Premier Clark Just Broke More than the Treaty Process

When Premier Christy Clark came to visit the Ktunaxa Nation Government Building last summer, she was all smiles. It was the first time we hosted a premier in our new government building. We had recently purchased the former headquarters of a forestry company that was bought out and no longer operates in our territory. There were smiles, handshakes and photos, too, and while we were not able to discuss anything substantive, we had a forum for discussions.

Abbott's Removal Reveals Chaos with Treaty Process

It's odd the government's last-minute axing of George Abbott as its lead representative on the B.C. Treaty Commission was so quickly cast as a tale of political revenge.

Sure, Abbott, a former Liberal aboriginal affairs minister and Christy Clark leadership rival, was treated shabbily. Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Rustad recruited him six months ago. Abbott's selection had been vetted with the federal government and First Nations Summit, partners in the treaty process, and he was slated to be chief commissioner.

Alberta Sets New Rules On Industry, Aboriginal Consultation

EDMONTON - Alberta has set new rules on how resource industries must deal with aboriginal bands, despite the objections of at least one group that says the policy is designed to keep government in the driver's seat.

"Government has the complete upper hand," Eriel Deranger, a spokeswoman for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, said Monday. "We don't want government to be developing stuff for us; we want to be developing things in partnership with governments."

First Nations alliance set to challenge AFN on dealings with federal government on treaties

OTTAWA — A leader of a nascent First Nations alliance set to challenge the Assembly of First Nations’ authority has issued a sharp warning in advance of parallel meetings to be held by both groups next week.

Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak has told AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo that his province’s chiefs are unanimously opposed to the AFN’s dealings with the Harper government on treaties.

Happy Canada Day? Learning about Treaties in tar sands territory

While many Canadians are celebrating the 146th anniversary of this country, I don’t much feel like celebrating today. Right now, I am at the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, a community whose traditional territory is on both the Athabasca and Cold Lake tar sands projects.

It’s hard to take part in the festivities when you understand the colonialism, genocide, theft of land and resources and broken treaties that are part of the history of this country.

The Beaver Lake Cree Judgment: The Most Important Tar Sands Case You’ve Never Heard Of

Sure they’re bad for the environment, for human health, and for wildlife, but we rarely stop to wonder if the Alberta tar sands are in fact unconstitutional.

But the constitutional standing of the tar sands – one of the world’s largest and most carbon-intensive energy projects – is just what’s at stake in a treaty rights claim the Beaver Lake Cree Nation (BLCN) is bringing against the Governments of Alberta and Canada in a case that promises to be one of the most significant legal and constitutional challenges to the megaproject seen in Canada to date.

A guide to the Idle No More movement, treaties and legislation

Idle No More marches. Chiefs and the prime minister at odds over treaties. Liquid diets in teepees on the Ottawa River. It's easy to be confused about all that has happened in the last six weeks among Canada's aboriginal people.

But that's not surprising because the issues at stake are among the most complex and most important our nation faces today. Many of them are the issues Canada has been facing for decades but have never been adequately addressed. Here is a short, by no means exhaustive, primer looking at the movement, treaties and the legislation at the centre of the debate.

Treaties are between nations: An #IdleNoMore solidarity post

When I first started blogging, I mentioned something that I've only talked about occasionally, since.

I wrote about being Métis but passing for white and living in urban Canada.  This brought with it an escape from most serious forms of discrimination that First Nations people face, and something that should be acknowledged as privilege, even if it wasn't consciously pursued.  It also brought many occasions of people letting fly the judgmental assumptions and beliefs that they have about Aboriginal peoples, thinking it's "safe" to do so around me.  And then, when I get angry and reveal that I'm Métis, those people simply change their behaviour.  Their opinions haven't changed, they simply decide to be more careful about speaking in front of me.  It's also not unusual to have them also start projecting those assumptions onto me.

First Nations chiefs contemplate “breach of treaty” declarations, indefinite economic disruptions

First Nations leaders have discussed plans to launch country-wide economic disruptions by the middle of January if Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn’t agree to hunger-striking Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence’s demand for a treaty meeting, APTN National News has learned.

During three days of meetings and teleconferences, chiefs from across the country discussed a plan setting Jan. 16 as the day to launch a campaign of indefinite economic disruptions, including railway and highway blockades, according to two chiefs who were involved in the talks who requested anonymity.

Criminal injustice: Idle No More, the prison system and Indigenous people in Canada

Idle No More is forcing many Canadians to be Willfully Blind No More.

Ostensibly, the movement spearheaded by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is about the protection of First Nations' treaty rights. At its core, though, might be something more profound, perhaps best described as a demand for all of us in this country to re-think the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. The relationship is, of course, an uneven one, though it might be far more uneven than most of us in this country care to acknowledge.

Government on path to dissolve First Nation treaty rights, says Madahbee

OTTAWA—In a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation voices concern on behalf of all First Nations that the government is passing bills, legislation and funding cuts in an attempt to dissolve First Nation treaty rights.

Patrick Madahbee, Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation, has laid out his concerns on behalf of all Anishinabek people in his letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Treaty Troubles: Colonialism's Deep Currents

[Editor's note: The 20-year effort to create modern treaties between B.C. First Nations and the federal and provincial governments has not produced many agreements. Underlying the challenge are complex structural relationships between First Nations that more than a century of colonial influence has aggravated. This four-part series by Carly Wignes looks at the deep tension one potential treaty has created, how others have succeeded, and the complex history that makes it so difficult to redress longstanding inequity.]



Canada's aboriginal affairs minister expresses disappoinment at blocked treaty vote

OTTAWA - Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan - using much more measured language Monday than his West Coast counterparts - joined the B.C. governments and the B.C. Treaty Commission in expressing disappointment with the weekend postponement of a treaty ratification vote involving B.C.'s Tla'amin First Nation.

The vote was put off Saturday after a group of protesters used their vehicles to block access to the polling station at the community near Powell River, about 130 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

Ottawa should offer exit strategy to bands bogged down in treaty talks: report

VICTORIA - Ottawa needs to consider a flexible exit strategy for British Columbia First Nations frustrated and debt-challenged by slow-moving treaty negotiations, says a special report prepared for federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan.

The 47-page report by former Campbell River, B.C., mayor James Lornie, appointed Duncan's special B.C. treaty representative last year, states First Nations treaty negotiations debt now tops $420 million, which is insurmountable and an unsustainable barrier to reaching treaties.

The report doesn't suggest dumping the treaty process after more than 20 years of negotiations, but states First Nations need the option to leave the table without feeling intense pressure to pay off debts and with nothing to show after years of talks.

First Nations should also be allowed to return to negotiations at a later date, it adds.

"I consider that the single most important response that the federal government can make is to re-commit to treaty-making as a federal priority, and to commit to that priority at every level of the federal system," stated Lornie in the report.