Dembicki missed an Important One

Geoff has missed one very important misstep by Enbridge in their dealings with the First Nations. Enbridge really shot themselves in the foot when they bought off Elmer Derrick of the Gitxsan.

Derrick, and his Gitxsan Treaty Society were already in trouble with the Gitxsan Nation and its' hereditary Chiefs, and already facing court challenges for mis-appropriation of funds when news exploded about Enbridge's buy-off. In this case Enbridge was the catalyst needed by the Gitxsan to force Derrick and bunch from positions supposedly speaking for the Nation.

Since then, Derrick and the officers of the Gitxsan Treaty Society have been officially fired by the Gitxsan Nation and their heriditary chiefs, The GTS office has been boarded up and blockaded 24/7 by members of the Gitxsan Nation, and the Gitxsan Treaty Society itself has been declared to be operating illegally in a court of law. In this case, Enbridge has very effectively shot themselves in the foot, and in the process, destroyed any chance of credibility with the interior First Nations.

The good part that comes from this story is that while Enbridge seems to have learned absolutely nothing about First Nations culture despite all of their dealings, the non-aboriginal population of the area has.

Some people are illusional in

Some people are illusional in believing that our Federal Government is committed to honest and fair hearings for the next 18 months. The fix is in and has been for a long time. The Enbridge pipeline enviromental hearings is a dog and pony show. That pipe is going to be rammed through and our Government doesn't give a rat's ass what the great unwashed think.

First Nations and the environmental movement

I find it sad that there are members of the environmental movement who seek to sway First Nations people against developments such as the Northern Gateway pipeline.

The "environmentalists" are not acting in the best interests of the First Nations people. They are merely using the First Nations people as a pawn to be sacrificed in the war against industrialization.

Many (most) of our First Nations people live in poverty and they have little control over their lives. The band councils do not exist for their benefit. Band Councils exist to administer the funds which come into the community. Very little funds actually get to benefit the individual band members.

The way out of poverty has to include education and jobs. In a resource based province, jobs have to come from the resources of the land. The pipeline would provide much needed jobs at a very minimal environmental cost, and help our First Nations people rise out of the trap of poverty and despair.

It is sad that our First Nations people are being sacrificed to help the goals of some environmentalists.

A good example of how business works; the rush to mediocrity

"So Enbridge contracted an international company to survey land..." and the contractor probably contracted a sub-contractor to do the work. The surveyors on the ground never thought to ask questions about land ownership, and they had no idea what they were cutting down.

That is the problem with the way we do business in Canada; the on-the-ground workers are ignorant. I don't mean that as an insult, but as a statement of fact. It exemplifies the approach that Alberta oil companies have to the First Nations and to BC in general. They see us as just as just another landowner to be dealt with i.e. bought off. BC

I see the need for another pipeline, but cannot for the life of me, see one good reason for BC to allow it. BC is not a subject colony of Alberta or Ottawa and we have no reason to behave like one.

I disagree with Van Isle though. This pipeline may be rammed through, but the First Nations are going to give Enbridge and their buddies the fight of their lives. Enbridge are their own worst enemies and they understand nothing; probably less than the BC Oil and Gas Commission understand about oil and gas, in fact.

There are many ways to create

There are many ways to create jobs without setting fire to the house over our heads and selling the ground from under our feet.

I started my first manufacturing business in Vancouver in 1957, with a $500. bankloan and was employing a half dozen tradesmen within a couple of weeks. Trained apprentices, my guys were getting good wages in my 22 years in Vancouver and most owned their own homes.

All this was killed by "conservatives", the fraudulent "free trade" rackets, throwing hundreds of thousands out of work, into foodbank lines and tens of thousands of businesses closed down to please and sell the country to the international corporate mafia.

Those FN communities could have great deal of independence, self sufficiency and wellbeing, but are being misled, lied to and enslaved in the name of the GDP and "economic development", otherwise known as stealing the most from the most.

Ed Deak.

@Illahie

I am FN, and find your comments rather condescending. We are the stewards of these lands that have sustained us for thousands of years. I believe we can think for ourselves to know what developments would best suit our interests and needs. And FYI, we are environmentalists. To say that the "big 'ol bad environmentalists" are leading us astray, is at best, naive, and at worst, paternalistic. There are developments that are going ahead as we speak,in which we have a say, providing jobs, skills, and training. What we don't want, is the delicate ecosystem of our lands, waterways, and ocean damaged to the point of no return. And that, dear Illahie, is what the Enbridge Pipeline represents to us.

rampant neocolonialism

Having flushed the Kelowna Accord down the toilet even faster than Kyoto, our shameful federal govt. has clearly indicated it prefers to let global oil corporations do the next phase of colonialism in Canada. How does it feel folks, to be Third Nation now?

