Fisheries ruling could spawn violence

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The violence that marred the opening of the Atlantic lobster harvest this year could be spilling over to west coast fishing grounds based on a June 19 provincial court ruling.

British Columbia’s Native leadership has expressed concern that violent clashes between Native and non-Native fishermen will erupt over the court ruling by Judge Saunderson of the Northern Vancouver Island district of the provincial court granting total discharges to 40 non-Natives who held an illegal fish harvest in the Johnstone Strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland in 2002. The fishermen were protesting the DFO policy that made the salmon-rich waters of the strait a Native-only fishery.

B.C. Union of Indian Chiefs President Stewart Phillip was quoted by members of the media as saying the decision was racist and called for its immediate repeal.

“In effect, those fishermen have thumbed their nose at the law and gotten away with it. I would suggest that we are entering a very dangerous time,” said Phillip.

“I don’t think there are any words to describe how I felt reading that decision,” said Musquem band councilor Wendy John in an interview with the Globe and Mail. “It felt like we had gone back in time that more than 100 years of aboriginal rights had simply been thrown away.”

Other Native leaders have said the over 400 Aboriginal fishermen that have been charged this year for fishing in the Fraser River could not expect to get the same treatment and have the charges against them being totally discharged.

The court ruling stated the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans did not have the “moral authority” to press the charges because of the DFO policies favoring First Nations fishermen.

There have been no reported incidents of violence on the waterways yet and there is also no word at this time what legal actions the First Nations plan to appeal the Sanderson decision. The DFO has already stated that it may consider an appeal of the controversial ruling.

Financing deal clears the way for Mackenzie Valley pipeline

INUVIK, Northwest Territory – The Aboriginal Pipeline Group announced on June 19 that it had secured financial backing from a group of five companies, headed by pipeline industry giant TransCanada Corp., that secures part-ownership of the proposed $5 billion Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

The announcement was made as the Inuvik Petroleum Show wrapped up at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex in Inuvik on June 19. Joining TransCanada in the financing deal are four major petroleum producers, including Imperial Oil Ltd., ConocoPhillips Canada, Shell Canada Ltd. and Exxon Mobil Canada Ltd.

The financial backing was encouragement enough for the Mackenzie Delta Explorer Group and its eight member companies to announce they were launching a new $1 billion gas exploration initiative in the region.

The exploration partners led by ChevronTexaco Corp. are Petro-Canada, EnCana Corp., BP PLC, Anadarko Canada Corp., Devon Canada Corp., Apache Canada Ltd. and Burlington Resources Canada.

The explorer group is banking on recent advances in technology that will allow natural gas reserves overlooked in the 1970s to be located. Conservative estimates put onshore gas reserves in the Mackenzie Delta at 13 trillion cubic feet with an additional 54 trillion cubic feet located in deposits in the Beaufort Sea. According to news reports in Canada, the explorers have already found six trillion cubic feet of gas.

Chairman of the Aboriginal Pipeline Group Fred Carmichael said the Beaufort Sea gas deposits are likely to extend the viability of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. Information provided by APG said construction on the pipeline is scheduled to begin in 2006.

APG, founded in 2000, is a Native-owned company that seeks to maximize the benefits to the Aboriginal peoples of the Northwest Territories from the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline and to develop opportunities for employment in the First Nations and economic independence.

C-7 on hold for the summer

OTTAWA – Quirks in the Canadian political system could be placing the future of the First Nations Governance Act in jeopardy.

The House of Commons is currently in recess for the summer and debate on the FNGA, also known as Bill C-7, and further debate on the bill would take place in the fall.

The Parliamentary calendar would normally not be enough to kill a piece of legislation, but Prime Minister Jean Chr?tien is retiring in the fall and there is speculation in Ottawa that he will not reconvene Parliament until after his ruling Liberal Party’s leadership convention in November.

A June 16 update on the status of the bill from the Assembly of First Nations said the leadership convention will create a situation in the Commons that could kill C-7.

The Liberals may choose to avoid continuing debate on C-7 to prevent embarrassing the party by subjecting Chr?tien to harsh questioning on his government’s handling of the bill while the government will actually have two leaders.

“It is tempting to think that C-7 has been defeated,” said the AFN statement. “However, we cannot let up our guard – it may come back for a final push in the fall. The campaign to defeat C-7 is not over and it will be necessary to keep the pressure up during the summer months.”

The AFN has led the Native opposition to C-7 because its existing constitutional and treaty rights would be in effect abrogated by the bill and political authority to self-government would be transferred to the federal government.

The candidate likely to take over the Liberal Party leadership and become Prime Minister is Paul Martin who has publicly stated he will not implement C-7.

Wildfires force evacuation of Aboriginal communities

WINNIPEG, Ontario – Unusually high temperatures and dry conditions have complicated efforts by firefighters to control dozens of wildfires in four provinces.

In the remote region of northeastern Manitoba the fires forced the evacuations of the First Nations communities at Red Sucker Lake and God’s River to Winnipeg.

The residents of Red Sucker Lake were air lifted to safety while officials at God’s River felt that medical evacuees should also be taken out of danger before it was too late.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported on June 24 that northwestern Ontario had been the hardest hit by the fires and said fires in some locations were burning at a rate of almost 100 feet per minute.

Rain was expected in afflicted regions in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but so was lightning – the origin of most of the forest fires.

Exact figures on the total area burned, monetary values and any casualties were not available at the time of publication.

E-mail reply

The e-mail question this week came from a reader in Europe asking for information on the M?tis people of Canada and their history.

The M?tis are the descendents of 18th and 19th century French and Scottish fur traders who intermarried with women from the Cree, Ojibwa, Saulteaux and Assinboine First Nations.

There has never been an accurate count of the M?tis population and estimates have ranged from 300,000 to 800,000 with most of the population living in the western region of Canada.

Michif, the language of the M?tis, developed from combining French with indigenous languages and dialects.

Currently, the M?tis are involved in two cases before the Supreme Court of Canada that will set precedents guaranteeing their rights as a First Nation.

More information on the M?tis is available at www.metisnation.ca.

Please forward your questions and comments on News from the North to rjtaylo16@twcny.rr.com.