(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, BC – August 11, 2017) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) remains steadfast in its ongoing opposition to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX). 

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – August 9th, 2017) August 9th marks International Indigenous Peoples Day, the anniversary of the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982. The theme of this year’s World Indigenous Peoples Day is the 10th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

(Coast Salish Territory / Vancouver BC – July 12, 2017) Several Indigenous communities throughout British Columbia are in states of emergency or on evacuation alerts as wildfires threaten their homes and territories.  Indigenous Peoples have a fundamental right to make decisions with respect to protecting and defending the safety, health and  well-being of our community members, housing and community infrastructure. Some have decided to stay and defend their homes rather than evacuate. 

July 4, Rapid City, SD (Black Hills) — An assembly of Tribal leaders of the Great Sioux Nation along with leaders of the Ponca Nation in Nebraska and Oklahoma today met, in the sacred Black Hills in South Dakota, with a large delegation of Chiefs of First Nations from Canada who have signed the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion. The tribal leaders and chiefs sent a clear message on this July 4^th US “Independence Day” about their independence as Sovereign Indigenous Nations and to announce a new cross-border alliance to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. The historic gathering challenging the power of Canada and the US to harm their lands and pollute their water comes on the heels of widespread Indigenous resistance in Canada challenging the July 1^st celebrations of Canada’s “150^th anniversary”.

Dear Minister Bennett:

On May 17, 2017, Bill S-3 was amended in the Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples in order to remove the long-standing discriminatory treatment of Indian women and their descendants in the status provisions of the Indian Act, and more particularly, to remove the sex-based distinction between 6(1)(a) and 6(1)(c) status. We write to you today to ask you to support the Senate Committee's amendment, which will assist Indian women and their descendants, and all Indigenous peoples, to move forward.

Dear Premier Christy Clark, John Horgan and Andrew Weaver:

From April 28th to May 9th nearly two million British Columbians took to the polls to give expression to their deep concerns relative to the previous sixteen years of a BC Liberal majority rule. Clearly, Sixty percent of those British Columbians have overwhelmingly voted for change.

... and somewhere BC Liberals are laughing, and somewhere children shout; but there is no joy in Mudville, - mighty Christy Clark has struck out!

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Premier Christy Clark and Ministers Polak and Rustad,

We are writing with respect to UBCIC Resolution 2016-34, “Support for WSÁNEĆ First Nations’ Opposition to Steelhead LNG,” which was presented, affirmed and endorsed by consensus at the UBCIC Annual General Assembly Chiefs Council on September 22, 2016 (enclosed).

(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.  

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – December 20, 2016) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), supports the Neskonlith Indian Band’s demands that the province rescind a permit issued for logging 28 hectares of Secwepemc territory near Harper Lake south of Chase. The Crown cut blocks are just above Neskonlith reserve #2, an ecologically sensitive area for Rocky Mountain Elk and a contentious area near the land disputed in the 1999 Harper Lake Logging Case.