Land issue should have been clarified early

By Letter to the Editor on March 4, 2020.

The people protesting the gas pipeline crossing the traditional lands of Indigenous people make a very strong point against the reliance which Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and other pipeline supporters place on band councils’ approvals of the project.

It is most likely that the authority of the band councils, coming as it does from the federal Indian Act, does not extend to traditional territories and is only effective on reserves. Please note – and I will stand corrected if I am wrong on this – that much of the traditional lands of many B.C. Indigenous people are not subject to treaties between any government and the residents. The strongest and best claim to such lands, therefore, is by them as represented by their hereditary or traditional chiefs. Therefore, consent from hereditary chiefs is a requirement not fulfilled.

I think that the lands in question are not subject to any treaty. The protesters’ claims seem valid, because the pipeline will be an unlawful and unapproved intrusion onto Indigenous peoples’ traditional lands. I would have thought that the governments involved, and also the company behind this project, would have clarified this issue much earlier, at the outset of the project.

Kenney derides these protests as “eco-colonialism.” I’ll bet he and his UCP spin doctors snickered a lot when they dreamed up their new conservative buzzword of the week, but his use of that word shows he does not understand the past five centuries of actual colonialism to which Indigenous people have been subjected. For Kenney and his ilk it is, and will be, business as usual – get out of our way!

Also, regarding Kenney’s statement that “…this is a country that respects the rule of law,” that statement is true. His saying it carries no weight, however, coming from a sitting premier who, together with his cohorts, has metaphorically given the middle finger to proper legal process (and to Albertans) by firing the Alberta Elections Commissioner during that commissioner’s active investigation of Kenney’s position as leader of his party and during that commissioner’s ongoing investigations of alleged improprieties of others in the UCP. Kenney’s statement says “respect the rule of law” but his actions have said never let either truth, or justice, or propriety stand in the way of power.

Gregory R. Côté

Irvine, Alta.

8
-7