Thank you Northern001

I really appreciate your comment, it`s people like Illalie that use the naive con job to spin and distort..

Lobbyists have no shame.

more grist for the mill so to speak

Once again, the Tyee journalism trumps Postmedia and other corporate news media.

If readers have ever been to the Kitimat Valley they would have noted the half century of logging destruction that has taken place there.

Beside the Haisla village, the FN peoples have been subjected to an aluminum smelter, a pulp mill and a methane tank farm. It's time their valley, or what is left of it, is returned to them along with compensation.

Enbridge's statement regarding Aboriginal and Native American consultation is worth a read only to see how it differs from reality.

http://www.enbridge.com/InYourCommunity/AboriginalCommunities/AboriginalConsultation.aspx

Speaking of compensation, Enbridge's CEO, Patrick Daniel, received $38.3 million in compensation in the last five years. Mr. Daniel took home more than $8 million ($40,000/day) in 2010 and other key Enbridge executives took home another $12 million in 2010.

When readers look at Enbridge Board of Directors and where they live one can see how they can be so out of touch. The chair lives in Florida! Several other directors live outside Canada. Now we know the names of those foreign interests influencing Canada's resource sector.

If readers are interested they should look at the House of Commons debate in 1956 regarding the then Liberal government wanting to loan US owned Trans-Canada Pipeline $80 million to finance a pipeline from Alberta to Winnipeg and then to Chicago. Diefenbaker was Opposition Leader and in the Great Pipeline Debate he spoke emotionally about Canada losing its control over its resources to the US. In 1957, Diefenbaker's Conservatives defeated the Liberal government and the Pipeline Debate had much to do with it. The name C.D. Howe, described as Liberal minister of everything, was the leading force for turning Canada's resources over to US interests rather than build a pipeline to Eastern Canada and reduce Canada's dependence on imported oil.

Kelowna Accord and Christy's new chief of staff

Ken Boessenkool...

Huffington Post Canada has an online article in which it states:

"During a debate at the Manning Centre in 2009, Boessenkool praised the Harper government for getting out of bad policy decisions of Liberal previous government.

"On political correctness, there is no longer any credibility in this country for the Kelowna Accord, the Kyoto Accord or for court challenge programs," he said.

It should be clear by now where Christy Clark stands or smiles on the pipeline issue and First Nations in this province.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/01/13/ken-boessenkool-christy-clark-bc_n_1205753.html

Thank god for people like Northern001

I hope they are able to deflect the b.s. and keep control of their land. If our 'white' society prevails there will be nothing left in 50 years. It is relatively easy to conserve nature and almost impossible to restore it, once destroyed.

First Nations and the Environmentalists - Its respect.

I read Illahie comment and thought he really should be part of the Enbridge support group. All the old myths were trotted out and you have to be so utterly far removed from First nations Culture to make those comments. One of the reasons that First nations are closer to the "environmental movement" than say the "oil interests" is that the environmental movement has made an effort to understand First Nations culture and their deep and strong ties to the land. When all you are interested in is profits and exploiting the earth resources for your personal benefit you tend not to give a crap about people who want to preserve a way of life and a culture tied to a healthy environment. The reasons the two organizations are closer in objective should be a no-brainer.

You will also never see any of the Environmental organization show anything like the lack of respect shown by Enbridge described in the article.

Probably the best line ever in a Hollywood movie.

"The "environmentalists" are not acting in the best interests of the First Nations people. They are merely using the First Nations people as a pawn to be sacrificed in the war against industrialization."

The First Nations are no one's pawn.

"Industrialisation" is not a goal in itself either.

It also depends what the word

It also depends what the word "industrialization" means ?

Trades and shops for the production of goods for local people, or the destruction of trades and shops for the production of profits for a globalized few?

The tragedy of Atawabiskat and of many other communities, not only FN, but all over the world, would never happen if people would be given the knowledge, tools and resources to look after themselves, to use their own talents, intelligence and resourcefulness for self sufficiency, instead of having to rely on imports from China for survival, to make the politicians and VIP executives rich and happy.

The world's and history's most misused and tragic word is "freedom", enslaving millions, now in fraudulent the name and use of the words "free enterprise" that robs them blind.

Ed Deak.

The ones that have illusions

Van Isle: The ones that have "illusions" are the ones that think the people of BC, First Nations and others alike will take this lying down. NOT SO..

