Latest News

(Coast Salish Territory / Vancouver BC – February 11, 2016) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs congratulates the Akisq’nuk First Nation on the just resolution of its specific claim at the Specific Claims Tribunal. On February 5, 2016 the Tribunal ruled that Canada breached its legal obligation to the Akisq’nuk First Nation by failing to correct an 1887 land survey error and again in 1915 when it failed to protect additional grazing lands from alienation. Both historical events resulted in significant losses of reserve lands and according to the Tribunal Chair, Justice Harry Slade, expose a series of “missteps, an outright betrayal, and inaction” on the part of Canada during the reserve creation process in British Columbia.  

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – January 26, 2016) Today the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal issued a landmark decision confirming that First Nations children in Canada have received inequitable child welfare funding, that this discrimination must cease, and that they must receive equitable child welfare funding going forward.  163,000 First Nations children are affected by the case and the child welfare funding shortfalls on reserves and in the Yukon are 22% to 38.5%.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C.- January 23, 2016) The Stewards of the Land at the Rocky Mountain Fort Camp on the Peace River are anxious as BC Hydro’s have ordered members of Saulteau Safety & Security to increase their on-the-ground presence to allow Paul Paquette and Son’s Contracting to continue the clear-cutting of the south bank of the proposed Site C dam site.  UBCIC continues to denounce BC Hydro's deliberately provocative and thuggish efforts to fast track construction on the proposed Site C project despite the legal uncertainty of the project.

Vancouver – The following is a joint statement from the United Steelworkers, the BC Federation of Labour, the First Nations Summit, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and the BC Assembly of First Nations marking the fourth anniversary of the Babine sawmill explosion:

Established in 2007, the purpose and mandate of the Joint Working Group on First Nations Heritage Conservation (JWGFNHC) is to identify First Nations’ issues and concerns, develop options and make recommendations to: (1) enable a meaningful role for First Nations in provincial heritage conservation and (2) improve the provincial protection and conservation of First Nations burial sites, sacred sites and heritage sites in the spirit of the New Relationship and the Transformative Change Accord.

(Treaty 8 Territory/Rocky Mountain Fort Camp, B.C. – January 12, 2016)  The historic Rocky Mountain Fort Camp in the Peace Valley, populated by Treaty 8 Stewards of the Land and local landowners opposing BC Hydro’s Site C dam, received a high profile visit today from Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, and well known environmentalist David Suzuki, who have joined together in their support of Treaty 8 First Nations opposition to the proposed Site C.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C.- January 8th, 2016) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is denouncing BC Hydro's deliberately provocative and reckless attempts at fast tracking construction on the proposed Site C project despite the legal uncertainty of the project moving forward.  

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. - January 07, 2016) A recently released study, published in Virology Journal, reports evidence that the virus most feared by the international salmon farming industry is now present in our wild fish in British Columbia, Canada.