(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – April 15, 2015)  Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs declared to the Chiefs and supporters currently occupying Premier Christy Clark’s constituency office in West Kelowna “WE SUPPORT YOU!”

Earlier this afternoon, five Nicola Valley Chiefs and their representatives (Chief Harvey McLeod of Upper Nicola, Chief Marcel Shackelly of Nooaitch, Chief Aaron Sam of Lower Nicola, Chief Percy Joe of Shackan and Chief Lee Spahan of Coldwater) and supporters of Friends of the Nicola Valley, faced with inaction from the Provincial Government and its Ministries on the grave issue of importing sewer sludge into the Nicola Valley, occupied the office of the Honourable Premier Christy Clark in West Kelowna.

Chief Robert Chamberlin, UBCIC Vice-President stated “Once more, First Nations are left with no other choice but to protect their inherent and inalienable Title and Rights from commercial operations occurring without adequate assessment of impacts to the respective territories of First Nations. In this instance there is no provincial strategy to deal with municipal solid and liquid waste and furthermore municipalities do not have to dispose their waste within their own communities.”

Grand Chief Phillip concluded “As Indigenous Peoples, we will continue to stand against business and government interests that continue to minimize, disregard and completely violate First Nations Title, Rights and Treaty Rights. It will not be tolerated and we will continue to support and stand with those Nations that are negatively impacted by the indiscriminate and continued operation of these biowaste operations.”

Media inquiries:
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Union of BC Indian Chiefs
Phone: (604) 684-0231