To much is at stake to be complacent.
The First Nations do stand to lose everything that matters in the event of a pipeline leak or tanker spill. The rest of the Province will lose a lot too.
I see the numbers say 3000 jobs will be created. Has anyone thought about how many jobs would be LOST in the event of a spill the size of the Exxon Valdez? A spill of that size (the new ships are larger) would cover the BC coast from Alaska to Washington State.
How many people make their living working on these waters and beaches?
Tourism: How many cruise ships ply these waters annually? would folk want to spend their money to travel the dead seas of BC?
How many businesses rely upon the international travelers that come to hike, kayak and fish the coast? I know where I live on Vancouver Is. these visitors are important. They come for the beauty and unspoiled nature.
No one wants to see an oil covered Spirit Bear or dead orcas.
Bus tours every summer bring people from all over the world to travel the coast and northern BC.
Affected would be airlines, hostelries to hotels, eateries.. fish charters and resorts... the list is long..

Food: People work the waters from top to bottom harvesting fish and other sea life for locals and a huge export market. (China would lose big time)
20+ yrs. have come and gone and the shell fish in Prince William Sound remain highly contaminated. Unfit for consumption.
Fallout from the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is in it's infancy. Seafood fisheries are dying because of the contamination.

How many people on the BC coast earn a living directly or indirectly from the ocean?
The Environment: An ecosystem is a closed system. If blocks are removed the entire cycle will break down.

No Van Isle, we have too much to lose and almost nothing to gain from this. I hope it doesn't come down to standoffs and the like but if it does I will be there, and so will a lot of other people that care.

FN objections

You want all the benefits of our society, however, you do not recognize from whence your benefits come from. We do live in a commercial world - we all must expect to be impacted by it. If you object to this commercialization , then stop accepting the government grants!

@ PeterB

You're a member of a race that came an took over their lands never having paid any compensation or signed treaties. Now you want them to let you have the rights to pollute their territory they never signed over without forcing the government (us) to live up to the terms which we determined, without any agreement from them. allowed us to take over their lands. That makes sense to you?

We have everything to lose

When, not if there is an oil spill what is left of the land is gone forever because contrary to what the oil companies would have you believe, it is never cleaned up.

I grew up in the area where they plan to put the pipeline, it is home to me even though I haven't lived there in years. I am listening to the people's stories in the hearings, when I can and reading the transcripts. My heart is heavy for these people who have lived through so much. The theft of their homes, abuse in residential schools, prejudice, loss of their language and culture and I stand with them in spirit.

Why should the people of BC, especially the first nations be the ones to pay with the life of the land so that filthy bitumen oil can be transported to China. It has nothing to do with Harper's "national security" and everything to do with corporate profit.

FN & Enviros

To suggest FN are manipulated by environmental organizations is really paternalistic. Embarassing actually.

The matter is simple, FN and environmentalists care about the land and see the land as the source of our being. They do not always agree on what is right or good, but when they do agree, the bond is strong, and it is because they have something very deep in common: respect for the earth and all her creatures, above and beyond other values.

Xwunitum qwel tuxwuthulth 'ulhqi'

That is a poor translation of the words "White man speaks with snake tongue" or "White man speaks with forked tongue".

Those few words adequately describe the attitude of most white businesses and governments to the First Nations over the last five hundred years. We took away their land, thir culture, their potlatch and their children. Now we want to decimate their fish.

Our attitude toward them has been similar to the attitude of the Alberta government when they sterilised psychiatric patients in the 1960's and 1970's, which is poor. In our enforced residential school system, we allowed the systematic rape of their children, and we are only now dealing with that.

The oil and gas industry has decimated the landsape across Alberta, turning it from a idyllic wilderness to an industrial catastrophe. The people of Fort McKay know all about the safety record of the tar sands. Is it any surprise that the natives have had enough? They do actually own their land, and if I were one of them, I would defend my land against all comers.

We whites have tolerated far to much crap in the last five years in BC. Dozens of people have died in police custody, and nothing happens. The Queen of the North sank and no one was charged with anything.

If a BC ferry can go down, with all the latest navigation equipment on board, and nothing happens to the guilty parties - and there are guilty parties - what is a xwunitum's guarantee worth on an oil tanker? You may think this is irrelevant, but ask the people of Hartley Bay. They are still dealing with he oil leaks from the ferry boat.

The First Nations have nothing to learn from a white environmentalist; we are but poor apologists for the oil industry.

Democratic debate

Free speech demands that characters like spin meister Illahie and unilateral world view PeterB have their say.

But it also demands rebuttal and correction, a la northern001 first hand, much appreciated comments, also Skywalker, pwlg and many others.

It is this back and forth that presents many points of view, helps us to learn (for those who's beliefs are not set in stone), peals off layers of hype and ignorance and help us to find clearer common ground on how to proceed on many issues.

The Tyee is a gem in this regard. Mainstream media very rarely offers such opportunity.

Environmental groups and First Nations often partake of a similar honest and respectful listening and exchange of ideas forum.

Not so the blinkered, "the course remains the same, full speed ahead" corporations like Enbridge, or the hubris filled, political idealogues in Edmonton and Ottawa. To these, listening is only an inconvenient delay to what is already decided on.

