Raven's Eye

To mark the 20th anniversary of the BC Treaty Commission, a report has been issued urging Ottawa to forge a renewed commitment to the province’s treaty process.

Entitled A Commitment Worth Preserving: Reviving the British Columbia Treaty Process, the report provides recommendations that focus on collective involvement, fairness, cost-effectiveness and transparency within the system.…

Despite loud opposition from some community members, a Sunshine Coast First Nation has signed on to a treaty agreement with the federal and provincial governments.
The treaty, approved July 10, gives the Sliammon First Nation 8,322 hectares of land and $30 million over 10 years, as well as self-government, economic development funding and resource revenue. There are about 1,000 members.…

Only one thing is certain from the latest chapter in the Tsilhqot’in nation’s decades-old B.C. court struggle: the legal battle will continue.

On June 27, the B.C. Court of Appeal released its decision in the nation’s case, upholding long-established Indigenous hunting and trapping rights, but dismissing the tribe’s fight for title over the full breadth of its sizeable traditional…

A 130-nation-strong declaration of Indigenous law–pledging a united front in the escalating fight against oil sands pipelines–grew two Indigenous communities stronger on July 7.

At a signing ceremony and feast attended by several hundred people—representing a number of First Nations, as well as Vancouver city councillors and opposition Members of Parliament—B.C.’s Squamish and Tsleil-…

A MASSIVE ROCK COVERED IN ABORIGINAL CARVINGS has been repatriated to BC’s interior after it was removed from the area in the early 1900s to Stanley Park. The petroglyphs on the rock are said to predate the arrival of Europeans in B.C. Most recently the rock has resided at the Museum of Vancouver. The five-ton boulder is now home near Crow’s Bar on the shores of the Fraser River, thanks to a…

DOIG RIVER FIRST NATION,
Prophet River First Nation and West Moberly First Nations purchased the Charlie Lake Cave archaeological site and property on May 29. This site has evidence of early occupation, thought to be the ancestors of the Dunne-za/Danne Zaa People and dates back 10,500 years. DNA testing of bison bones and the identification of fluted points that are associated with the…

THE TLA’AMIN (SLIAMMON) NATION’S
treaty ratification vote was postponed from June 16 after a group of about 12 members blocked a polling station with their vehicles, preventing access to voters. After negotiating for 18 years, the Tla’amin, along with the federal and provincial governments, initialled a final agreement last October, which includes self-government provisions, 8,300…

THE B.C. CIVIL LIBERTIES ASSOCIATION
says three separate cases that left First Nations people injured after RCMP were called could deter Aboriginal families from seeking police help. “The RCMP needs to look very carefully at its 911 response in domestic situations and fix it,” said association executive director David Eby. “People shouldn’t be afraid that when they call the RCMP for help…

The Métis lawyer who made headlines when she resigned in protest from the job of Aboriginal counsel at B.C.’s missing women inquiry has been awarded the province’s top civil liberties award.

Robyn Gervais was named winner of the 2012 Reg Robson Award for Defending Rights and Freedoms, alongside Cameron Ward, who represented 25 families in the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. The…

Debris from last year’s Japan earthquake and tsunami is slopping up on West Coast shores, and the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is taking names and numbers to create a registry of willing participants, ready to let loose a slew of volunteers to help pick up after Mother Nature’s terrible tantrum.

The shoreline cleanup crew will be on call to travel to communities where this debris…

An Enbridge official says it is not unusual for the company to undertake a nearly $5-million advertising campaign to promote a project.

Paul Stanway, spokesman for the company, said the Northern Gateway Project ad campaign that kicked off in British Columbia will consist of TV, radio and Internet spots until possibly the end of the year, and is not being done out of desperation. It is…

With salmon numbers in B.C.’s once-abundant Fraser River stocks predicted to take another devastating hit this summer, some are questioning why First Nations are under-represented in managing a fishery that has become almost exclusively theirs.

Indigenous communities are allotted roughly a million fish for food, social and ceremonial (FSC) uses. Canada hopes to reserve another million…

A new strategic engagement agreement with the Kaska Dena First Nations in northwestern B.C. will bring greater certainty to resource development in more than 10 per cent of the province. The agreement sets out government-to-government decision-making structures and processes that establish a co-operative approach to reviewing proposed development activities in the Kaska Dena traditional…

Joyce Murray, member of Parliament for Vancouver Quadra, came out against the shuttering of the Kitsilano Search and Rescue Station saying the Conservative government cost-saving measure will have “a significantly detrimental effect on the marine community in the busiest port in Canada.” Murray said Search and Rescue service to the Port of Metro Vancouver will now be provided by a station that…