Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Monday, December 08, 2014

National Energy Board hears First Nations testimony on Kinder Morgan pipeline

On Friday, the NEB concluded its 21 days of First Nation intervener hearings on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline. Before the oral history of the Tsawout First Nation was heard, constitutional issues were addressed, both on the steps in front of the Fairmont Empress Conference Center and in the hearing room.

Squamish Chief Ian Campbell told the gathered crowd that leaders of twelve First Nations had sent a letter to Greg Rickford, Minister of Natural Resources, stating the Crown has failed to fulfil its constitutional duties by relying on the NEB proceedings, for the following reasons: 1) First Nations were not consulted about the overall framework for the review and as a result, the process fails to fully assess impacts on Aboriginal rights and title; 2) a quasi-judicial tribunal cannot accommodate First Nation concerns, in part because there is no live cross examination of witnesses; 3) due to “woefully insufficient” capacity funding, First Nations must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars from their limited budgets; 4) the Crown has not laid out how consultation will proceed following the NEB recommendation and, in any event, it will be too late.

Brenda Gaertner, counsel for the Tsawout First Nation (part of the Saanich First Nation), emphasized that the Tsawout hold sacred responsibilities to their territory. She noted that the timing of oral history testimony should have come after the exchange of written evidence and the Tsawout expect the opportunity to present supplementary evidence. She noted that the NEB hearings are not a discharge of the Crown’s duty to consult. Such consultation must occur on a government to government basis and not through a technical regulatory process. Finally, she explained that the Tsawout Nation must provide its consent for the project to proceed, under Section 35 of the constitution, the Douglas Treaty and international law. This, she said, is not being sought.

The following descriptions of portions of the Tsawout oral testimony cannot do justice to its richness and cultural complexity. But they do give a taste of it.

Eric Pelkey, administrator for the Douglas Treaty Nations Committee for over 20 years, commenced his oral history with a genealogy chart that establishes his descent from a chief in that 1800s who, through his skill as warrior and negotiator, brought the Saanich Nation together and a second chief who brought the Nation into the 1900s and established the Nation’s connection to spirituality and the magic of nature.

He noted that their traditional sites range from Boundary Bay, through the southern Gulf Islands and San Juan Islands, south to the Elwha River of the Olympic Peninsula and west to Saanichton. “The Saanich Bay clam and crab beds have sustained the Tsawout for thousands of years,” Eric Pelkey said, “which is why conservation means so much to our people.” He noted the fishermen of their tribe are still out there and they see the proposed tanker lanes, which will have a direct impact on their traditional sites.

He described the cultural importance of a small island off Saturna Island, Tumbo Island, where the tidal currents always circle in a clockwise direction and where a training school for spiritual practices was held. “This is a very sacred site,” he said. Human remains have been found there, and it is at the entrance to the tanker shipping lane. Other islands, including one known as Skull Island, hold ancestor remains as well, usually those of high chiefs.

Eric Pelkey spoke of the Tsawout understanding of the Douglas Treaty that it was a peace treaty which would protect their villages and way of life, including their fishing and hunting practices, and to be out on the water. “We know ourselves to be ‘The Salt Water People’,” he said. “Everything we do is reflected from the water. Our place names are named from the water. Our village sites are named like you come in a canoe and see it for the first time. Even our way of hunting deer is from the water…. That is who we are and why we protect the water.”

Earl Claxton Jr, who leads talks on medicinal plants for the Seachange Marine Conservation Society, began his testimony by noting that when the white people told his people to pick a new name from a hat, his grandfather refused and said he would keep his name. On his mother’s side, Earl Claxton is descended from Chief Capilano.

He told the story of the Tsawout village on what we know as Tod Inlet, near the Butchart Gardens. Following a Haida raid in which their village was burnt, a woman took her son to this new site to raise him to be a warrior and take vengeance on the Haida’s murder of her brother and husband. Others came with her. They knew it was a good site because Blue Grouse favor places with plenty of food and fresh water. There were so many Blue Grouse at this site that they filled all the branches of the trees down to the lower branches so people could go clonk one on the head for dinner.

