January 27 2017, Turtle Island—The newly named National Energy Board (NEB) panel tasked with reviewing TransCanada’s Energy East tar sands pipeline application has just announced that it had no choice but to restart the review process at square one due to the bias shown by the previous panel, just as many First Nations that are part of the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion - www.treatyalliance.org - had demanded in submissions made to the NEB. 

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – January 17, 2017) Last week, Canada applied for judicial review of the Specific Claims Tribunal’s decision regarding compensation awarded in the Huu-ay-aht First Nation logging rights case. Today, UBCIC calls on Canada to withdraw this application, which is an insult to the Huu-ay-aht First Nation, an attack on the authority and independence of the Tribunal, and a repudiation of the most basic principles of reconciliation.  

January 5, 2017

Dear Minister Bennett,

We are a long-standing national group of specific claims research directors working on behalf of Indigenous Nations and committed to the just, fair, and timely resolution of specific claims in Canada. Here we present a response to the November 2016 report by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), First Nations Specific Claims—Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). This response, called Taking Action, Building Trust, translates recommendations from the audit process into concrete, tangible actions that Canada can undertake within the next six months.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – November 03, 2016) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) remains steadfast in their outright opposition to the Kinder Morgan (KM) Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) Pipeline, despite today’s sunny report by the Ministerial Panel. 

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver BC – October 14, 2016). Yesterday a tug boat carrying nearly 200,000 litres of diesel crashed in Seaforth Channel, near the Heiltsuk community of Bella Bella.  Leaking fuel continues to threaten the pristine environment in the Great Bear Rainforest.  

September 22, 2016, Montreal/Vancouver—First Nation and Tribal Chiefs gathered today in Musqueam Territory (Vancouver) and Mohawk Territory (Montreal), to sign a new continent-wide Indigenous Treaty — the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion — that commits already some 50 First Nations and Tribes from all over Canada and the Northern US to working together to stop all proposed tar sands pipeline, tanker and rail projects in their respective territorial lands and waters.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – July 29, 2016) Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Transport Canada have issued federal permits to allow construction of BC Hydro’s Site C dam hydroelectric project to immediately ramp up construction. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated in all of his Ministerial Mandate Letters “No relationship is more important to me and to Canada than the one with Indigenous Peoples. It is time for a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples, based on recognition of rights, respect, co-operation, and partnership.”

Dear Ministers Bennett and Wilson-Raybould,

We write to urge you to immediately withdraw Canada’s application for judicial review of the Specific Claims Tribunal’s (“Tribunal”) decision in the Akisq'nuk First Nation’s specific claim and to honour the Tribunal’s decision as final and binding.

“Indigenous peoples have known for thousands of years how to care for our planet. The rest of us have a lot to learn and no time to waste.” – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris, France, December 2015.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – February 22, 2016) The Stewards of the Land at the Rocky Mountain Fort Camp on the Peace River have been dragged into the Supreme Court of British Columbia for protecting their way of life.