Introduction: A broad coalition in northern British Columbia of Indigenous peoples and environmentalists has come together to halt plans for construction of the ‘Gateway’ pipeline project by Enbridge Corporation. The pipeline would deliver tar sands from Alberta to the B.C. coast for export. But class divisions among Indigenous peoples have also emerged as the tarsands industry and governments work furiously to steer the project through. The following dossier details this unfolding drama.

One of those peoples whose resources the pipeline would directly threaten is the Gitxsan. They have a long history of struggle for land and other Indigenous rights, including an historic legal victory in 1993, Delgamuuk vs.The Queen ( Canada). That court decision refuted the Canadian government claim that Indigenous peoples rights in Canada were extinguished by treaties or de facto settlement. You can read a history of the Gitxsan people here: http://www.gitxsan.com/our-history/history-of-resistence.html.

Another major pipeline being promoted in northern BC would see the delivery to the coast of natural gas from the vast gas fields in BC and Alberta. Much of this product in BC is obtained by the notoriously polluting method of ‘fracking.’ This prject would see the construction of one of more liquified natural gas terminals in Kitimat BC. See the article at the very end of this dossier.

1. Uproar in Gitxsan First Nation after support for Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline announced

By Mike Hager, Peter O’Neil and Gordon Hoekstra
Vancouver Sun, December 5, 2011
Gitxsan First Nation communities held emergency meetings over the weekend to figure out how to scuttle a Northern Gateway pipeline deal with Enbridge Inc. announced Friday. “There are people here who are very upset. We’re trying to get to the bottom of who gave the go-ahead,” chief Marjorie McRae, the elected leader of a community of about 2,000, said Sunday.

She and another chief, Norman Stephens, said their nation was “in shock and embarrassed” after the announcement that the aboriginal community had become an ownership partner in Enbridge’s embattled $5.5-billion pipeline proposal. The announcement was made by Enbridge and Hereditary Chief Elmer Derrick, the Gitxsan’s chief treaty negotiator.

Stephens and McRae said they have the support of hereditary chiefs and four of five of Gitxsan communities comprising more than 6,000 people in denouncing the agreement. Derrick said the decision was made by the Gitxsan’s 60 or so hereditary chiefs, although he said it was not unanimous. Friday’s deal was projected to bring at least $7 million in net profit over 30 years to the impoverished Gitxsan communities located in northwest B.C., about 700 kilometres north of Vancouver.

Stephens said many hereditary chiefs didn’t even know that a deal was being negotiated with Enbridge. Noting that Derrick is employed as the chief treaty negotiator to settle federal and provincial land claims, it makes no sense that he is dealing with Enbridge, Stephens said Sunday. “He has no authority actually to be making a deal with Enbridge on a pipeline. This is wrong,” said Stephens, a hereditary chief who has the traditional name Guuhadawk.

Stephens estimated that 20 or 30 hereditary chiefs are opposed to the Enbridge deal, perhaps more. Gitxsan opponents are concerned about the effect of an oil spill on sensitive salmon streams and rivers, said Stephens. The $7 million would not compensate for the damage of a spill, he said.

Derrick has said that elected councils for the Gitxsan’s five bands have no say in the decision, but McRae, who is Gitanmaax Indian Band chief councillor, said that is absurd. She said even if some hereditary chiefs are supporting the Enbridge decision, they would still need the support of their communities.

McRae said she knew nothing of the deal and heard about it from community residents who learned about it from the media on Friday.

Several emergency meetings were held in Gitxsan communities during the weekend in an effort to figure out how to stop the pipeline deal, and more are expected, she said.

Most of the hereditary chiefs heard of the announcement through the media as they were attending a funeral for a matriarch and hereditary chief Friday, which made the timing of the announcement disrespectful and in violation of Gitxsan law, said Stephens. He said the announcement was part of Enbridge’s public relations strategy to counter Thursday’s coalition of 130 B.C. first nations groups that vowed to present an “unbroken wall” to block construction of the project.

On Saturday, Enbridge spokesman Paul Stanway told The Sun there was no correlation between the two announcements and that it is confident Derrick speaks for the greater Gitxsan First Nation. “We’ve done a lot of research and we think we understand the governance structure of the Gitxsan quite well and we’re comfortable with the way this has proceeded,” Stanway said. “We’re convinced we’re speaking to the right people.”

