May 9, 2018, (Estok-Na Territory/Houston, Texas) Indigenous leadership from Canada made an emergency trip to the Kinder Morgan AGM in Houston this morning to present an overview of Indigenous opposition to the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. 

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. 

(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.

(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. 

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).