Immediate Release of Prisoners to Stop Dangerous Spread of COVID-19
April 17, 2020, VANCOUVER, Coast Salish Territories – Prisoner rights, human rights, Indigenous and civil liberties groups are reacting to the horrific news of a death in Correctional Service of Canada’s custody of a person incarcerated at Mission Institution in BC. Mission Institution is the site of the largest COVID-19 outbreak at a federal institution in the country.
Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Must be Respected During COVID-19
April 14, 2020
Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Must be Respected During COVID-19
During the extreme challenges caused by the current threat of the coronavirus, our Nations and organizations are profoundly concerned with ensuring respect for Indigenous peoples’ rights, particularly their rights to self-determination, health, security and well-being. Related Treaty rights of Indigenous peoples must also be fully considered.
Read moreOPEN LETTER: Immediate and Sustained Measures to Protect Vulnerable Communities in the DTES from COVID-19 Transmission
Dear Premier Horgan, Minister Mark, Minister Simpson, Minister Darcy, Minister James, Minister Dix, Minister Robinson, Minister Mungall, Minister Fraser and Ms. Dean:
We are writing to express our grave concern for the vulnerable residents living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), where high levels of trauma, poverty, crowding, homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness create a high-risk environment for a potential aggressive outbreak of COVID-19. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately represented in this vulnerable population, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic stand to exacerbate thea intergenerational trauma, marginalization, violence, cultural and traditional knowledge loss inflicted by colonization.
Read moreOPEN LETTER: Emergency Relief in Energy Sector Must Not Enable Massive Public Investment in Fossil Fuels
OPEN LETTER: Emergency Relief in Energy Sector Must Not Enable Massive Public Investment in Fossil Fuels
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Minister Wilkinson, and Minister O’Regan,
As you are aware, the global COVID-19 pandemic and the concurrent crash in international oil prices has decimated the price of Canadian oil; its recovery in the coming weeks or months is unlikely with the decreased demand amid global measures to curtail the transmission of COVID-19. We recognize that Canada is taking steps to ensure the safety and economic security of Canadians in this tumultuous time, and we are aware that your government is negotiating a bailout of Canada’s oil and gas sector. We strongly feel that the urgent need for emergency relief should not enable massive public investment in fossil fuels. While Canada acts to address the current crises, the urgency of the climate crisis cannot be overlooked.
Read moreNotice: Cancellation of May UBCIC Chiefs Council Meeting
Dear UBCIC Chiefs Council,
Attached and below, please find correspondence from the UBCIC Executive notifying you that the scheduled May 20-21 UBCIC Chiefs Council meeting has been cancelled due to COVID-19. This notice is being sent via email only, and will be posted on our website.
Read moreOPEN LETTER: Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project Must be Halted Due to the COVID-19 Outbreak
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
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OPEN LETTER: Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project Must be Halted Due to the COVID-19 Outbreak
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Minister Hajdu, Premier Horgan, and Minister Dix,
We urge you to act swiftly to protect the public’s health from the heightened risks of COVID-19 transmission posed by ongoing construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project. Most vulnerable to the spread will be frontline healthcare workers, project workers, and local Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities forced to shoulder the consequences for any disregard for health and safety.
OPEN LETTER: Call for the Halting of Site C Construction Due to the COVID-19 Outbreak
Honourable John Horgan Premier of Executive CouncilHonourable Adrian Dix
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OPEN LETTER: Call for the Halting of Site C Construction Due to the COVID-19 Outbreak
Dear Premier Horgan and Minister Dix:
We are writing to request that immediate action be taken to compel BC Hydro to halt all construction at Site C Dam due to the risk COVID-19 now poses to vulnerable workers and nearby Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in northeast B.C.
OPEN LETTER: UBCIC demands immediate release of all non-violent offenders as part of COVID-19 pandemic response and emergency state of Indigenous incarceration
Honourable David Lametti
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OPEN LETTER: UBCIC demands immediate release of all non-violent offenders as part of COVID-19 pandemic response and emergency state of Indigenous incarceration
Dear Ministers,
Dr. Ivan Zinger, Canada’s Chief Correctional Officer, has called the current rates of Indigenous incarceration in Canada a national travesty, with nearly 1/3 of all inmates in Federal custody being Indigenous. In response to the growing rates of Indigenous people being sentenced to custody, the UBCIC Chiefs Council presented, affirmed and endorsed unanimously UBCIC Resolution 2020-03, “Call for Action to Declare Indigenous Incarceration Rates a State of Emergency” (attached), on February 27, 2020.