Derrick made Friday’s announcement while acting as the chief treaty negotiator for the nation. He is a paid employee of the Gitxsan Treaty Society, which has a board of directors made up of representatives from the Gitxsan clans. Derrick could not be reached for comment on Saturday or Sunday.

On Friday, Derrick said the Gitxsan gave the Enbridge proposal careful scrutiny before making a decision, including scientific work by the Gitxsan Watershed Authority to examine streams within Gitxsan territory that would be affected.

Stephens and McRae are part of a group of chiefs that are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Gitxsan Treaty Society. They want to see the treaty society — which has spent more than $19 million since 1994 — suspended. They argue that the society has not been consulting properly with the Gitxsan people. A court date has been set for early in 2012.

Enbridge announced earlier this year it was offering a 10-per-cent ownership stake in the pipeline project. Enbridge says it has executed agreements with other first nations, but will not name them. “All I can tell you is it’s a considerable number and we’re confident that more first nations will enter into agreements with us,” Stanway said.

The Northern Gateway project’s route is south of the southern border of the Hazelton-based first nation’s 33,000 square kilometres of territory. The line would pass by six streams that flow into Babine Lake, a vital resource to the Gitxsan.

The 1,170-kilometre Northern Gateway pipeline is meant to open up new markets in Asia for crude from the Alberta oilsands.

The Gitxsan were not one of the 61 first nations communities that signed the Save the Fraser Declaration in public opposition to the pipeline. In an exclusive interview with The Sun last week, Enbridge’s CEO Pat Daniel boldly predicted that at least 30 of the 45 first nations along the pipeline route from Bruderheim, near Edmonton, to Kitimat on the B.C. coast, will have deals with Enbridge by next June.

And he said he hopes all 45 will be onside by 2013, when Enbridge hopes to get regulatory approval to start a project that is set to be completed by late 2017. A federal review panel is set to begin hearing from the public on the pipeline in January.

The Gitxsan in northwestern B.C. are one of the province’s most prominent aboriginal groups — due to its role in the landmark 1997 Delgamuukw land claims decision in the Supreme Court of Canada — and has a population estimated by Enbridge at around 13,000.

2. Gitxsan chiefs’ treaty office taken over in Enbridge pipeline protest

By Gordon Hoekstra, Postmedia News, Tuesday, December 6, 2011
VANCOUVER — Gitxsan First Nation opponents of their band’s ownership deal with Enbridge Inc. on the controversial $5.5-billion Northern Gateway oil pipeline have taken over their chiefs’ treaty office in the northwest B.C. town of Hazelton. The doors of the office were boarded up with plywood on Monday evening after the paid negotiators of the deal refused to step down, Gitxsan hereditary chief Larry Patsey said Tuesday.

Last Friday (Dec 2), Enbridge and another hereditary chief, Elmer Derrick, the Gitxsan’s chief treaty negotiator, announced the aboriginal community had signed on as an an ownership partner in the embattled pipeline project. That announcement sparked outrage among leaders and members of the impoverished community who say the deal was made without their support or consultation.

The building that houses the Gitxsan Treaty Office is being guarded in shifts by Gitxsan men, said Patsey. The staff have not tried to return to work, said Patsey. The opponents have set up a task force to map out their next steps, which include shutting down the treaty office permanently.

There was no answer to calls to the treaty office Tuesday afternoon. After a series of emergency meetings over the weekend, Gitxsan hereditary chiefs and members angered over the deal they claim they knew nothing about, called on the negotiators to step down.

The deal will provide the Gitxsan an ownership stake in the pipeline that is anticipated to provide $7 million over the next 30 years. Opponents say the $7 million will not compensate for the effects of an oil spill.

The negotiators declined to step down because that’s a board decision of the society, Gordon Sebastian, the treaty society’s executive director, has said.

The dispute hinges on the role of the Gitxsan’s traditional governance model that vests decision-making power in hereditary chiefs who head up 65 family houses. Derrick and Sebastian say the deal was done properly with the support of the traditional family system. But other Gitxsan leaders said the decision on Enbridge did not follow traditional law.

