| Enbridge meeting with First Nations Canada.com - Don Mills,Ontario,Canada Band members and leaders from Treaty 4 and Treaty 6 territories feel Enbridge and the government have fallen short of their duty to consult and accommodate ... See all stories on this topic |
| Protest Meeting Arranged 650 CKOM News Talk Radio - Saskatoon,Saskatchewan,Canada A series of meetings have been ongoing that Draude will and has attended to further discuss the duty to consult that company's and Government must now meet ... See all stories on this topic |
| First Nations protesters get meeting over pipeline Calgary Herald - AB, Canada The First Nations contend that the "duty to consult" and accommodate First Nations on such developments, established in a Supreme Court ruling, ... See all stories on this topic |
Showing posts with label Manitoba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manitoba. Show all posts
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Duty to Consult, pipeline:
Dispute shuts Alberta Clipper pipeline
Two separate native groups block construction over contracts
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081001.PIPELINE01/TPStory/TPNational/?page=rss&id=GAM.20081001.PIPELINE01
JOE FRIESEN From Wednesday's Globe and Mail October 1, 2008 at 3:55 AM EDT
Native groups shut down construction of the $3-billion Alberta Clipper oil pipeline yesterday in an escalating dispute over contracts and the duty to consult and accommodate aboriginal groups. Two separate groups, one outside Regina and the other in Saskatchewan's northwest, blocked machinery from moving yesterday morning, prompting the contractor to send his employees home.
"It was done very peacefully with many helloes and how are yous, but we basically dictated that no machinery would be leaving and they need to take our concerns a bit more seriously," said Chief Sheldon Wuttunee of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation, who is part of a group that is staying in teepees erected in the pipeline's path near Kerrobert, Sask. He also led a demonstration through town on horseback Monday.
Mr. Wuttunee said his band signed a contract with Enbridge last year that promised jobs and contracts for members of his community, whose traditional territory is traversed by the pipeline plan. They expected to be able to bid on multimillion dollar contracts to build large sections of the pipeline, which will run 1,600 kilometres from Hardisty, Alta., to Superior, Wisconsin.
"We were told when we met with [the contractor] that 95 per cent of the contracts were already awarded and we didn't get offered more than port-a-potties and some fencing," Mr. Wuttunee said. "The first nations have had enough of being left out of the process. This is a billion-dollar development that's going to run through our land and we need to be partners in that."
Glenn Herchak, a spokesman for Enbridge, said his company is doing its best to find a solution. Senior company officials will attend talks with native leaders and representatives of the federal and provincial government tomorrow in Saskatoon. He said the pipeline, scheduled to be completed in 2010, is still in its early stages and 140 aboriginal people have already been employed; the company plans to continue to engage the 40 Indian and Métis communities in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba whose territories are touched by the project.
The demonstration near Kerrobert was launched by bands that signed Treaty 6 with the Crown, while the demonstration outside Regina was led by signatories to Treaty 4. The pipeline is also the subject of a legal challenge in Manitoba led by signatories to Treaty 1, including Roseau River Chief Terrance Nelson, who was in Kerrobert to lend his support this week.
Mr. Wuttunee said work on the pipeline will be stopped for as long as it takes to get firm, good faith commitments on native rights from the president of Enbridge. "They've made a lot of promises," he said. "We'll be there until things get rectified."
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
First Nations protest pipeline ..."haven't been consulted"
http://www.canada.com/First Nations protest pipeline
Protesters say they haven't been consulted and are demanding a share of the revenues
Darren Bernhardt, TheStarPhoenix.com
Published: Monday, September 29, 2008KERROBERT - Led by two men on horseback, roughly 60 First Nations people carried placards and marched through Kerrobert on Monday afternoon as part of a demonstration centered on the construction of a 1,590-kilometre oil pipeline known as the Alberta Clipper through traditional Treaty 6 territory.
The protesters say they haven't been consulted and are demanding a share of the revenues.
"We want to put out a message that we've had enough, that we're going to stand together as Indian people to make sure we get our fair share of the resources that come from our traditional lands," said Red Pheasant First Nation Chief Sheldon Wuttunee, who led the procession through town, wearing a ceremonial headdress.
Wuttunee was among the protesters, as Native leaders set up camp on the Enbridge Pipelines Inc. pipeline near Kerrobert to make it known they want a share in the construction and revenues.
Richard Marjan/The StarPhoenix
The march concluded at the Kerrobert headquarters of Enbridge Pipelines Inc., the company behind the pipeline project.
Construction on the pipeline is currently taking place near the Red Pheasant reserve, located 85 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. Several kilometres of top soil have been removed to prepare for trenching.
Wuttunee and several of his band members, along with supporters from the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) and First Nation bands in Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. as well as across Saskatchewan, have also set up a campsite adjacent to the pipeline path just south of Luseland.
Four teepees have been erected, including one directly on top of the pipeline path.
Enbridge is planning to send 800,000 barrels of oil per day to Wisconsin and TransCanada Pipeline is sending another one million barrels per day to the United States, said Roseau River Anishinabe (Manitoba) First Nation Chief Terrance Nelson, whose band has also had issues with Enbridge.