He spoke of Blue Camas as a food source, the way the Tsawout camas fields looked like a lake from above. Earl Claxton’s grandfather told him of pit fires in which sacks and sacks of Blue Camas bulbs were cooked. This was possible because digging and reburying the bulbs made them grow to the size of a fist.

“It is my work to encourage a traditional diet so people will become healthy again,” Earl Claxon Jr said.

Regarding the tankers, he said a spill was not a question of “if,” but a matter of “when.” “We are the people who have always paid the price,” he said.  He described taking physical action to stop people from doing things that harm the ocean, such as when work went forward on a marina at their main traditional village site in Saanichton Bay. He described how the eel grass beds is an important rearing site for the creatures they take from the sea. “The elders always said that when the tide was out the table was set,” he said. “No matter how poor you were you could still eat like a king.” If there is a spill, he noted, the eel grass will be coated with oil and no longer a good home for the creatures that live there.

Earl Claxton Jr. stated his strong belief that the Douglas Treaty of 1852 and the Royal Proclamation of 1763 will protect their rights. “We feel there is still great strength in those laws,” he said.

The next oral historian, Aaron Sam, has been a provider for elders in ten villages for the last 40 years. He fasts until he has provided them with food. He also provides the sea food at feasts and ceremonies. He spends his time on the water every day and it was a chore for him to prepare for this hearing. He lives as he was taught by his father and grandfather. Now, he is teaching his twelve grandchildren the same practices. The youngest, a two year old boy, only needs to be shown things once. He’s a smart kid. Aaron Sam’s elders told him the ocean is his playground, and that is how he referred to it throughout his testimony. “Where your guys’ freight line is, I’m out there on both sides of the border,” he said. “You guys are taking all my treaty rights away from me.”

He described watching freight wakes demolish burial grounds close to the water on Saturna and Pender Islands, where his elders camped. He noted that it only took four years for the Queen of the North to founder and spill oil. “These waters don’t flush,” he said. “They wash back and forth.”

Through the testimony, David Hamilton, NEB chair, nodded with sympathy, like a kindly grandfather. Phillip Davies tipped back his chair and arranged his water glasses. Alison Scott listened attentively, without expression.

Belinda Claxton gave testimony on the 13 Moons practices and medicinal plants of the Tsawout people. Her mother, the late Elsie Claxton, worked with ethno botanist Nancy Turner to preserve these cultural practices. “We used the universe as a giant clock,” Belinda Claxton said. “Our survival depended on the time of nature and our time being one. The tides fixed our daily activities. The moons that warned of winter storms told us to put our paddles away and stay on the land. We shared this calendar with the animals.”

Her brother, Earle Claxton, wrote a book called “The Saanich Year,” which she used to show how seasonal activities were correlated to the moons. She spoke of various plant medicines, such as the Ten Bark Medicine and the sea medicines which kept her people healthy.

Belinda Claxton noted that, before “the men of the cloth” came, ancestors were buried wherever they liked. They would pick a site and go there in their canoes. So many of the islands and islets have burial sites. “The men of the cloth requested that they be buried altogether,” she said.

Belinda Claxton is twelve years younger than her oldest sister, and she wonders why she was born so late. Now she realizes that it was so she could learn her language and medicinal knowledge from her mother. “I am here for a purpose,” Belinda Claxton said, “to teach my nieces and nephews about who we are.”

She concluded, “I speak for the grandchildren, the great grandchildren, the unborn, the nieces and nephews. I speak for yours as well as mine because they are the ones as going to have to be here and be the caretakers of the earth.”

The next oral historian, Nick Claxton has received his entire education on Saanich Territory, both in his traditional rights and responsibilities and at University of Victoria where he received a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Master’s degree in Indigenous governance. He is currently working on his Doctorate. His dissertation project is to define what is meant by the Douglas Treaty language that gives his people the right to “fish as formerly.” He still fishes and hunts throughout his homelands.

Nick Claxton stated that the tanker route bisects his island territory. “Those islands are our relatives,” he said. “Our word for islands means ‘relatives of the deep.’ The Creator made them to protect us and for us to protect.”

He told the story of a Saanich princess who met a young man on the beach. According to Saanich law, he came to live with her family when they married. During that time the salmon became scarce and the young man taught the people how to fish with reef nets. Then he said it was time to go to his family. They paddled away to a very deep spot and disappeared. “That is when we realized he was the salmon as a person,” Nick said. “The salmon are our relatives. We have a responsibility to them. This is our truth.”

