Saturday, 20 April 2024

Treaty rights

News release: Environmental, fishing and social justice groups unite from coast to coast for a halt to BP offshore drilling N.S.

News release: Days after BP spilled drilling mud offshore of Nova Scotia, more than 25 organizations representing hundreds of thousands of Canadians have sent an open letter calling on Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna to halt BP’s offshore drilling near Sable Island National Park Reserve. The letter calls on McKenna to revisit the approval of BP’s application in light of new expert evidence that the project’s risks were not fully assessed.

Press release: Treaty rights holders slam Premier McNeil during NS ‘Open for Business’ talk in Toronto

News release: Water protector and Mi’kmaq Elder Dorene Bernard did not mince words during a speech by Premier McNeil this morning. The premier’s talk was entitled ‘Open for Business: Nova Scotia on the Move’, which Bernard says is a blatant glossing over of the Indigenous right to free, prior, and informed consent. “We’re only open for business if treaty rights holders give their free, prior, and informed consent,” says Bernard. “That consent doesn’t come from the KMK termination table, it comes from the people and the traditional governments.”

Weekend video: The water protectors’ journey (trailer)

This weekend’s video is a short trailer for the documentary The water protectors’ journey. This film about the Alton Gas resistance documents a journey along the Sipekne’katik River, which leads to a sacred island known to the Mi’kmaq as the traditional campsite of Glooscap’s grandmother. The full film premieres in Halifax this Saturday March 31.

Shades of Green podcast, episode 5: Justice in public – Reconciliation, reparations and the decolonized future

In this episode of the Shades of Green podcast on environmental justice Sadie Beaton challenges us to reflect on a future without environmental racism and colonialism. It’s not just about the absence of these things, it’s also very much about what would replace it.Lots of voices will help you articulate an answer to that question. I am sorry to say that this is the final podcast in this excellent series, I don’t really want it to end quite yet.

Shades of Green podcast, episode 3: Peace, friendship and environmental justice – The Alton Gas resistance

Episode 3 of Sadie Beaton’s wonderful Shades of Green podcast focuses on the work of the Alton Gas water protectors. “Join us at the Treaty Camp to get a taste of what it’s like on the front lines of a movement that is so much bigger than stopping a single project. Let’s listen and reflect on what what stopping a natural gas storage project has to do with Indigenous self-determination, how the Peace and Friendship treaties might help us understand how to build just relationships with the land and each other, and what it means to be a treaty person.”

Media release: Alton Gas criminalizing grassroots Mi’kmaq water protectors

News release by Alton Gas water protectors: “Sipekne’katik/Fort Ellis — Alton Gas has posted signs outside the Treaty Camp at the Shubenacadie River naming water protectors on site as trespassers and criminals. Grassroots Mi’kmaq water protectors have been holding down a protection camp at the Shubenacadie River for nine months to prevent Alton Gas from dumping thousands of tons of salt brine into the sacred river every day. They are outraged by Alton Gas’ bully tactics and intent to resume work on the project without allowing Sipekne’katik to complete its community consultation process.”