CPTnet
17 May 2012
TORONTO, ON: The freedom to say no

by Rebecca Johnson

“By the mixing of our waters, it becomes your responsibility to protect our water, and our responsibility to protect your water.”  Hereditary Chief Pete Erickson of the northern British Columbia Carrier Sekani First Nation completed the final water ceremony before a crowd of over four hundred supporters in downtown Toronto on Wednesday, 9 May 2012.  As representative of one of the five-member First Nations of the Yinka Dene Alliance, Chief Erickson, along with a delegation of over fifty First Nation representatives, had just completed the ten day Freedom Train journey across Canada’s west to highlight the nations’ opposition to Enbridge corporation’s proposed Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline through their territory.

The Yinka Dene territories are located in the headwaters of the Fraser, Skeena and Mackenzie/Arctic watersheds. Their people have relied on salmon since time immemorial. Their territory is 25% of the 1,177 km through which the proposed pipeline will carry raw tar sands crude from Bruderheim in the Alberta Tar Sands to the inland coastal community of Kitimat, British Columbia. Citing the infamous Exxon Valdez tanker spill, the Yinka Dene and supporters fear contamination from pipeline ruptures and tanker spills of catastrophic proportions.

Chief Jackie Thomas of Saik’uz First Nation said, “Our fight has never been about money, it is about our way of life. Like all communities, we make business decisions based on an assessment of risk and this risk presented is far too great. There will be no deal with Enbridge. Not ever.” Through the Save the Fraser Declaration, over 100 First Nations have officially banned the pipeline project in their territories using their own indigenous laws.  Similarly, through the Coastal First Nations Declaration, communities along the coast from the United States border to the Arctic Ocean have registered an unbroken wall of opposition to oil tankers in their waters.

CPT members joined the Toronto rally and subsequent one km march to the King Edward Hotel, location of Enbridge’s Annual General Meeting. Four out of a delegation of nine First Nations leaders were permitted to enter. Upon leaving the meeting, Chief Martin Louie of Nadleh Whut’en First Nation said, “I’m not happy with anything they’ve been telling us. I don’t think there will be another Freedom Train; I think we’ll be heard in court after this. That’s the way Enbridge has put it to us.” In contrast to the reception by Enbridge, Chief Jackie Thomas described the growing support of ordinary people for the First Nations’ fight against the pipeline as “awesome.”

Photos of the rally and march are available courtesy of Pei-Ju Wang.