Indigenous Environmental Activism (2012)

Jenna La France talks about traditional aboriginal approach to environment and the land, compared to consumerist mentality that does not have a relationship with the land. She also speaks about multinational corporations destroying the land for profit, or relocation people for mega hydro electric projects, and how little control citizens have over it. Discusses Enbridge’s ‘clean and green’ motto and how the oil sands project promotes jobs, but the reality is these projects only pollute the land and create disease, and when people protest, they are put in jail.  

Byron Joseph speaks about traditional aboriginal’s relationship to the land compared to multinational corporations that are only concerned with profit. It harms the ecosystem. There is discussion around China needing our tar sands bitumen for energy needs.  

Gerry is a elder from Nicola Valley Institute  of Technology in Burnaby , BC. He is at  a sweat at BCIT in Burnaby which he runs telling salmon stories.

Buster Adams is a elder from Lytton First Nation discussing the history of fishing in Lytton his community.

Assembly of First Nations, Grand Chief Sean Atleo, is speaking about Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline project that will be shipping bitumen to China, and the relationship to the Chinese people stating that indigenous people in Canada have the right to free, prior and informed consent when it comes to resource development.

Gary George is from Northern Central British Columbia and his Nation lies right near the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline proposed by Enbridge. This area is near Burns Lake, Houston, and Smithers area. The pipeline will cross the Maurice River near the upper part of the Skeena River. These rivers still have Sockeye, Pink and various other wild salmon runs. He is worried that if there is a spill in the river the ecosystem will suffer terribly. He feels that there will be benefit to the community through economic growth, but that the natural state of the Maurice River is too important and fragile, and that the focus should be on protecting the river and its salmon.

Wild salmon activist Don Staniford was being deported on this day, January 27 2012. Staniford was being sued in the Supreme Court by Mainstream Canada, a division of Cermaq of Norway, for comments made on his website Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture.  Staniford states that the Norwegian government has an incestuous relationship with salmon farming in Norway because Norwegian government leaders have salmon farming interests. Oil and gas exploration is Norways leading industry next to aquaculture and so therefore the Norwegian government has vested interest in Enbridge pipeline and oil and gas exploration.   Staniford mentions the work of dr. Alexandra Morton who made the correlation to salmon farms to ISA (Infectious salmon anemia) and sea lice and describes how deadly salmon farms are to wild salmon stocks, as well as the ecological pollution created by salmon farms due to chemical hormones and antibiotics.

Canadian Mining Corporation Imperial Metals wants to mine an area of Northern Central British Columbia that would drastically affect multiple indigenous nations traditional homelands including the Tahltan Nation. The project is called the Red Chris Mine. The Tahltan people voted in favour of the project, although it is not a fair representation due to overall low voter turnout. Public awareness amongst the Nation would promote better understanding of the dysfunction to ecosystems and hopefully put a stop to mining in the region.