Atikamekw First Nation Chief Says 35 Years Of Territorial Negotiations With Governments Have Provided Nothing

The Atikamekw First Nation in Quebec has declared its sovereignty over 80,000 square kilometres of territory and says any development in that area must get its approval.

Armed with a Supreme Court of Canada judgment recognizing ancestral rights for First Nations in British Columbia, the Atikamekw want to have their say on projects located in the Nitaskinan region.

• Supreme Court’s Tsilhqot’in First Nation ruling a game-changer for all
• Tsilhqot’in First Nation granted B.C. title claim in Supreme Court ruling
• Visit CBC Aboriginal for more indigenous news 

Constant Awashish, grand chief of the Atikamekw First Nation, says 35 years of territorial negotiations with governments have provided nothing.

Awashish said Monday that elected members of the aboriginal First Nation adopted the unilateral declaration of sovereignty to assert their right to self-government on the Nitaskinan region.

The grand chief says any companies thinking of pursuing projects in the area will have to do it in co-operation with the Atikamekw.

Three communities in particular lie in the affected zone — Manawan in the Laurentians; Opitciwan, which is 300 kilometres west of Roberval; and Wemotaci, which is on the shores of the St-Maurice River.

In June, Canada’s highest court granted declaration of aboriginal title to more than 1,700 square kilometres of land in British Columbia to the Tsilhqot’in First Nation.

It was the first time the court has made such a ruling concerning aboriginal land.

more http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/aboriginal/story/1.2761105

Indian in the machine:  This is interesting… natives all over the world, are saying “no thank you” to corporate rule. The canadian gov’t., has now shown decades of not acting in good faith, for all Canadians, not just native people…  when will humans learn, that you cannot put a non-peaceful force into power, and expect harmony.  Expect more people to say ‘no thank you’, to any decision that puts money before life. This is also a good lesson for the world, that the canadian gov’t isn’t an honourable entity, and is prone to lying and deceit, and is likely serving a hidden force.  

The Canadian gov’t is an old dinosaur, that promotes tar sands, and uranium, over clean healthy energy… the old dinosaur sacrifices lives over ‘development’… well… how much “development” will you stand for, as all the waterways of Canada are systematically polluted!????  

People, make sure your leaders have a connection with Creator, otherwise they are not leadership material. 

Why do governments betray all lifeforms?  NO they are not stupid, many have taken oaths to their brotherhood, to serve a dark force… in a way the political landscape is like a play… some people’s ‘characters’ are to ‘play stupid’… all for the grand purpose of bringing in a new world order under satanic rule… no wonder they call themselves ‘honourable’ when they are not. Support your Creator-inspired leaders, they are leading the way to a whole new paradigm.

Here’s just some of the ways that our federal and provincial governments are orchestrating the demise of our wild salmon:

1. In 2012, Stephen Harper removed environmental protections from 99 per cent of our lakes and rivers. Among them, the Upper Fraser and Kitimat rivers, both critical salmon and steelhead habitat that just happen to lie in the path of the Northern Gateway pipeline.
2. Three years later, 74 of the 75 recommendations made by the 18-month, $26 million Cohen Commission Inquiry into the state of the Fraser River Sockeyehave yet to be acted upon. In many cases, as noted below, the provincial and federal governments have actually done the opposite of the recommendations.
3. In 2012, Harper eliminated the requirement for environmental assessments for all but major resource projects. This includes run-of-the-river hydro projects, which can divert up to 95 per cent of a river’s flow into a tunnel or pipeline and can critically impact salmon.
4. In every country where ocean-based, open-pen salmon farming has taken hold,wild salmon populations have collapsed. While the expansion of the aquaculture industry is a key priority of the DFO, protection of wild fish isn’t even mentioned in their mission statement.
5. Although the Cohen Commission recommended a moratorium on new salmon feedlot tenures along salmon migration routes, the B.C. government is considering at least 10 new or expanded licenses, almost all directly in our wild salmons’ pathways to the open sea, exposing them to the feedlots’ disease and parasites.
6. Instead of the usual year-long licenses, the Harper government is now offering salmon feedlot operators extended nine year licenses that will leave our salmon at risk from foreign corporations long after the next federal election.
7. For decades, the Federal government has let foreign salmon farming corporations knowingly place salmon infected with viruses linked to deadly salmon diseases, in pens situated along the migration routes of wild salmon.
8. At the same time they permit salmon farmers to introduce new salmon viruses into our coastal waters, the DFO has muzzled its scientists when it comes to talking about wild salmon diseases.
9. When biologist Alexandra Morton and colleagues found the deadly ISA virus in wild B.C. salmon, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confiscated her samples and publicly declared they were unable to repeat her results. A year later, they privately admitted they didn’t actually test the samples.
10. The CFIA took a further step to prevent the detection of salmon viruses bystripping the certification of the laboratory that detected the ISA virus — Canada’s only certified laboratory.
11. The B.C. government recently permitted the use of hydrogen peroxide baths in salmon farms to try to control sea lice. Yet there is no research on what this chemical will do to the tiny migrating wild salmon forced to pass the farms.
12. In 2014, the Harper government blocked an inquiry by the environmental dispute body established under NAFTA to determine if it had failed to protect wild salmon from the dangers of salmon farms as required in Canada’s Fisheries Act.
13. The federal government is now proposing a revolutionary change to the Fisheries Act that will grant foreign corporations like Mitsubishi the unprecedented privilege of owning fish that live in our ocean. This is a serious blow to the law of the commons, where the fish in our oceans are a resource shared among all the citizens of Canada.
14. The proposed changes to aquaculture regulations will also grant salmon feedlot operators the authority to kill wild salmon to “protect” their farmed fish from disease.
15. Still other changes to the aquaculture regulations will allow salmon feedlot operators to release “deleterious substances” – antibiotics, pesticides, insecticides and other drugs directly into our coastal waters, directly in the path of migrating wild salmon.
16. The primary industry putting our wild salmon at risk receives massive government subsidies. Salmon feedlot licenses, which cost about $1 million in Norway, are free in Canada. But diseased fish aren’t — the federal government buys them all from feedlot operators for up to $30 each. Taxpayers paid close to $50 million for dead, diseased farmed salmon in one year alone.
17. At the same time they are ramming tarsands pipelines down our throats, the federal government is closing coast guard bases that act as first responders when trouble hits. Witness the bunker fuel spill in Vancouver last month or our Coast Guard’s inability to save a stranded vessel off Haida Gwaii in January.

We cannot sit idly by while our most important, iconic species is sacrificed for the sake of corporate greed. So it is time for British Columbians everywhere to stand up for our wild salmon.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jeff-matthews/wild-salmon-farmed-salmon-aquaculture_b_7419712.html