Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Good afternoon. Wai xast skelhalt ipsi nuxsil. Encha es quist Ascasiwt. I would first like to begin by acknowledging and paying my respects to the Algonquin grandmothers, mothers, and granddaughters of this territory. I also extend that recognition to the traditional and spi

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. As I indicated earlier, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs has been involved in discrimination, prejudice, and racism against indigenous women since our inception 40 years ago. I also indicated that we have a Bill C-31 working group, which should tell the committee members that

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. I just want to make the point that there's a vast difference between a blind date and the actual marriage vows. This notion of a comprehensive exploratory process, in our view, doesn't come anywhere near meeting the legal standard of consultation and everything that entails.

Public Safety committee  Good morning, everyone. Wai xast skelhalt ipsi nuxsil. Echa es quist Ascasiwt. In our nsyilxcen language, that simply means: Good day, my friends and relatives. My traditional name is Ascasiwt. I want to begin by acknowledging the fact that we're on unceded Algonquin territor

Public Safety committee  Thank you for the question. The short answer is yes. The longer answer is absolutely yes. I don't think there's any doubt in our minds that the real intent of Bill C-51 is to coerce and intimidate indigenous peoples away from defending and protecting their hard-fought internatio

Public Safety committee  Again I think the short answer is yes. The work I do is political advocacy, and Bill C-51 talks about criminalizing public expression of political advocacy work itself. Obviously our leadership is going to have concerns about what this bill represents to our rights to freedom of

Public Safety committee  Yes, absolutely. In British Columbia, the Supreme Court decision in the Tsilhqot’in case repudiates forever the notion of terra nullius, the doctrine of discovery, and indicates very clearly that our aboriginal title, rights, and interests are territorially wide in scope, as opp

Transport committee  Good afternoon to members of the committee. On behalf of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, I'd like to read a brief statement. Heavy crude oil pipeline and tanker projects pose an unacceptable risk to the health, safety, and livelihoods of indigenous nations through

Transport committee  Yes, we will.

Transport committee  Okay, very good.

Transport committee  My response to that is, as Mr. Hill has pointed out, we've been involved in the ongoing struggle to protect our territories from the industrialization, the predations, of the fossil fuel industry for a very long time. These are not new issues. The Enbridge northern gateway battl

Transport committee  Very quickly, in terms of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, it was first established in—

Transport committee  Okay. Again, as quickly as I can manage this, the UBCIC was first established in 1969 as a direct consequence of the efforts of the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Mr. Chrétien with respect to the white paper policy. Our role is a political advocacy role. We represent about 118

Transport committee  I can't help but reflect on Prime Minister Trudeau's remarks at the United Nations not that long ago, where he described all of his work. Again I go back to the nation-to-nation promise of the government and the law and policy review as being a work in progress. Clearly past pr

Transport committee  It's through consensus, as much as we can. Ultimately, the authority of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs is in the chiefs and the assembly through the passage of formal resolutions that represent the mandate that I as the president and our executive are obligated to follow. We wo