April 26, 2018, Unceded Coast Salish Territories/ Vancouver BC. — Indigenous leaders, conservation organizations, and community groups are calling for an all-party investigation into the federal approval for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline and tanker expansion project after revelations this week that insiders rigged the federal approval process.

Whistleblowers in the federal government revealed that they were pressured “to give cabinet a legally-sound basis to say ‘yes’” to the pipeline and tanker proposal,” one month before the pipeline was actually approved.

News Release

April 8, 2018

MAJOR WIN FOR INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AS KINDER MORGAN ANNOUNCES BEGINNING OF THE END FOR PIPELINE AND TANKER PROJECT

After Saturday blockade by Indigenous leaders and allies, Kinder Morgan announces project to be canceled by May 31 unless BC comes on board

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – April 8, 2018)  A day after a widely reported full day of blockading Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby Mountain tank farm by Indigenous leaders, Kinder Morgan Canada announced Sunday afternoon they were restricting all non-essential spending on the project, in a move seen as a major victory by Indigenous leaders.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), stated “We said we wouldn’t let Kinder Morgan’s ticking, highly toxic time-bomb of a pipeline expansion happen and we won’t.  Kinder Morgan’s surprise announcement today demonstrates that when people unite and work together to protect Indigenous Title and Rights and the environment, and to stop climate change, we can win.  The proposed Trans Mountain Expansion project is coming to a screeching stop and we will be there until the end. This ill-conceived dirty oil pipeline will never be built.”

Indigenous leaders and people across Canada and the U.S. have promised escalating action to stop this pipeline from moving forward. International opposition to the tar sands project is on the rise.

“Rachel Notley’s increasingly wild threats to get the Kinder Morgan TMX pipeline rammed through are completely devoid of any acknowledgement that the project cannot happen without Indigenous consent,” said Chief Bob Chamberlin, Vice-President of UBCIC. “Even if Alberta becomes a shareholder in Kinder Morgan, that pipeline is simply not going through Indigenous territory without the ‘free, prior and informed consent’ of the Indigenous peoples impacted, as provided in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

Chief Judy Wilson, Secretary-Treasurer, stated “Yesterday, the full political Executive of the UBCIC stood with Indigenous leaders including my mom Minnie Kenoras, and expressed our staunch opposition to the TMX project.  It is no accident that today, Kinder Morgan has announced the beginning of the end. Opposition continues to grow as people learn of the devastating effects this pipeline expansion would have. This should be a warning to all investors: you must respect Indigenous Title and Rights, or your projects have no certainty.”

Current opposition to Kinder Morgan’s pipeline and tanker project includes the Province of British Columbia, the state of Washington, the cities of Vancouver, Burnaby, and Victoria and 19 other BC municipalities as well as 250,000 petition signers and more than 23,000 who have pledged to do “whatever it takes” to stop Kinder Morgan’s risky and destructive pipeline and tanker project.

MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip –250-490-5314

Chief Bob Chamberlin – 250-974-8282

Chief Judy Wilson – 250-320-7738

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – February 12, 2018) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is shocked and outraged that on February 9^th, 56-year-old Gerald Stanley, a white settler living in Biggar, Saskatchewan, was found not guilty in the murder of Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old man from the Red Pheasant First Nation. 

February 8, 2018 – First Nations from the Maritimes all the way to Alberta who are among the 150 Nations in Canada and the US who have signed the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion are standing stronger than ever with their brothers and sisters in BC and will do whatever it takes to continue delaying the Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline and tanker project.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, BC – February 2, 2018.) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs extends our warmest congratulations to the Williams Lake Indian Band in finally achieving justice for their Village Site Specific Claim after over a century of struggle. Today, the Supreme Court of Canada restored the 2014 decision of the Specific Claims Tribunal which ruled that Canada failed in its duty to protect the Williams Lake Indian Band’s ancestral village lands from pre-emption. The Court agreed that Canada’s failure contravened colonial law and that Canada had a fiduciary obligation to take appropriate measures to protect the village lands and remedy the loss.

(Unceded Coast Salish Territory / Vancouver, B.C. – January 1, 2018) As the days start to grow longer, there remains a smoldering, undiminished sense of determination, inspiration and hope in our hearts as we approach Battleground 2018.

(Unceded Coast Salish Territory / Vancouver, B.C. – December 10, 2017)  December 10 is the day 70 years ago in 1948 when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights officially recognizing that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” In 2007 144 states voted in favour of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration). The Harper Government was one of four states to vote against the UN Declaration. The Trudeau Government formally endorsed the UN Declaration in 2016. 

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, BC – December 6, 2017) As the entire province awaits the NDP Government’s decision on the bedraggled boondoggle that is the Site C dam project, Chief Lynette Tsakoza of Prophet River First Nation, Chief Roland Willson of West Moberly First Nations and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs are calling on Premier Horgan’s Cabinet to immediately and unapologetically cancel the project. 

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – October 16, 2017) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs stands with the National Claims Research Directors in condemnation of Bill C-58, which will install massive new barriers for Indigenous Nations trying to access information for land claims and other purposes. The UBCIC supports the Directors’ call for the withdrawal of the bill and for full and meaningful engagement with Indigenous Nations regarding any legislative change on this issue. 

The BC Utility Commission’s interim report on the Site C megaproject – released on Wednesday – provides further proof that the federal and provincial governments acted irresponsibly when they granted approval for construction of the massively destructive dam.