Latest News

Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
November 23, 2015

Dear Prime Minister,

Our organizations welcome your public commitment to a renewed relationship between the federal government and Indigenous Peoples in Canada based on the rights guaranteed in Canada’s Constitution and enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We hope that this vision of cooperation and partnership will shape your government’s actions and priorities from the outset. 

Dear Minister Bennett: 

We write to follow up on our November 4, 2015 letter and briefing note regarding the fair, just and timely resolution of specific claims. In that letter we recommend taking concrete measures to demonstrate the Government of Canada’s commitment to reconciliation through resolving specific claims and to carry out this work in partnership with First Nations. The most pressing of these recommendations is the immediate restoration of specific claims research funding to claims research units (CRUs) and First Nations.

November 19, 2015

BC Climate Leadership Team:

Jordan Sturdy, MLA
Susan Laaksonen-Craig, Climate Action Secretariat
Nancy Olewiler, SFU
Dr. Thomas F. Pederson, Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions
Dr. James Tansey, UBC and Offsetters
Linda Hepner, City of Surrey
Paul Ives, Town of Comox
Luke Strimbold, Village of Burns Lake
Tzeporah Berman, York University
Matt Horne, Pembina Institute
Merran Smith, Clean Energy Canada
James Gorman, West Fraser Timber
David Keane, BC LNG Alliance
Greg McDougall, Harbour Air
Tim Newton, Formerly BC Hydro; Power Ex
Chief Ian Campbell, Squamish First Nation
Chief Michelle Edwards, Cayoose Creek
Chief Zach Parker, Ulkatcho First Nation

OPEN LETTER: BC Climate Leadership Team Must Oppose Site C

November 18, 2015

Dear Minister Bennett:

We write to respectfully urge you to address an important matter which is impeding the ability of First Nations to access information from your ministry for the purposes of filing specific claims. Specific claims deal with Canada’s failure to fulfil historical lawful obligations to honour its treaty promises to First Nations and to protect reserve lands and assets from illegal alienation and mismanagement.

Coalition Demands Action on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Makes Preliminary Recommendations for National Inquiry

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – November 9, 2015) A Coalition on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is holding a press conference this morning to advise the public that British Columbia has failed to make significant progress on many of the recommendations from the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (MWCI) and continues to ignore international recommendations from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Given their experience with the MWCI, the Coalition is making preliminary recommendations to the newly elected Trudeau Government for the National Inquiry which Prime Minister Trudeau promised would start immediately.

Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver, BC) – BC First Nations Leaders are optimistic following today’s appointment of the new federal Liberal Cabinet by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) are particularly pleased that for the first time there will be two indigenous members of Cabinet, including former BCAFN Regional Chief and FNLC member Jody Wilson-Raybould (Vancouver-Granville), who was appointed Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

October 29, 2015

Premier Christy Clark
PO BOX 9041 STN PROV GOVT
Victoria BC V8W-9E1
Via facsimile: 250-387-0087
604-775-1688

OPEN LETTER: UBCIC Demands Premier Clark Apologize for Highway of Tears Deleted Emails and Implement Recommendations from Privacy Commissioner’s Report

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C.- October 27, 2015) A Coalition on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls is extremely upset that the BC Information and Privacy Commissioner has found that Ministry of Transportation staff willfully deleted emails related to the Highway of Tears, a remote stretch of Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Prince George, where many Indigenous women and girls have been murdered or disappeared.