Featured Articles
Yinka Dene Alliance: Time for Enbridge to give up on Northern Gateway
Today, May 8, the Enbridge board of directors is meeting with shareholders in Calgary for the Enbridge annual general meeting. In the past, we, the chiefs of the Yinka Dene Alliance, have personally attended this meeting to explain to Enbridge senior management and shareholders why our communities have rejected the Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker project. We have decided not to be with you this time, but our message today, as always, is that this and any other oil pipeline will not cross our homelands in British Columbia.
CSTC Invites Dr. James Anaya, UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues
Dakelh Territory, Prince George, British Columbia. Canada. The Chiefs of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council have extended an invitation to Dr. James Anaya, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues to come visit with the CSTC Chiefs and its members. The CSTC request is part of several others from First Nations in BC and Canada, including a recent one from the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC). There however seems to be a delay by the Government of Canada in processing the formalities needed by Dr. Anaya to visit First Nations peoples in Canada.
Who will protect the land from reckless development?
Several years ago, sitting in my office in Vancouver where I was heading up Ecotrust Canada — a west coast conservation and community development organization — I received a call from Alberta from a senior communications executive at Shell Canada.
Shell, at the time, was at the early stages of a coal bed methane exploration program in Northern British Columbia, specifically in Tahltan country, in and around Iskut. The natives, it seems, were restless. Shell had provincial permits to develop lands in a region called the Klappan, adjacent to the Spatsizi wilderness area, and had been trying to get trucks and drill rigs in place to pursue its legal authority to assay the abundant gas reserves there. It had sunk three test wells, but that’s as far as it got.
MEDIA ADVISORY - PRESS CONFERENCE
Background: The 89-page report documents both ongoing police failures to protect indigenous women and girls in the north from violence and violent behavior by police officers against women and girls. Police failures and abuses add to longstanding tensions between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and indigenous communities in the region, Human Rights Watch said. The Canadian government should establish a national commission of inquiry into the murders and disappearances of indigenous women and girls, including the impact of police mistreatment on their vulnerability to violence in communities along Highway 16, which has come to be called northern British Columbia’s “Highway of Tears.”
Nilhchuk-un: Those Who Take Us Away
DAKELH TRADITIONAL TERRITORY/PRINCE GEORGE, BC – The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council (CSTC) is not surprised with the results provided by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report “Those who take us away”, and are calling on the two levels of government, the Royal Canadian Mountain Mounted Police (RCMP) and the United Nations Human Rights Council to follow through with the recommendations of the report. The CSTC participated in the development of the report by providing the services of former Tribal Chief and former Highway of Tears Coordinator Mavis Erickson to liaise with the communities and the HRW research team. Last June, Mrs. Erickson was also appointed by the CSTC Chiefs to be the representative on women’s issues.
Open Letter: Idle No More is by the People and for the People
Dakelh Territory, Prince George, BC, Canada - Over the past two months the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council (CSTC) has been supporting the Idle No More cause. The origin of this cause comes from four aboriginal women in Saskatchewan who embodied the frustrations felt by many First Nations communities across this country. More importantly, the reason why this cause gained so much traction was that it was led by the grassroots people who said "enough is enough". Rightfully so it should be, because the momentum that carries and maintains the movement can only succeed if it is led by the grassroots people.
Community and Advocacy Groups Respond to Missing Women Commission of Inquiry’s Final Report
Huckleberry Mine Trespassing on Wet’suwet’en Lands
The Wet'suwet'en First Nation is extremely concerned that the owners of Huckleberry Mines Ltd. (HML) are jeopardizing the rights and title of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation (WFN) because they have not signed any new agreement allowing them to pass through WFN lands. HML has breached a 1997 agreement that it had with the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, and HML is not negotiating in good faith with WFN, which threatens the Huckleberry Mine project.
Opposition to Enbridge Grows as First Nations and Mayor of Vancouver Stand Together
Opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker project continued to gain momentum today as the Tahltan Central Council, the Tahltan Band Council and the BC Metis Federation signed the Save the Fraser Declaration, an indigenous law declaration banning tar sands pipelines and tankers from crossing British Columbia, signed by over 130 First Nations.
CSTC Open Letter to PM Harper re: FIPPA
Cohen Commission Report: CSTC Must Be Involved
Dakelh Territory, Prince George, British Columbia. Canada. Today Justice Bruce Cohen released the much anticipated report from the Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River (also known as the Cohen Commission). Over the last three years the Cohen Commission heard from 179 witnesses, including First Nations from Carrier Sekani territories regarding the cumulative impacts affecting the decline of the Fraser River Sockeye (Dakelh name: Talo).
Certified Training: BEAHR Programs
In 2007 the CSTC became a certified institution to deliver the BEAHR ECO Canada training programs. BEAHR Training Programs are nationally-recognized training programs that are locally-relevant. They are delivered in the community, and offer a unique learning environment that incorporates practical, hands-on instruction with fieldwork, exercises, and group activities. They blend both traditional and scientific knowledge, with formal and informal methods of learning. The participation of local knowledge holders is required and industry participation is highly encouraged. BEAHR Training Programs are adaptable to suit community needs and can be arranged to accommodate a variety of requirements, including delivery location, instructor preference, number of students, and the length of time to complete the required modules.
Carrier Sekani Online Atlas
The CSTC has released an online atlas to show changes over time to the CSTC territory. It is for educational purposes only. If you have any content (i.e. videos, audio, photos, etc.) that you think mignt be useful for the atlas, please contact our office.
Environmental Governance
From 2006-2008, the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER) worked in partnership with the National Centre for First Nation Governance (NCFNG) to research and document examples of successful environmental governance and how they are being implemented by the First Nations of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council (CSTC). Together, we learned that First Nations with successful environmental governance shared seven essential elements.
Murdered & Missing Women
This section contains information that may not be suitable for everyone. It is meant to raise awareness about missing and murdered women in northern BC, and throughout Canada. Many of these women are First Nations, some of whom come from CSTC communities; all of them deserve justice.