http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Canadian-First-Nations-Sue-the-Government-to-Protect-Land-20170115-0001.html
[Sadly, a continuing saga.
images in on-line article]
Canadian First Nations Sue the Government to Protect Land
Published 15 January 2017
The pipeline project is marred by a troubled past, including a 1999
spill of more than 20,000 barrels of heavy crude oil.
Canada’s Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs – a self-proclaimed political unit
that picks up where the regional government fails – wants to take the
federal government to court to challenge the approval of a controversial
pipeline with an already troubled past.
The organization wants a judicial review of Enbridge’s line 3
$7.5-billion replacement project, which would, as its name suggests,
replace the aging pipeline so that it may run at full capacity – 760,000
barrels of oil per day. Currently, the pipeline, built in the 1960s, is
only operating at half capacity due to “reliability concerns” the
company found, according to CBC News. It runs from Hardisty, Alberta
through Saskatchewan and ending at SUperior, Wisconsin.
AMC’s outgoing Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, argues that the project will
increase the risks of spills in Manitoba’s watershed. It will also
betray the commitments to environmental sustainability the country made
at the Paris climate summit last year, he said.
"Canada committed to restoring public confidence and modernizing the
[National Energy Board] with a specific focus on Indigenous and
traditional knowledge," Nepinak said, as quoted by CBC News.
"Instead, the Enbridge Line 3 decision is founded upon a process that
marginalized Indigenous voices and legal orders."
The project was approved by the National Energy Board back in April. The
federal government then gave it the green light last November despite
massive opposition from Indigenous communities. This was reflected in
the concerns that several First Nations in Saskatchewan submitted to the
NEB in 2015.
Nepinak therefore argued that the Great Binding Law – the result of
meetings among Indigenous elders that focused on the impact of tar sands
and pipelines in ancestral lands ‘– should have been included in the
NEB’s evaluation and in the federal Order in Council.
The Order not only authorized the project, but went as far as alleging
that “the consultation process undertaken is consistent with the honour
of the Crown," as quoted by the CBC.
The organization will therefore argue that the consultation process was
inadequate given that the Great Binding Law was ignored, and after the
NEB declined two invitations to learn about it.
The pipeline is already marred by a troubled past, including a spill in
1999 that released more than 20,000 barrels of heavy crude oil near
Pilot Butte, east of Regina.
That spill had “economic, financial, emotional, lasting and devastating”
impacts “beyond description,” the Ochapowace First Nation said in a
statement submitted to the NEB opposing the project.
Other First Nations affected by the pipeline include the Keeseekoose
First Nation, which is also concerned about the proximity of the
pipeline to the land; the George Gordon First Nation, worried about the
waste management during the pipeline's decommissioning and operation;
and the Pasqua First Nation, located downstream from Line 3
replacement's crossing of the Qu'Appelle Valley.
The company claims it takes the concerns seriously and, according to CBC
News, it has entered into an agreement with the Pasqua First Nation.
Nevertheless, the AMC vehemently opposes it and demands that the prime
minister live up to his election promises.
"It is unfortunate we have to go to court when there clearly is no
political will with the current federal government to live up to Prime
Minister Trudeau's comment that no other relationship is as important as
the one with indigenous people in Canada," he said, CBC News reported.
