Thank you.
Good afternoon, committee members. Thank you for inviting me to present to you. I also thank the indigenous nations whose territory we are standing on.
My name is Reg Moody-Humchitt, and I am a member of the Heiltsuk Nation.
You have already heard from Heiltsuk's chief councillor, Marilyn Slett. I am not here to repeat what Chief Slett has already said on behalf of our people but to focus on one particular issue of great importance to the Heiltsuk that is relevant to your inquiry: the Heiltsuk aboriginal right to harvest herring spawn-on-kelp, SOK, for social, food, and commercial purposes, and the potential devastation of our rights in the event of an oil tanker disaster.
As was mentioned by Chief Slett, in 1996 in R. v. Gladstone, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed what the Heiltsuk have always known, that our right to harvest SOK and to utilize it for all purposes, including commercially, is an integral part of our distinctive culture and has been since time beyond memory. The court said our right is second only to conservation and takes priority over all other users.
Gladstone is a landmark decision. It affirms one of the very few commercial aboriginal rights in Canada, and it is constitutionally protected under section 35.
To the Heiltsuk, Gladstone is real. It is not just a court case. I am here as a negotiator for the Gladstone Reconciliation Society. I work with William Gladstone, who is the chief negotiator on behalf of the nation. With our team, we are attempting to achieve final resolution of the matters still outstanding more than 20 years since the Supreme Court of Canada decision.
For William and his late brother Donald, the struggle goes back even further, to 1988 when they were arrested and treated as common criminals for exercising their aboriginal right.
The Heiltsuk Nation has benefited from the Gladstones' persistence. The economic circumstances of Indian reserves in Canada is well documented, and our village of Bella Bella is no different. For many of our people, engaging in the SOK harvest is their only source of income. To be able to earn a living on the water harvesting a traditional resource just as our ancestors did is a source of cultural pride that is immeasurable.
An oil tanker mishap on our waters would render the Gladstones' hard-fought battle and our constitutionally protected aboriginal right meaningless. To be clear, our concern is not just with potential economic loss. The Heiltsuk depend on SOK for spiritual, cultural, physical, as well as economic well-being, and all of this would be irreversibly impacted in the event of an oil spill. No amount of compensation could account for the loss to us as Heiltsuk people. This is a matter of food and cultural security.
Some of you might not be familiar with SOK and how we harvest it, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have during the question and answer period.
SOK has always been of critical significance to us because it's the first fresh food of the year and highly nutritious. The Heiltsuk have always collected and preserved vast amounts of SOK, and we engaged in large-scale trade with our neighbours, trading literally tons of SOK for other foods that we didn't have access to, such as eulachons. This trade going back to pre-contact times is well documented and formed the key evidence before the court in Gladstone. Our harvesting today follows ancient Heiltsuk practices.
Our fishery is environmentally sustainable because only a small percentage of the spawn deposited by the herring is harvested, and the fish themselves swim off again. In other words, it is a no-kill fishery.
So here we are today. For many reasons, full implementation of the Gladstone decision remains unfulfilled. We continue to work with Canada to achieve this objective on behalf of our people.
Despite all our efforts, the Heiltsuk might never truly reap the benefits of Gladstone if an oil spill destroys the marine ecosystem that the herring stocks rely on. Oil tanker traffic in our waters brings unacceptable risk to the Heiltsuk, and we call on Canada to take the opportunity to address the risks in real and meaningful ways as was set out by Chief Slett in her submission.
As we have expressed many times over the years to countless representatives of Canada, there is more in our canoe than SOK. The Heiltsuk people will not allow further infringements on our way of life. Time and time again we have been the ones to bear the burden and we paid the ultimate price to our way of life. The ongoing impacts of the sinking of the Nathan E. Stewart is only the most recent example.
As Chief Slett already pointed out, to the world at large that was considered a small spill, yet the effect on our people has been, and continues to be, devastating. What causes me concern is that a vessel the size of the Nathan E. Stewart wouldn't even be captured by the proposed oil tanker moratorium. Oil tanker traffic on B.C.'s coast poses countless risks to our continued existence and well-being as a distinct people and threatens the destruction of the resources that we continue to rely on, the same as our ancestors did. This means not only SOK, but all of the foods from the land and sea. The Heiltsuk are pursuing a fundamental change in the relationship with Canada—