He described the reef net fishery, which is unique to the Coast Salish. It is a stationary fishery with two main anchors and a lead that guides the salmon into the net. The traditional locations have the right combination of underwater topography, tidal flow and salmon runs. “All of these sites are directly adjacent to the proposed tanker route,” Nick Claxton said.

He showed a short video that described how the Tsawout are bringing this practice back. “The reef net fishery distinguished our people and brought us together as a nation,” he said. “It was wrongfully taken away by government fisheries about a century ago but a few elders still remember it.”

“It is labor intensive and takes a significant amount of time at the sites,” Nick Claxton said. “Reef net people are a hardworking people. This is how we governed ourselves.”

He invited the NEB panel to go back in time to when the Douglas treaty was proposed. The Tsawout understood that it didn’t only cover going fishing. It included their houses, the land, the fishing location, the fresh water supplies, and all the things that went along with a life on the islands, such as deer hunting, medicine gathering and hunting birds. “All would be protected we were told,” according to Nick. “We didn’t see a threat. Rather, we saw a promise…. Even just increased tanker traffic will affect our ability to get out there and to fish as formerly.”

The Trans Mountain lawyers, listened to this presentation with thoughtful smiles and small nods.

The final oral historian, Mavis Underwood, has worked for decades in family and community development. She was the first Aboriginal deputy director in this area in B.C., and has also served as the executive director of Child and Family Services for the North Island.

Mavis Underwood stated, “We would rather not be speaking to you from this position each one of us has been touched by loss and it has been very hard for us to look at the pictures, to see the places, to remember the places and the events and to not long for our elders.” She urged the panel to consider the cumulative effects of settlement and industrial development on the Tsawout lands and way of life, how pipelines currently exist, ancestors have been moved, land degraded and waters violated.

She noted that the Douglas Treaty rights include fresh water ecosystems because they are an important part of the salmon ecosystem. She stated that tanker traffic creates wave action that harms not only fish but the organisms that help them stay alive. For example, the eel grass beds are disrupted by the water’s velocity. She recalled the old way of crabbing in which people went to Saanichton Bay with pitch lamps by foot and small boat to attract the crabs to the light. As a child, she would put a stick in the water to catch a crab for lunch. There’d be a kettle on an open fire on the beach where they would cook and spend the days outside. She discussed the importance of the mud flat ecosystem.

“We are the richest people in the world,” she said, “and I have to remind myself because I work with people who think they are the poorest people in the world. They are ashamed when your people look at us and they see us as the poorest people, and uneducated. Through the work of young men like Nick Claxton, we are beginning to reevaluate our teachings and see how they can help heal the world and our people.”

She talked about the importance of this work, as her people struggle with addiction and suicides. “We are a self-governing people,” she said. “It is the laws of the government here that are breaking us.” She read from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. “That international realm that tells you … indigenous people have the right to maintain control protect and develop their cultural heritage traditional law and traditional cultural practices,” she said. Her people are entitled to live undisturbed on their lands and to have intact ecosystems so they “fish as formerly.” “This is not part of our consultation here,” she said. “There is much more dialogue that has to come.”

When oral testimony concluded, David Hamilton acknowledged a point or two that each person testifying had made. He assured them that they would be heard and their oral histories would be considered, along with other evidence, in making a recommendation on the Trans Mountain pipeline.

One wanted to believe in the face value of his warmth and sincerity. But it couldn’t be done. Not given the Tsawout’s prior experiences, its constitutional objections to the process and the recent history similarly powerful oral history testimony by First Nations on the Northern Gateway Pipeline, followed by the NEB’s recommendation and the federal government’s approval. The NEB’s superficiality hung in contrast to the depth of the testimony that had gone before. True to their own traditions, the Tsawout leaders presented the NEB panel with gifts. Then they drummed and sang their way out of the room in what Mavis Underwood had described as a blessing intended for the protection of everyone in the room.

Original Article
Source: vancouverobserver.com/
Author: Carrie Saxifrage 

No comments:

Post a Comment