"Farmers get payment if they have title to the land. Municipalities gets paid. The provincial and federal governments get paid. And what are they going to give you? Nothing, not even a royalty. A few token jobs, maybe," Nelson said to the group of supporters during a press conference at the campsite prior to the march.
"Good for you to stand up and say, 'Enough is enough. We own that land. We're sure as hell not going to give it up to everyone else.' "
Enbridge spokesperson Gina Jordan said they have had public consultations with 40 First Nations and Metis groups over the past two years.
"We are looking forward to continuing discussions with Red Pheasant and other First Nations. We want to make sure they have participation (in the pipeline project)." She added that several First Nations people are employed in the construction, contracting and security fields regarding the pipeline.
When asked repeatedly about sharing royalties, Jordan said "royalties are a federal government issue so they're not something I can comment on."
Senior management from Enbridge, Jordan said, are intending to meet with Wuttunee and other First Nations officials as soon as possible, but she did not know when that might happen.
Wuttunee has said the camp will remain set up "until we are dealt with."
Protesters representing Treaty 4 First Nations brought traffic on Highway 1 east of Regina to a crawl on Sunday and barricaded the road leading into a pipeline construction compound on Sunday as part of protests planned provincewide, and possibly for across Canada.
Earlier this month, Wuttunee warned action was being considered to halt construction of a multimillion-dollar oil pipeline until First Nations feel their issues have been addressed. Wuttunee's concerns centred on employment, with the chief alleging Enbridge had reneged on a written pledge to provide jobs and contracts to First Nations people.
Meanwhile, Standing Buffalo First Nation -- one of four bands without a treaty with the Crown -- hit a roadblock this summer when the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal refused to quash a decision allowing Enbridge to expand a pipeline into the Weyburn area. The band had argued the pipeline traversed traditional Dakota-Lakota land and that the band had not been consulted.
Sunday's action was centred on the Waschuk Pipeline construction compound, located just west of White City. At about 3:30 p.m., Treaty 4 members led by about 15 people on horseback began the trek east down Highway 1.
More coverage:
http://www.canada.com/
Monday, September 08, 2008
RCMP: Probe into tasering of teenaged girl reopened
JOE FRIESEN September 6, 2008
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080906.TASERJ06/TPStory/?query=Aboriginal
The RCMP have reopened a criminal investigation into the case of an officer accused of tasering a teenage girl while his colleagues held her down inside a police jail cell.
The girl, 16 at the time, filed a complaint with Manitoba RCMP last year and was told in July that an internal investigation had concluded no criminal offence was committed.
But a month after the girl went public with her case, the RCMP decided to reopen the investigation, which will now be conducted by a senior investigator from outside the force.
The girl's lawyer, Catherine Dunn, said the only thing that changed in the interim was the prominent coverage her client's case received in the media.
"It was only after making her complaint public that the RCMP took the view that an independent police service should reinvestigate this matter.
One would have thought that would be a preliminary decision as opposed to a review decision," Ms. Dunn said.
The RCMP also confirmed to Ms. Dunn that as many as eight officers were in and around her client's cell at the time of the incident.
"The number of people involved and the manner in which [the girl] was attacked is suggestive of a group sexual assault as opposed to a detention," Ms. Dunn said, referring to the fact that the tasering was inflicted within inches of her groin area.
The incident occurred in November, 2007, at the RCMP detachment in Selkirk, Man., 35 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
The girl, who was arrested as a minor and can't be named, was picked up by police after her parents came home, found the family minivan missing and reported it stolen.
The girl was detained (but never charged) and taken to the local detachment.
Police told her that since she was intoxicated she would have to be held overnight.
The girl admits she resisted officers when they attempted to put her in a cell, holding onto her chair and fighting back as they dragged her away.
The officers removed items of her clothing, including her bra, and threw her into the cell, the girl said.
She hit out at the last officer as he left the cell, striking him in the back, at which point he called the others back in, the girl said.
She believes four officers held her down, one on each limb, while a taser was used against her.
The weapon struck her three times in the leg and groin area, and left her screaming in pain, she said.
She still suffers irregular shooting pains in her legs and sees a psychologist to help her deal with the emotional trauma.
Her mother wants to know why the officers didn't simply walk away and leave her daughter in the locked cell.
She said she believes her daughter's rough treatment was exacerbated because she is aboriginal. The RCMP said in a letter to the girl's mother that the investigation will be conducted by a senior investigator with the Calgary police service, and is expected to take two to three weeks.
The girl has been allowed to receive third-party feedback during the investigation, which means she has appointed someone to act on her behalf from the Manitoba Métis Federation who will receive daily e-mails or updates from police on the progress of the investigation.
But the third party will not be allowed to review videotaped interviews and the video surveillance footage of the girl's cell at the time of the incident.
"This decision in and of itself continues to show that the RCMP do have something to hide with respect to this incident and their investigation," Ms. Dunn said.
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Two Row Wampum Treaty
"It is said that, each nation shall stay in their own vessels, and travel the river side by side. Further, it is said, that neither nation will try to steer the vessel of the other." This is a treaty among Indigenous Nations, and with Canada. This is the true nature of our relationships with Indigenous Nations of 'Kanata'.
