Fw: [BCFSN] Ecological values and drinking water compromised in clash of laws and cultures

[Allison Huttton]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dawn Morrison" <da...@cablelan.net>
To: <i...@bcfsn.org>; "BCFSN list" <fo...@bcfsn.org>
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 5:21 PM
Subject: [BCFSN] Ecological values and drinking water compromised in clash
of laws and cultures

> http://wcel.org/resources/environmental-law-alert/ecological-values-drinking-water-compromised-clash-laws-and-cultur
>
> Ecological values & drinking water compromised in clash of laws and
> cultures
> Terms:
> * aboriginal law
> 25 February, 2010 We are now 2 days into a stand-off between the
> Okanagan Indian Band and Tolko Industries at Browns Creek on the west
> side of Okanagan Lake. The dispute brings to a head the long-standing
> conflict between Tolko’s plans to clear cut log in the watershed and the
> Okanagan’s resolve to protect their water supply, their ability to map
> and collect evidence establishing their Aboriginal Title and Rights, and
> their future use of the watershed and its ecological abundance.
>
> But the issues go even deeper than this. Indeed, the story playing out
> in Browns Creek is one that raises profound moral and legal questions.
> The Okanagan Nation have been the owners of this land since time
> immemorial, never ceding or relinquishing it to anyone. Today, the
> Okanagan are exercising their right and their responsibility under
> Okanagan law to protect their land and territories from the threat of
> logging.
>
> The situation, however, appears very different from a Canadian legal
> perspective. Although the Browns Creek watershed has been the subject of
> Aboriginal Title proceedings for over a decade, the Crown has continued
> to grant permission to companies like Tolko to log in the area. In turn,
> Tolko’s Tree Farm Licence and cutting permits gave it sufficient rights
> to seek an injunction preventing the Okanagan from interfering with
> logging and road construction, which was ultimately successful with some
> provision for additional archaeological work. While finding that the
> counter-claim of the Okanagan Nation Alliance against Tolko for trespass
> raised a “‘serious question to be tried,” Madam Justice Brown, in a
> manner all too typical of similar proceedings, was much quicker to find
> that Tolko’s potential economic losses represented “irreparable harm”
> than the environmental and cultural losses raised by the Okanagan.
>
> It should trouble us morally and legally as Canadians that the ancient
> legal principles, rights and responsibilities of First Nations peoples,
> rights which are constitutionally protected, are routinely expected to
> give way in the face of the statutory and contractual rights of
> corporations and their economic interests. And we all lose when the
> environment and drinking water are degraded in the result.
>
> Can the provincial government and companies be encouraged to better
> respect Indigenous environmental laws? West Coast Environmental Law has
> been working for many years to support First Nations partners in
> developing land use plans and written policies and codes that embed
> principles of the nation’s traditional environmental laws in technical
> terms that the Crown and third parties are more familiar with.
> Reconciliation negotiations with the provincial government and legal
> agreements about shared decision-making and land use planning can
> sometimes set the stage for legal protection of key areas in both First
> Nations and Canadian law. There are also precedents for providing
> interim protection while this work is ongoing, and legal authority for
> doing so in provincial law. Regrettably, however, it has often taken
> conflicts like that currently playing out at Browns Creek to galvanize
> the political will of the Crown to implement proactive solutions.
>
> The Okanagan Nation is in the process of developing a land use plan that
> would “give the land a voice” and will no doubt provide further weight
> to their decision to protect the Browns Creek watershed from clear cut
> logging. The questions is: when this hard work is done, will it be too
> late for Browns Creek?
>
> Jessica_CloggBlog.jpgBy Jessica Clogg
>
>
> --
> Dawn R. Morrison, Coordinator
>
> B.C. Food Systems Network
> Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty
> C/0 Box 956
> Chase, B.C. V0E 1M0
> Phone: (250)679-1116
> Mobile: (250)318-7361
> Email: da...@cablelan.net
> Website: www.indigenousfoodsystems.org/
>
> "Only when the last tree has died, and the last fish has been
> caught, and the last river has been poisoned, will they realize that
> money cannot be eaten".
>
> 19th Century Cree saying.
>
>
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