Tsawwassen First Nation, Press Release, [PDF] December 10, 2003	Tsawwassen First Nation Press Release [PDF] Tsawwassen First Nation approves AIP — presses on toward BC's first urban treaty
Victoria Times Colonist, December 3, 2003	Land Title move draws ire of natives First Nations Summit joins protest over the closure of the Victoria Land Title Office, saying it will seriously hamper aboriginal research.
New York Times, September 14, 2003	Natives Challenge Fish Farms in Court The Sierra Legal Defense Fund has filed a suit in the British Columbia Supreme Court on behalf of the Tsawataineuk, Kwicksutaineuk, Namgis and Gwaraenuk bands, intending to force the provincial and federal governments to prohibit the issuance of new licenses for open cage salmon aquaculture.
Canadian Press, August 28, 2003	Mi'kmaq wins right to log Crown land The New Brunswick Court of Appeal, in a decision that likely will rock the East Coast forestry industry, has ruled in favour of a Mi'kmaq logger who claimed he had a treaty right to harvest logs from Crown land.
Canadian Press, July 28, 2003	B.C. strikes draft treaty with Tsawwassen natives The first tentative land claim agreement in British Columbia's densely populated Lower Mainland was announced by negotiators Monday.
Globe and Mail, May 6, 2003	Treaties on table in B.C. British Columbia has made its biggest breakthrough so far in 10 torturous years of negotiations to reach treaties with its native people. In the past few days, federal, provincial and native negotiators have reached agreements-in-principle covering two native groups in the province. Another group is on the verge of an agreement.
Vancouver Sun, March 12, 2003	Taking back the timber While Forest Minister Mike de Jong announced that the British Columbia government is within "weeks" of taking back timber from forest licensees and handing some of it over to First Nations, Summit leaders are cool to the timber proposal, saying giving trees to them does not meet court-ordered requirements that the government consult and accommodate First Nations.
CanWest News Service, March 6, 2003	Region tackles own economy B.C.'s Central Coast, a region the size of western Europe long caught up in First Nations land claims and environmentalist boycott campaigns, is one step closer to getting its economic engine firing on all cylinders again.
Vancouver Sun, January 29, 2003	First Nations get timber forest companies didn't cut "This is a step in the right direction for the government. The timber is going to allow us to change to the social, cultural and economic circumstances of our community. It's going to provide much-needed revenue for us," - Tom Happynook, forestry negotiator for the Huu-ay-aht First Nation
Vancouver Sun, January 16, 2003	It's only fair that natives benefit from the Olympics "We want to invest in our own community and the local economy." — Squamish Chief Gibby Jacob
Edmonton Journal, January 9, 2003	Ottawa pushes aboriginal school boards "If we can accommodate francophones as far as education why can't we accommodate First Nations?" — Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault
Southam News, January 9, 2003	Natives gain fishing rights The provincial government is on the brink of signing an interim land claims treaty that will give Nanaimo aboriginals exclusive fishing rights.
Vancouver Sun, December 11, 2002	Bands laud Skeena decision on consultation: Government must include First Nations in process A court ruling Tuesday ordering the province to properly consult with Northwestern B.C. First Nations is being viewed as a major victory by the bands, who say it opens the door to their demand for a share of stumpage revenues on Crown timber.
National Post, December 10, 2002	Duty to consult: Two decisions that say private corporations have a duty to consult with and accommodate aboriginal peoples could revolutionize the resources industry For the first time, the duty to consult with and accommodate aboriginal peoples has been extended beyond the provincial and federal governments.
Globe and Mail, October 21, 2002	Lawyers take defensive over Minister Nault's threat to walk away from treaties Lawyers who represent native communities say Mr. Nault's words are more spin than substance.
Globe and Mail, October 8, 2002	No regrets over time or money Chief Joseph Gosnell says the $50 million and nearly three decades it took to negotiate a treaty was "worth every penny and every year."
Vancouver Sun, September 18, 2002	Forgive debt, native leaders demand B.C. native leaders ask that governments forgive nearly $200 million in debt run up during a decade of fruitless treaty negotiations.