The Northern Gateway project’s route is south of the southern border of the Hazelton, B.C.-based First Nation’s 33,000 square kilometres of territory. The line would pass by six streams that flow into Babine Lake, a vital resource to the Gitxsan.

The 1,170-kilometre Northern Gateway pipeline is meant to open up new markets in Asia for crude from the Alberta oilsands, moving bitumen from Bruderheim, Alta., near Edmonton, to Kitimat on the B.C. coast. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has repeatedly defended the importance of Canada finding a way to get oilsands bitumen to Asian markets in the wake of the Obama administration’s decision to delay the Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S. “It is not in this country’s interests that we are a captive supplier of the United States of energy products, especially when we see some of the politics that are going on south of the border,” Harper told reporters.

In an interview with Postmedia News last week, Enbridge’s CEO Pat Daniel predicted that at least 30 of the 45 First Nations along the pipeline route will have deals with Enbridge by next June. And he said he hopes all 45 will be onside by 2013, when Enbridge hopes to get regulatory approval to start a project that is set to be completed by late 2017.

3. Protests won’t stop Northern Gateway pipeline, minister says

By Peter O’Neil, Postmedia News, December 6, 2011
OTTAWA – The oil industry’s “nation-building”’ attempt to link Canada’s vast oilsands resources to Asian markets can’t be stopped by protesters using civil disobedience, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Tuesday. He said he will respect the regulatory process that Enbridge Inc. must go through to get approval for its $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline, but said the project, if approved by the National Energy Board, shouldn’t be held hostage by aboriginal and environmental groups threatening to create a human “wall”’ to prevent construction.

“Look, this is a country that lives by the rule of law, and I would hope that that would be the standard going forward,” Oliver said.

A coalition of aboriginal groups said last week it will create a human wall to prevent the pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast from going ahead, and environmental groups have hinted at civil disobedience.

Even Rafe Mair, a former B.C. Social Credit cabinet minister and ex-broadcaster, has promised he’ll stand before an Enbridge bulldozer if that’s what it takes to stop a project he views as environmentally dangerous.

But Oliver, a bilingual ex-Bay Street investment banker who was vaulted into cabinet this year despite his rookie status, suggested the government won’t be pushed around. “We can’t let unlawful people oppose lawful development.”

Oliver, asked Tuesday if Northern Gateway “has to happen,” stressed he can’t comment specifically on the project since it’s now before the National Energy Board panel review. He noted that another company, Kinder Morgan, is considering a major expansion of its pipeline system from Alberta to Burnaby, B.C.

But he did stress that a diversification of Canada’s markets to Asia, in the wake of TransCanada Corp.’s failure to get quick approval for the Keystone XL pipeline project in the U.S., is “fundamental” to Canada’s national interest. “We believe that we have to have access to Asian markets for our energy products, for our oil and gas,” he said. “That is clearly in our national interest. We’ll survive without it, but not nearly in the same way.”

He said “tens of millions” of dollars in tax revenues generated by finding new markets for the expanding oilsands sector fund key social programs like health care and education. “It’s nation-building, without exaggeration.”

Some critics have said Northern Gateway’s greatest challenge is the imbalance between those standing to benefit and those facing the greatest environmental risk. Enbridge shareholders, the Alberta treasury and some First Nations that strike deals along the pipeline route are among the top potential beneficiaries.

People in B.C. who would get minimal or no benefit are among those facing a huge risk if there were a disastrous pipeline leak or tanker spill, critics say. Oliver was asked about the Haida First Nation in Haida Gwaii, formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands, in northern B.C. The Haida, who are too far away from the pipeline to be considered by Enbridge as a potential equity partner in the project, are vehement opponents. Like many First Nations, they’ve expressed fear of the potential danger of a tanker spill on key sectors like fisheries and ecotourism.

“I think there have to be ways to make it in their interest,” he said. “And there has to also be a convincing and factually correct story about safety. The pipelines themselves are the safest form of transportation, technology is improving the safety of tankers, double hulls and all this sort of thing, and the regulators of course are going to be looking at that, to make sure we’re dealing with the highest available forms of technology, to make sure this is as safe as possible.”

