It’s time to speak up

Indigenous resistance essential to hold governments accountable for failing to consult on developments

Indigenous resistance actions arise across Canada because our governments fail to do their job properly.

The Crown (provincial or federal) has a legal “duty to consult” with “Aboriginal peoples” when the governments “contemplate” proposals for uses of traditional or treaty lands that may affect “Aboriginal and treaty rights.”

Those rights are “recognized and affirmed” in the Constitution Act of Canada, and in hundreds of Supreme Court of Canada rulings.

The Crown in Ontario and in B.C. consulted only with First Nations elected band councils, ignoring the Haudenosaunee and Wet’suwet’en traditional councils, despite their concerns being known publicly.

Governments also know that traditional chiefs and councils are the “rights holders” on traditional and treaty territory, while First Nations elected band councils hold land rights only on reserves.

Wet’suwet’en and Haudenosaunee people and traditional leaders, each expressed their concerns by blocking construction of a gas pipeline (B.C.) and a housing development (Ontario) respectively: The governments of B.C. and Ontario, the Crown, failed in their legal “duty to consult” with the Aboriginal “rights holders.”

Foxgate, the Ontario developer, has already declared its development contract “frustrated” by the persistent occupation of the land by Haudenosaunee people, despite OPP efforts to remove them. Foxgate has said it will be suing for damages.

CGL/TCEnergy out West persists, with RCMP still trying to remove Wet’suwet’en people from the pipeline route, and from the pad CGL intends to use to drill the pipeline under “Widzen Kwa,” the Morice River, where the salmon run that have fed Wet’suwet’en people for millennia.

If Wet’suwet’en people can maintain their resistance and “frustrate” CGL’s pipeline construction contract, it is the B.C. government that will be liable for the company’s damages, because the Crown failed to consult with the Indigenous “rights holders.”

Our governments will continue to use our money to bail themselves out for as long as we continue to allow them to fail in their legal “duty to consult” with Indigenous “rights holders.” Speak up.