First Nations want development, but carefully considered and implemented, best for their communities and descendents, not the turbo-capitalist rush for profit over everything else, be dammed the externalized consequences.

Peter's "You want all the benefits of our society". Such is "you and us" divisive thinking, a mode that can only lead to conflict.

Yup, some basics like clean drinking water, electricity (could be provided off grid and without gas or diesel generators) community freezers and such.

But not the 6,000 sq. ft. homes, private jets or stretch limos. The world of the ancestors is much more important than any of these could ever be.

It would be good if more Canadians began to understand this well grounded viewpoint, and just maybe, incorporate more of that thinking into their own.

Granville

With your knowledge of First Nations languages, you must know that the word Illahie is known in a variety First Nations languages from Washington State through to Alaska.

Jobs

illahie where are the jobs for First Nations, working in motels as chambermaids or serving food and beer in restaurants that will get some workers, most will likely be staying in work camps.

Been to the North East lately and counted the out of Province plates working in the oil fields, if history repeats itself this pipeline will be built by an Alberta company using Alberta workers. They always promise jobs then bring in outside workers.

Is this not the same company that hired a Chinese company using Chinese labour to build a tank farm at CNRL, three of those workers died on the job!

Jobs and Money for First Nations

Peter B seems to be under the impression that First Nations receive more benefits from Canada than other Canadians. In fact, a true accounting demonstrates that First Nations receive half or less the funding that White and other Canadians do.

As for the jobs or economic opportunities Enbridge is supposed to bring to First Nations, the last I heard, this project will only produce about 50 permanent jobs in BC. Consider how many of those jobs will go to First Nations and divide your guess by the 130 First Nations in opposition to this project in BC, and you have some idea about the "economic benefits" First Nations are likely to receive in return for endangering their lands, streams and rivers--and their future too, with climate change.

Enbridge et al has Harper's backing...

....and Harper is counting on the backing of either the Canadian military and/or the US military to push through the pipeline and to patrol it. So Enbridge et al feel they can treat the FN (and everyone else) with complete contempt.

To let the air of that particular balloon, it would behoove us to convince the military to think before acting.

illahie

It's rare to hear so much misinformation in one post.

"Many (most) of our First Nations people live in poverty and they have little control over their lives."

But not for the reasons you state. They have poverty and lack control of their futures because of isolation - reserves cannot access markets nor evaluate demand to start businesses serving those markets. Where reserves create goods or products there's no way to get them to market, or tranport routes present insurmountable pricing barriers. Reserves are isolated from educational institutions and training institutes. Reserves and their members can't access credit in the same way the rest of us can to develop and build.

And most of all, they are intentionally misunderstood by people who call them lazy and uneducated.

"The pipeline would provide much needed jobs at a very minimal environmental cost,"

But not for First Nations. Operation of the pipeline is acknowledged by Enbridge as well as other business consultants as providing fewer than 100 jobs at the portside tank farm, maintaining the line and equipment, and supporting those workers with policy and payroll. None of these jobs is an easily-accessible field for the inexperienced to break into, even with a proactive hiring policy.

And construction will provide even fewer. Name even one BC pipeline builder. Betcha can't. Hell it's even hard for me, and the only reason I know about Surerus (about 400 employees) is through relatives in Ft. St. John, and this company is nowhere near large enough to take on any of the work that Enbridge is planning.

No, this work is all going to go to the pipeliners in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. There won't be more than a couple of hundred BC jobs for a few locals with trucks and graders to build access roads or a pumping station foundation, or perhaps a welder or two to build foundation post caps for the pipeline base.

A couple of hundred BC jobs for a couple of years - set against the destruction of first Nations ways of life, altering or eliminating trapping and hunting routes, harm to fish-bearing streams, and the threat of oil spills in local waters?

Even kids with a grade six education can do the math. First Nations certainly can. Environmentalists can. 84% of BCers can.

Barbie may think math is hard, but honestly, it's not.

It appears.....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410055/
...that fact is beginning to follow fiction.

People were also promised all

People were also promised all kinds of "wealth creation" and jobs by the FTA , NAFTA and other "free trade" frauds.

All we got were hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, tens of thousands of businesses wiped out, the destruction of the manufacturing sector, minimum wage part time jobs, a million in foodbank lines and multimillion salaries for a few executives.

Yet, many still fall for these idiotic and criminal promises, like some on this list, and universities teaching it as "sciences".

Will people even wake up and kick out the crooks selling these frauds?

I was involved in the fights against the FTA and the NAFTA and all the horrors we have predicted then have come true, in spades, but none of the promised benefits. I have a file drawer full with the evidence of who said what and when, proving the fraud.

Yet people still fall for the promises of these crooks both in business and governments ?

This is the most amazing part.

Ed Deak.