Oliver said he’s concerned about the environmentalist movement’s opposition, but in particular the significant role played by U.S. charitable foundations in funding the anti-oilsands campaign. He wouldn’t comment on the argument heard in the oilpatch that American money is being driven by broader interests fearful of the U.S. losing its virtual monopoly on the landlocked oilsands resource. “I’m not into conspiracy theories.”

4. RCMP won’t remove blockade

By Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver Sun, December 12, 2011
The RCMP say they don’t intend to act on a court injunction that allows them to remove a blockade of the Gitxsan Treaty Office in northern B.C. “We remain impartial in this protest and are hopeful for a peaceful resolution between the GTS [Gitxsan Treaty Society] and its members,” said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dan Moskaluk.

Gitxsan leaders opposed to an ownership deal inked with Enbridge on the controversial $5.5-billion Northern Gateway oil pipeline say they have fired their negotiators in the treaty office. Negotiators claim the leaders had no authority to fire them. Last week, opponents of the pipeline deal boarded up the office and began guarding the building in shifts.

Moskaluk said there is no set timeframe in the injunction requiring the blockade to come down, but added the New Hazelton RCMP is monitoring the situation closely. “The injunction states that arrest or removal is at the discretion of the police,” Moskaluk said in an email on Sunday.

Norman Stephens, a hereditary chief who is opposed to the Enbridge deal, said Sunday the blockade will continue.

The treaty office’s chief negotiator is Elmer Derrick, a hereditary chief who announced the deal with Enbridge on Dec. 2. The deal will provide the Gitxsan $7 mil-lion over the next 30 years, but the opponents say it will not compensate for the effects of an oil spill.

The Gitxsan dispute hinges on the role of its traditional governance system, which vests decision-making power in hereditary chiefs who head up 65 family houses. Derrick says the deal was done properly with the support of hereditary chiefs, but other Gitxsan leaders say the decision did not follow traditional law.

5. Cullen backs Gitxsan chiefs on Enbridge

By Andrea Woo, Vancouver Sun, December 10, 2011
An NDP leadership hopeful has thrown his support behind the hereditary chiefs of the Gitxsan Nation, voicing his opposition to the controversial Enbridge pipeline. Nathan Cullen, member of parliament for the riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley, said in a news release issued Friday the $5.5-billion Northern Gateway oil pipeline has almost torn the first nations community apart.

“It is very important to me to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the hereditary chiefs and the nation, virtually all of whom clearly do not support the false promises of environmental protection and economic development that Enbridge is selling to northerners,” Cullen said.

“It is unbelievable that Enbridge would try to pull such a stunt.”

Elmer Derrick, the Gitxsan Treaty Office’s chief negotiator announced Dec. 2 the Gitxsan First Nation had reached an agreement with Enbridge for an equity stake in the project. However, hereditary chiefs and other Gitxsan members said the deal was unsanctioned. They unsuccessfully called for the resignation of Derrick, as well as executive director Gordon Sebastian and negotiator Beverly Clifton Percival.

“Enbridge is obviously a company that will throw around money to push this pipeline through,” Cullen said. “It’s deplorable. Clearly this kind of conquer-and-divide approach is not going to work.”

Meanwhile, the B.C. Supreme Court issued an injunction on Tuesday telling the Gitxsan protesters to stop their blockade outside the treaty office in Hazelton. The opposing leaders and members are now collecting written declarations from other hereditary chiefs supporting their position and have until Sunday to respond [to the injunction], hereditary chief Norman Stephens said Thursday.

6. Two-thirds of Gitxsan chiefs oppose Northern Gateway pipeline

By Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver Sun, December 22, 2011
Gitxsan opponents of a partnership deal with Enbridge on the controversial $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline say they have the signed sup-port of two-thirds of the hereditary chiefs of the Gitxsan First Nation. It’s the first time the support level of the opponents has been revealed.

Of the 65 hereditary chiefs who traditionally make decisions for the northwest B.C. nation, 42 have signed a declaration that says the pipe-line deal signed with Enbridge three weeks ago is “null and void,” said Norman Stephens, a hereditary chief who opposes the Enbridge deal. The declaration also says the Gitxsan Treaty Office must be shut down.

