'Nation to Nation'? Indigenous people and the Trudeau government

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Mon, 2023-10-23 10:49
epaulo13

More than 50 Indigenous fish harvesters in the Maritimes charged or on trial, says Ottawa

Three years after a First Nation started a self-regulated lobster fishery that sparked protests and violence in Nova Scotia, federal prosecutors are pressing ahead with charges against dozens of Indigenous fishers, some of whom are planning constitutional challenges.

On Sept. 17, 2020, the Sipekne’katik First Nation issued five lobster licences to its members, saying they could trap and sell their catch outside the federally regulated season.

The bold move came exactly 21 years after the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the treaty right of Indigenous groups in Eastern Canada to hunt and fish for a moderate livelihood, but interpretations of that landmark ruling remain in dispute.

In the months that followed the start of Sipekne'katik’s “moderate livelihood fishery,” there were confrontations on the water, rowdy protests and riots at two lobster pounds, one of which was razed by a deliberately set fire. The fishing and the violent response have led to criminal charges and civil lawsuits.

By December 2022, federal conservation officers had seized more than 7,000 lobster traps as other Mi’kmaq bands started their own moderate livelihood enterprises. But until now, federal officials have said little about prosecutions related to the Indigenous lobster, crab and baby eel fisheries.

Last month, Mi’kmaw journalist Maureen Googoo combed through provincial court records to compile a list of 54 Mi’kmaq fish harvesters from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick who are now before the courts. Googoo’s online news site, Ku’ku’kwes News, reported that about half of those charged are planning to argue in court that they have a constitutionally protected treaty right to catch and sell fish when and where they want.

The federal Fisheries Department confirmed in a statement Friday that Googoo’s list of fishers facing charges was accurate. The department said in a follow-up statement that just over 1,000 lobster traps have been seized in Nova Scotia so far this year......

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Sun, 2023-10-29 09:45
epaulo13

Canada using ‘dormant’ treaty to sidestep Indigenous rights in U.S.: court documents

The federal government and Enbridge Inc. are trying to exploit a “dormant” and outdated treaty with the United States to forestall the shutdown of the Line 5 pipeline, human rights and environmental groups argue in new court documents. 

The argument comes from a recent flurry of filings in district court in Wisconsin, where the energy transmission giant is locked in a battle with a U.S. Indigenous band over the future of the cross-border conduit. 

Several take direct aim at a central element of the company’s defence: a 1977 treaty between Canada and the U.S. that was designed to prevent interruptions in the flow of oil and gas between the two countries. 

Regardless of international treaties, the U.S. is obliged to defend the rights of Indigenous Peoples, which include the self-management of their natural resources, the Center for International Environmental Law argues in one such filing. 

“In light of the pipeline’s manifold risks … Line 5’s continued operation would contravene the United States’ duties to protect the right to life of Indigenous communities,” it reads. 

“If the pipeline treaty forces the United States to abandon environmental regulation and actively seek to ensure the pipeline’s continued operation in spite of these grave risks of harm, it would require the United States to breach its duty to ensure fundamental human rights.”

Both Calgary-based Enbridge and the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa are appealing a district court decision in June that gave the company three years to remove the line from the band’s Wisconsin reservation. 

The collection of amicus briefs filed last week also includes one from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is locked in a separate appeals court dispute of her own over Line 5, which crosses the Great Lakes below the Straits of Mackinac.

Nessel and the state have been trying to get the pipeline shut down since 2019, fearing an anchor strike or similar accident that could foul one of the most ecologically delicate regions in the northeastern U.S. 

In her brief, Nessel agrees that Enbridge’s treaty argument doesn’t hold water, simply because nothing in the treaty itself expressly prevents governments or the courts from upholding human rights.

“Enbridge and Canada essentially argue that the 1977 treaty allows Enbridge to trespass indefinitely on someone else’s land — sovereign land at that — and deprives the landowner of any recourse,” she writes. 

“This argument is without merit, has no basis in the text of the treaty and is offensive to the fundamental rights of sovereign governments and property owners.”......

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Sat, 2024-01-27 08:42
epaulo13

Indigenous Activists Lead Protests Against Australia’s “Invasion Day”

In Australia, thousands of people rallied in Indigenous-led protests on so-called Australia Day, marking the arrival of European colonizers in 1788. January 26 has been dubbed “Invasion Day” by Aboriginal communities and allies, who are pushing to do away with the national holiday. This is Aboriginal elder Adrian Burragubba.

Adrian Burragubba: “We’re here to tell people that Australia Day doesn’t mean anything to us. It’s the day of Aboriginal sovereignty. That day when they came here, we have to keep telling people, that we were operating under our law, and we still operate under our laws. And the law is in the land.”

 

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