Aiming to stop the wholesale destruction of their traditional lands, the Beaver Lake Cree Nation has launched a massive lawsuit against the Federal and Alberta governments.

Filed on May 14th, the suit identifies more than 16,000 infringements (development projects, most connected to the tar sands) that are contributing to the destruction of the environment, the loss of traditional areas, and the decline in wildlife populations within their territory. These infringements are making it impossible for the Nation to exercise their Treaty Rights.

A Beaver Lake press release (pdf) states in part,
Beaver Lake Cree Nation… has watched with growing anger and frustration as their traditional hunting, trapping and fishing lands have been rapidly destroyed by the oil and gas industry. They have seen the forests they depend on for their livelihood riddled with oil wells, criss-crossed with roads and seismic lines and …

The International Boreal Conservation Campaign (IBCC) has just released a report that reveals the entire array of potential (and ongoing) land conflicts that exist as a result of Canada’s outdated (colonial) “free entry” mining law.

The report is titled “Mining Exploration Conflicts in Canada’s Boreal Forest,” and you can download it at the IBCC website..

See below for a press release about the report by the Canadian Boreal Initiative. Also, here’s a detailed map showing Mining Claims, Indigenous Communities and Treaty Lands in Canada.

Report Details Free Entry Mining Conflicts with First Nations, Conservation and Wildlife

May 14, 2008 - A report and set of maps released today offer a first time overview of the extent to which mining claims staked under an outdated free entry system conflict with Aboriginal rights, private landowners, conservation, wildlife, and other values in Canada’s Boreal Forest. The report …

The Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) was gathered in Lima, Peru, from May 13 to 16, for its second session on European Transnational companies in Latin America.

Convening within the Peoples’ Summit Linking Alternatives 3 — which was itself organized in parallel to the 5th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the European Union - Latin America and the Caribbean (UE-LAC) — the Tribunal spent the week collecting evidence and testimony surrounding the actions of more than twenty European Corporations who stood accused of violating human rights and destroying the environment.

The names of the companies are: Majaz-Monterrico Metals and Vale do Rio Doce from the mining sector; as well as Roche and Boehringer from the pharmaceutical industry; Shell and Repsol YPF from the oil sector; Botnia and ENCE from the forestry-pulp industry; Syngenta in the agribusiness sector; Skanska and …

In this video, you will hear Don Sandberg, an “Aboriginal Policy Fellow” at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, talk about some of the dysfunctions surrounding aboriginal policy and the Band Council system in Canada.

As noted in an 2006 article he wrote for the Winnipeg Free Press,

[The] cultural imperative — that all citizens should contribute and share — was a normal part of life when I grew up in the northern Manitoba railway community of Gillam. Band councils created by the federal government would eventually replace Indian agents, but there was very little money in the pipes and nobody wanted to be chief.

Ours was Wesley Neepin, employed full-time as a section foreman for CN Rail, whose responsibilities were to hand out rifle ammunition, gasoline for outboard motors, nets for fishing and little else. The squabbles that currently divide many reserves did not exist, as government money did not …

The Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) recently informed the Lubicon People that they will not be allowed to participate in the AUC’s hearing on TransCanada’s application to build a major gas pipeline… across unceded Lubicon land. To add insult to injury, the AUC says it’s the Lubicon’s own fault for not ‘properly’ answering their questions.

“It’s a crafty variant of the old ‘blame the victim’ strategy” say the Friends of the Lubicon in a recent press release. One where the AUC would rather deal with “the possible political implications of denying the Lubicons status at the hearing” than those of the Lubicon actually showing up.

They no doubt fear the latter could prove devastating to the pipeline. After all, the AUC knows full well that it has no jurisdiction or authority to impact the land without the Lubicon’s consent. The AUC however, seems to …

Indigenous Peoples in Brazil will hold a mass 5-day rally next week, dubbed “the Xingu Encounter,” to protest against a series of hydro dams planned for the Xingu river and its tributaries.

The sacred lands website explains, there are a total of 70 large dams and dozens of smaller ones planned throughout the central and northern parts of the country. “One of these is the proposed Paranatinga II dam. Located on the Culuene River, a tributary of the Xingu, Paranatinga II would destroy an area sacred to 14 tribal groups. The same tribes also oppose the much larger proposed dam downstream, Belo Monte, which would displace indigenous communities.” If completed, Belo Monte would be the world’s third largest hydro dam.

The encounter, which will take place from May 19 to 23 in the town of Altamira, Pará, is expected to gather over a …

The Band Council of the Anishinabek at Serpent River issued the following Press Release on April 30, warning of yet another uranium conflict brewing in Ontario–that is to say, a conflict brought on by Ontario’s refusal to accept their constitutional obligations towards Indigenous Communities.

For more information, you can contact Chief Isadore Day, Wiindawtegowinini, Serpent River First Nation, PO Box, 14, 48 Village Road, Cutler, Ontario - P0P 1B0, Iday.srfn@ontera.net.

SERPENT RIVER FIRST NATION PRESS RELEASE

April 30 - It has come to the point where Serpent River First Nation leaders insist they want decisive action from the Ontario government on a list of matters pertaining to development in their traditional territory including the exploration of minerals, especially uranium.

Elected Chief of Serpent River First Nation, Isadore Day, Wiindawtegowinini says he’s concerned that private sector proponents for development are moving faster than government responses to consultation requirements for …