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Open Letter to Minister Carolyn Bennett

Canada’s Failure to Meet the Legislated Three-Year Deadline to Respond to Specific Claims

The Honourable Carolyn Bennett
Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs

November 26, 2018

Dear Minister Bennett,

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs writes today to present the enclosed report prepared by the BC Specific Claims Working Group on your government’s repeated failure to meet its legislated timelines to assess specific claims and notify Indigenous Nations, and to call on you to take immediate action on the report’s recommendations.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – November 16, 2018) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) offers our sincere sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the St. Denis familyand to the Wolf Lake First Nation for the great loss of Algonquin Chief Harry St. Denis. He will be deeply missed not only by his family and friends, but by all of us across the country who had the privilege of knowing and working with him over many decades.

News Release

 For Immediate Release

November 5, 2018

Newly Introduced Environmental Assessment Bill Goes Beyond the Status Quo and Marks Important Step in
First Nation - BC Relations

 Coast Salish Traditional Territory/Vancouver: The First Nations Leadership Council recognizes the significant improvements made by Bill 51 Environmental Assessment Act, which was introduced today, and begins to make space for proper relations between Indigenous laws and legal orders and those of the Crown.

News Release

October 25, 2018

UBCIC Deeply Disappointed with Disregard for Indigenous Rights and Environmental Destruction Resulting from Dismissal of Injunction for Site C

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – October 25, 2018) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is deeply frustrated by today’s decision from the BC Supreme Court which dismissed the West Moberly First Nation’s application for an interim injunction while their Treaty case is being heard.

WHEN: Tuesday October 23, 10:00 am PT, 1:00 pm ET

WHERE: Main Lobby, 312 Main St, Vancouver, BC (entrance on Cordova St)

WHO:  

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President, Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC)

Kennedy Stewart, Mayor-Elect of Vancouver

Eugene Kung, Lawyer, West Coast Environmental Law

Federal Members of Parliament TBA by phone

Tzeporah Berman, Program Director, Stand.Earth (Moderator)

News Release

October 19, 2018

Talk is Cheap: UBCIC Demands Real Action on Climate Change from Federal Government

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – October 19, 2018) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) calls shame on the Federal Government for the pitiful debate held in response to the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report, released October 8th.

News Release
October 18, 2018

UBCIC Statement of Solidarity for US Tribes Protection of the sacred Grizzly Bear

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – Oct 18, 2018) The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) stands in solidarity with the 31 Tribal Nations that recently submitted a joint testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), on the future of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and particularly the survival of the sacred grizzly bear.

Dear Ministers Bennett and Wilson-Raybould,

We write today to call on you to demonstrate your government’s public commitments to transparency and the renewal of Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples by disclosing how Canada calculates its contingent liabilities regarding Indigenous Nations’ land claims – and by affirming your government’s intention to fulfill its outstanding lawful obligations to Indigenous Nations by fairly resolving these claims.