by ALEXANDRE MIQUEL
(translated by JACOB HADE)
An artistic rendering of Pacific NorthWest LNG‘s proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal on Lelu Island, near Prince Rupert in northwestern British Columbia. PHOTO/Pacific NorthWest LNG/The Globe and Mail
The right of people to exist is always a battle in the Great American North. The Canadian Communist Party has taken on the battle of the representatives of indigenous tribes for the recognition of their legitimate rights.
This year, the members of the Lax Kw’alaams nation who live in the northwest of British Columbia, just took decisive action to protect their lands. They refused the construction of a maritime terminal and a liquid natural gas factory, along with a check for close to a billion dollars, from the Malaysian petroleum company Petronas. Petronas wanted to exploit the soil of these residents. Last year in Canada, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of native groups deciding that they can control their own natural resources. They fared better than a number of other indigenous groups who were displaced to make room for the exploitation of their soil, contributing to the mistreatment of populations that are already fragile economically and socially.
Indigenous activists have once again taken up arms in the last few years trying to reclaim equality of rights, with the Canadian governmental authorities declared the adversary. 2012 was a pivotal year that saw the launching of the Idle No More movement, created by the chief of the tribe of the Counsel of Attawapiskat, Theresa Spence. Spence denounces the condition of the lives of 1.2 million indigenous Canadians and leads the battle to repeal the law that facilitates the sale or the leasing of lands on the reserve and against the suppression of the federal protection of the environment for water resources necessary to the well-being of native people, as it is being undertaken under the current conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. The Constitutional Act of 1982 nevertheless included the recognition and affirmation of existing rights, ancestral or the result of treaties, of indigenous peoples in the Constitution of Canada. This is a major change in the Canadian legal system for the recognition of the fledgling indigenous entities on Canadian soil.
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