The Communist Party of Canada welcomes yesterday’s historic Supreme Court of Canada ruling, which upheld the Tsilhqot’in people’s title over their traditional territories.
This 25-year legal case arose from an attempt to conduct commercial logging on Tsilhqot’in lands without consent from the First Nation, which is among many in British Columbia which never ceded ownership of their territories since the arrival of the European colonisers. In fact, the Tsilhqot’in courageously maintained their rights since the beginnings of the occupation, despite the murder of six of their chiefs by the British colonizers in 1864. We salute the Tsilhqot’in for their generations of struggle and resistance, in the face of enormous obstacles.
As the Supreme Court recognized, the principles in this case have very wide implications for the recognition and affirmation of Aboriginal rights across Canada.
In the immediate situation, the ruling makes it clear that governments and corporations cannot simply go through token “consultations” or buy off a handful of leaders before proceeding with economic projects which have the potential to gravely damage the environment in traditional Indigenous territories. Any such projects must have genuinely free, prior and informed consent of First Nations, a standard which Enbridge Corp.’s dangerous Northern Gateway pipeline has not met, despite the approval of the federal government and the Joint Review Panel.
Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada
June 27, 2014