Stephens said Tuesday there are another 20 chiefs who are not standing up with the sup-porters of the Enbridge deal. “We expect our numbers to grow,” Stephens said Wednesday. For now, he said they will wait to see how the supporters of the deal respond.

The Enbridge agreement was signed by Elmer Derrick, a hereditary chief and chief negotiator with the Gitxsan Treaty Office. The deal has been publicly supported by the treaty office’s executive director Gordon Sebastian, also a hereditary chief. Neither could be reached for comment Wednesday.

The opponents had already said they fired the negotiators in the treaty office, which they boarded up two weeks ago and have been guarding in shifts. Negotiators claim the leaders had no authority to fire them. Although the negotiators obtained an injunction against the blockade, the RCMP has not acted on it.

The partnership deal would provide the Gitxsan $7 million over the next 30 years, but the opponents say it will not compensate for the effects of any oil spill.

The Gitxsan dispute hinges on the role of its traditional governance system, which vests decision-making power in hereditary chiefs who head up 65 family houses. Derrick says the deal was done properly with the support of hereditary chiefs, but other Gitxsan leaders say the decision did not follow traditional law.

7. Premiers plan mission to Ottawa

Clark, Redford and Wall want to ensure West is part of ‘national conversation’

By Karen Kleiss, Vancouver Sun, December 14, 2011
Premiers from Canada’s three western provinces announced on Tuesday a joint mission to Ottawa during which they will press for a Canadian energy strategy, discuss greenhouse gas regulations and urge the federal government to address urgent immigration and labour shortages.

“We talked a lot about a Canadian energy strategy. We also talked about labour force development, immigration and ensuring we are part of a national conversation,” Alberta Premier Alison Redford said of her two-hour meeting with B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall. “It’s about how we’re going to create a set of fundamental values around infrastructure in terms of economic growth in Western Canada, whether we’re talking about roads, transmission, pipeline.

“When we talk about [the Northern Gateway Pipeline] it has to be from the perspective of what is in the public interest. The environmental regulatory process is a very important part of that. We’ll also talk about what the economic benefits are, and whether some of those can be in the public interest.”

The premiers met for the first time under the auspices of the New West Partnership, a two-year-old initiative designed to break down trade barriers between the provinces and boost economic prospects for the nine million Canadians who live there.

One key topic of discussion was the Northern Gateway Pipeline, a $5.5-billion pro-posed pipeline that would run from the Edmonton region to Kitimat. The pipeline would carry bitumen to China and India and is central to Alberta’s plans to diversify its markets. Clark has consistently declined to declare her position on the pipeline pending a federal environmental review. She maintained that position Tuesday, but her tone had changed considerably since her meeting this summer with former Alberta premier Ed Stelmach. “British Columbia’s coast does not just belong to British Columbia, it belongs to Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces and it’s essential that our ports and our infrastructure all across the west are functioning as well as they can,” Clark said. “That’s what allows trade to flow inside our country and that’s what puts people to work.

“Certainly in B.C. we recognize the big contribution the oilsands make to Canada and to our national economy.

“[We need to be] thinking about … doing it in an environ-mentally sustainable way.”

The premiers also discussed their response to federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s announcement Tuesday that future health-funding increases will be linked to economic growth. The move would cut increases to about half of the annual six-per-cent increases provinces have come to expect as a result of the 10-year health funding agreement struck in 2004 with then-prime minister Paul Martin. The premiers agreed the federal government should continue to provide the full six per cent.

“There were clear commitments made by the federal government with respect to the six-per-cent increase. We respect and welcome the fact in the recent federal campaign the governing party indicated they intend to keep that commitment,” Wall said.

“Depending on the context of the minister’s statements today there may be an opportunity with respect to GDP as a measure in terms of what the provinces are receiving in transfers. If it means the six per cent is still the number, still the commitment.”

Wall said the premiers are open to the possibility an additional measuring tool will help provinces identify a portion of the increase that will go directly to “innovation in the system.”

The premiers will next meet at the Council of the Federation in Victoria on Jan. 16.

8. LNG Partners reset first-nations relations with a unique approach