Local The
Roberts Creek Art Festival
The international calibre of artwork at various venues awes visitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 6
Gibsons Water Walk
The Town of Gibsons hosts a tour of the best water on earth ................
Page 11
SOME NEW FEATURES!
Try our Sudoku on pg. 11 and see the 7-day forecast and the new Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 15
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T
he shíshálh First Nation is giving notice that it is stepping up its momentum on its Aboriginal title litigation against the provincial and federal governments. Shíshálh will also be challenging government decisions regarding land2012 and reApril 26, source use, within shíshálh unceded territory, which do not meet the Crown’s legal duty to accommodate shíshálh title and rights. The acceleration of shíshálh’s litigation arises after two years of exhaustive effort, expense and goodwill by shíshálh to achieve some interim reconciliation with the province through discussions that would have allowed for the title litigation to be placed into abeyance.
Recently, interim reconcili- in our Territory, and for ation discussions collapsed industry who use or seek after the province failed to to use our Territory’s lands follow through on their pre- and resources. But we have vious proposals and state- now spent years trying to ments. get the Province to reach “We have made every ef- an amicable settlement. fort to be reasonable, yet we Time and again, we have have been pushed into a cor- sat through the province ner as our rights have been changing negotiators, shiftsystematically denied. We ing the terms of discussions have exhausted every effort and changing course. In the to reconcile our differences last six months we thought is your proofsome real progress had been and This to carve a path ad towards resolution. is clear thatof made, but at the eleventh in theItnext issue the provincial and federal hour things went backwards governments are incapable yet again. of meeting their legal and “shíshálh Territory is constitutional obligations experiencing a ‘death by to us,” said Chief Fe- a thousand cuts’ as lands JuneGarry 2, 2011 Issue Date: ____________________ schuck of the shíshálh First and resources continue to Deadline approval Nation. “This for litigation is be exploited and utilized our only recourse to resolve by others without recourse or changes is uncertainty forby all3:00 citizens Monday p.m. or benefit to our people. If we do not hear from you by this time, we can assume all is correct. Please let us know how we can serve you best. Your business is important to us!
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This clearly demonstrates the provincial and federal governments’ inability or unwillingness to meet their legal and constitutional obligations to us. One example is with respect to the outstanding dock tenure issue at Pender Harbour, one of our village sites – at the heart of our territory and economy which has been devastated in recent decades by the Province issuing tenures for hundreds of docks. For years, we have pursued settlement of that issue – and we thought we had an understanding that would have given certainty to shíshálh, private landowners and the Province. One of the consequences of the collapse of these discussions
is that there will be no certainty for anyone.” “It’s ironic, “ said Chief Feschuck, “The Clark government said interim reconciliation agreements were a focal point for their policy for engagement with First Nations. Yet, in two years of discussions on interim reconciliation with shíshálh all they have accomplished is conflict, frustration and increased uncertainty. They have done exactly the opposite of what they said they wanted to achieve. We are now developing legal strategies and alliances with other First Nations in British Columbia to join forces to resolve the outstanding Aboriginal title and rights of our Nations.”