Vancouver Sun, August 29, 2002	Kitsilano land belongs to natives, appeal judges agree The B.C. Court of Appeal upholds a lower court decision restoring about four hectares (10 acres) of Kitsilano land to the Squamish Indian Band, 116 years after it was expropriated for use by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The Globe and Mail, August 28, 2002	Gathering up the dead and bringing them home In 1850, the [Haida] population was between 6,000 and 9,000. By 1915, there were 588 left, the rest carried off by smallpox caught from European traders. Now a minority of 2,000 in a population on the collection of islands they call Haida Gwaii, they are about to gather up their dead and bring them home, rescuing them from the role of artifacts and repatriating them as ancestors.
MacLean's Magazine, April 29, 2002	A Return to Darkness "As I did my historical research, a disturbing, if familiar, pattern emerged of collusion between governments, the church, and even corporations, to coerce and cheat aboriginal people. Why are these past injustices relevant now? It's because in this referendum I see a return to that darkness."
Vancouver Sun, April 24, 2002	"The referendum is an exercise in political cynicism and deserves to be shunned " John Dixon, BC Civil Liberties Association
Vancouver Sun, April 15, 2002	"We should not participate" Former BC Supreme Court judge argues that Gordon Campbell is deliberately undermining the treaty process.
Vancouver Sun, April 12, 2002	Referendum doesn't offer citizens a real say Columnist Barbara Yaffe dismisses the Referendum as a "condescending and manipulative set of questions", and decides to return a blank ballot...
Vancouver Sun, April 11, 2002	United Church joins opponents of referendum The United Church urged its members to write "Void" across their referendum ballots and return them to the Church for independent counting and auditing.
Letter to the editor, Globe and Mail , April 10, 2002	A civilized BC? Reader Blanche Howard writes, "It has been said that the measure of a civilized society is in the way it treats its minorities. Here in British Columbia we are targeting a tiny aboriginal minority with eight questions so loaded they make the Quebec referendum look positively statesmanlike..."
Globe and Mail, April 9, 2002	Criticism continues to mount over referendum plan Criticism continued to surround the B.C. Liberal government Monday for its controversial move to hold a referendum on treaty negotiations.
Vancouver Sun, April 6, 2002	A-G endures (gasp!) questions about referendum Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer suggests the best way to discredit the Liberal exercise is to "throw the ballot in the recyling bin... and strike a blow for the environment."
Vancouver Sun, April 5, 2002	Treaty referendum no laughing matter Angus Reid, senior fellow at the UBC Institute for the Study of Global Issues and with "thirty years experience in the polling business" argues that "the British Columbia aboriginal referendum is one of the most amateurish, one-sided attempts to gauge the public will that I have seen in my professional career."
Letter to the editor, Vancouver Sun, April 4, 2002	Referendum Has No Legitimacy Treaties are about Rights, not Voter Preferences, Rob Gordon reminds us
Shared Vision, April, 2002	Settling Aboriginal Land Claims — Treaties The Only Fair Way The upcoming provincial referendum on aboriginal treaties is a blatant political smokescreen to buy time for a BC Liberal government adrift in a sea of red ink and broken promises
News Release, March 18, 2002	Teachers Join First Nations in Opposing Treaty Referendum Delegates to the B.C. Teachers' Federation Annual General Meeting voted unanimously to oppose the B.C. Liberal government's upcoming treaty referendum.
Vancouver Sun, March 13, 2002	Plant tries for wriggle room in referendum Attorney-General Geoff Plant quietly tables a stripped-down list of questions for the proposed referendum on native land claims.
The Province, March 08, 2002	Natives try to shut down superport, ferry terminal The Tsawwassen band has launched a lawsuit to shut down the giant Roberts Bank Superport and the B.C. Ferries terminal.
Victoria Times Colonist, March 7, 2002	Haida Claim Islands and Waters On March 6th, the Haida initiated a lawsuit against the provincial and federal governments, saying the First Nation not only has aboriginal title to all the lands contained within the Charlottes (which they call Haida Gwaii), but also to the resources in and under the sea, including oil and gas reserves believed to be under Hecate Strait.
Vancouver Sun, March 2, 2002	Nisga'a critic named to treaty panel The B.C. government has appointed a harsh critic of the Nisga'a Treaty, Jack Weisgerber, as its representative on the B.C. Treaty Commission.

Back to Top