By Pete McIntyre

Okanagan Indian Band shows support for hereditary chiefs

Feb 28, 2020 | 11:04 AM

The Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB) is providing support to the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs in their opposition to the Coastal GasLink pipeline on their traditional territory.

OKIB Chief Byron Louis and his council wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying the land in question falls under the jurisdiction of Wet’suwet’en governance.

“This jurisdictional authority is supported by the British Columbia Supreme Court (BCSC) decision in Campbell v. British Columbia (Attorney General). In this case, it had been determined by the BCSC that, the Indigenous Peoples’ of British Columbia have never surrendered nor purported to revive extinguished aboriginal rights including the right of unbroken Indigenous Governance,” said Louis.

Louis said in a news release, while Canada prides itself as a nation governed by law, he questions whose law is that is referring to, and what section of that law will be followed.

“Clearly the historic and present practice implies a direct conflict of interest in orchestrating such outcomes and a flagrant attempt to infringe upon rights by any means possible,” Louis stated in his letter to Trudeau. “Consultation and reconciliation demand respect for rules and systems of government that were in effect in this land long before people with Western European ideas of governance immigrated here.”

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The band is also expressing concerns about GasLink using the fracking process and the impact to salmon spawning grounds in sacred headwaters.

“We understand GasLink will not only carry gas from northern British Columbia obtained by fracking – a method that causes great stress on the land and those of their relations who inhabit the land, but also traverses the sacred headwaters of the Talbits Kwah (Gosnell Creek) and Wedzin Kwah (Morice River) – both spawning grounds for salmon,” Louis wrote.

Louis is asking the prime minister to take the OKIB’s comments into consideration in decisions made about the future of Indigenous-settler relations.

The OKIB support comes as the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en meet for a second day with federal and provincial ministers Friday as they try to break an impasse in a pipeline dispute that’s sparked national protests and led to disruptions in the economy.

Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett and British Columbia Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser began the long-sought talks Thursday afternoon before returning today to the meeting at the Wet’suwet’en office in Smithers, B.C.

The meeting wrapped up after about three hours with Fraser saying the talks were productive and the mood in the room was respectful.

Before the meeting began, the RCMP and Coastal GasLink said they agreed to conditions requested by the chiefs to allow the discussions to progress.

The natural gas company consented to a two-day pause in its activities in northwestern B.C., while the RCMP committed to ending patrols along a critical roadway while the negotiations unfold.

The hereditary chiefs’ opposition to a natural gas pipeline cutting across their traditional territory, coupled with their efforts to limit police presence on their lands, have sparked shows of support across the country that have halted rail service for the past three weeks.

(With files from The Canadian Press)

by Pete McIntyre

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