Page 5 Chatter - September

BILL CURRY OF THE GLOBE AND MAIL
is reporting that Ottawa has ordered a study of First Nations that have achieved economic success, “raising the prospect of a new approach to developing businesses on reserves while sparking fear among some Native leaders that their rights to land and resources are at risk.” He writes, the Globe and Mail has discovered that a high ranking public servant in Indian Affairs has commissioned a special project to determine why 65 reserves, mostly in or near cities, are doing well. Thirty-three chiefs are being interviewed. Some fear that it is a move to turn reserves into private land ownership, carving up reserves, undermining political structures and frustrating natural resources claims on traditional territory. There are even warnings of reviving elements of the 1969 White Paper.

“It’s going to place a majority of First Nations across the country on their heels,” Shawn Atleo is quoted in the story. The Assembly of First Nations National Chief said Indian Affairs should be working with all chiefs on land issues “rather than fuelling mistrust. The chiefs have already rejected the private property plan, he said.

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REPRESENTATIVES FROM ENBRIDGE’S
Northern Gateway Pipeline Project made a presentation to Smithers Town Council on Aug. 24, reports the Pacific Free Press, while outside protesters against the project were dressed as oil spill cleanup workers. They handed out leaflets. Wet’suwet’en First Nation members were in attendance carrying large banners.
Enbridge suffered an oil spill in Michigan in July, which the Enbridge representative, Michele Perret, described as a leak that the company was still attempting to clean up. She did say however that the situation was creating jobs. Perret also talked about the jobs that the Northern Gateway project would create. Part way through her presentation, reads the Press report, Perret “sounded a bit like former BP CEO Tony Hayward” who famously stated “There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I’d like my life back” about BP’s massive oil spill in the Gulf Coast. Perret said that her holidays were supposed to have started on the same day the Michigan spill occurred. A member of the Wet’suwet’en said the community opposed the Enbridge pipeline, and told Perret and her colleague Kevin Brown they were trespassing on Wet’suwet’en territory.
“He then handed Brown an eagle feather, which he explained was a traditional warning that a trespass had occurred, and said that if they trespassed again they would be dealt with according to traditional Wet’suwet’en law.

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IN A RELATED STORY,
three Pipedreams Project kayakers from Ecomarine Ocean Kayak Centre will paddle 900 km from Kitimat to Vancouver to trace the tanker route that is most at-risk to an oil spill, raising awareness about the risks posed by the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Project.  “Recent spills on the Gulf Coast, Kalamazoo, Michigan and Dalian, China, demonstrate the urgent need to evaluate our oil industry and the planning of the pipeline,” said Curtis White, one of the  kayakers. The Pipedreams Project press release says the Enbridge’s proposed pipeline would open the door for an oil industry that endangers special places like the Great Bear Rainforest. “We need to review not only the proposed pipeline, but the weakening state of our national environmental policy,” said Pipedreams team member Ryan Vandecasteyen. For more information go to www.thepipedreamsproject.org.

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KUMI NAIDOO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
of Greenpeace International, writes “Much of what I used to know about Canada stands in stark contrast to the devastation I found in the tar sands of northern Alberta.” At a time when the solutions to averting catastrophic climate change are all around us, Canada and multinational oil companies are recklessly promoting a dirty oil that only exacerbates the problem, he writes in a blog featured on The Huffington Post. Naidoo said he met with community leaders in Fort Chipewyan, situated on the Athabasca River, downstream from the tar sands, who believe they are being poisoned by toxic chemicals. “The people I spoke with told me they were afraid to drink the water, scared about its impacts on the wildlife and fish they eat. Many are justifiably fearful for their very lives.” Naidoo asks, ‘how can we stop the tar sands?’ And his answer is to come to terms with our addiction to oil. “Canadian politicians have abdicated their responsibility for Alberta’s land, water and people. They have walked away from Canada’s positive international reputation on the world stage by talking about the climate and acting against it. “I cannot believe they represent the people of Canada,” he said.

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IN HIS REGULAR COLUMN FOR the Star Phoenix, writer Doug Cuthand says the new Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan comes with some baggage. He was a member of the old Reform party, “which begat the Alliance Party and later the Conservatives.” The Reformers were seen as the anti-First Nations rights and land claims party. Duncan even predicted the Nisga’a Final Agreement would “haunt Canadians for generations to come.” He shook his fist at differential sentencing for Aboriginal offenders, describing it as “another symptom of the government promoting not criminal justice but justice for criminals.” Duncan also opposed what he described as “race-based laws” and government policies, Cuthand remindS us. But Cuthand also says the new Conservatives, now in power, have abandoned the rhetoric of an opposition party and have softened to the Aboriginal perspective. Besides, the government has bigger fish to fry, including the global economic meltdown, a war in Afghanistan and sovereignty in Canada’s Arctic. “We would be wise to continue flying under the radar,” Cuthand advises. The last thing the government needs is an “Indian uprising,” so First Nations leadership is making nice and providing Duncan with a nice cozy honeymoon period.
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