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| Gwich'in long distance runner Brad "Caribou Legs" Firth arrived in Whitehorse Tuesday after running 1,200 kilometres from Inuvik to protest the Yukon's government's decision to open the Peel watershed to industrial development. He plans to deliver that message in person on May 5. |
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Caribou Legs completes epic Peel run
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Carried by Caribou Legs
Gwich’in
long distance runner Brad “Caribou Legs” Firth kicked off his epic 1,200-kilometre
journey from Inuvik to Whitehorse this week.
The modern-day mailrunner is carrying a packet of letters to Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski from Mackenzie Delta people concerned about the future of the Peel watershed.
Much of his trip down the Dempster Highway will be in the Peel watershed. He’ll cross the lower river at Fort McPherson and once in the Yukon he'll run through the Ogilvie and Blackstone River valleys.
The modern-day mailrunner is carrying a packet of letters to Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloski from Mackenzie Delta people concerned about the future of the Peel watershed.
Much of his trip down the Dempster Highway will be in the Peel watershed. He’ll cross the lower river at Fort McPherson and once in the Yukon he'll run through the Ogilvie and Blackstone River valleys.
If all
goes according to plan – and that’s always a bit of a gamble when dealing with
the notoriously stormy Dempster country - he hopes to complete the run and deliver the letters April 22.
Firth,
who was born and raised in Inuvik but later moved to Vancouver, returned to the
North last year to raise awareness about substance abuse. The former crack
addict credits long distance running with pulling him out of the abyss.
Last
year he ran 740 kilometres from Fort Smith to the N.W.T. capital of Yellowknife
in 10 days.
Click
here to track his progress.
Meanwhile
fundraising continues for the Peel lawsuit against the Yukon government filed by two
First Nations and two environmental groups. The trial is set for July 7-11.
They say they've raised nearly half of their $100,000-goal and there are more events planned.
The What
About the Peel? art show by Yukon Artists at Work at their Whitehorse gallery
on Industrial Road opens April 4 and runs to April 28.
The
Yukon Youth Indoor Climbing Team’s Peel Climb-a-thon fundraiser is April 5 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 1307 in
Porter Creek. And the Zip-line for the Peel fundraiser at Equinox Rocks April 12.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Peel five-day trial set for July 7-11
The court dispute over the future of the Peel watershed will
be fought out in Yukon Supreme Court July 7 – 11.
The five-day trial was scheduled after lawyers for both
sides met briefly with Justice Ron Veale in the privacy of the court boardroom
March 11. The case management conference was closed to the media and the
public.
The suit against the Yukon government was filed in late
January by Mayo’s Na-cho Nyak Dun, Dawson’s Tr’ondek Hwech’in along with the
Yukon Conservation Society and CPAWS-Yukon.
The four say the government violated the joint land use
planning process agreed to under land claims when it dumped the Peel
commission’s final recommended plan for one more to its liking drawn up by its
own officials.
The commission, made up of appointees from the Yukon and
First Nation governments, spent seven years researching, analyzing and
consulting on how to manage the Yukon portion of the transboundary watershed.
It came up with a plan to protect 80 per cent of the
68,000-sq.km. region - a plan which received widespread public support.
The government’s new plan, which went into effect Jan. 21,
allows industrial development in most of the region, including the contentious
Wind-Bonnet Plume-Snake river region.
Aboriginal claims expert Thomas Berger is leading the legal
challenge for the First Nations and conservation groups. The Yukon government
has hired B.C. lawyer John Hunter to defend it.
Neither Berger nor Hunter were at the Yukon hearing. Yukon
lawyer Stephen Walsh, who appeared for Berger, said the trial date had already
been agreed to beforehand as had other procedural matters so it went quickly
and smoothly.
Meanwhile advocates of Peel protection are planning a
musical rally at the Yukon legislature when MLAs begin the spring sitting March
25. Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Yukon denies Peel land plan wrongdoing
The Yukon government has officially responded to the Peel
land plan lawsuit, filing its statement of defence just before the Feb. 18 deadline.
The Na-cho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondek Hwech’in, Yukon Conservation Society and CPAWS-Yukon are suing the government for turfing the land plan developed by the Peel commission. It protects 80 per cent of the region.
The Na-cho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondek Hwech’in, Yukon Conservation Society and CPAWS-Yukon are suing the government for turfing the land plan developed by the Peel commission. It protects 80 per cent of the region.
The government’s new plan, now in effect despite the legal
uncertainty, opens most of the watershed to industrial development. Even its
protected areas allow for mining and roads.
In its 11-page defence, the government denies it’s violated the
land claim agreements by imposing this new plan at this stage in the process.
It says a letter sent to the commission by then Energy,
Mines and Resources Minister Patrick Rouble in February 2011 spelled out the
government’s concerns about protection.
It says Rouble, who now chairs the Yukon Land Use Planning
Council, made it clear the Peel plan had to allow for industrial development.
It also says the last round of public consultations – which many
have called a sham – met land use planning requirements.
A news release announcing the government’s intent to carry
on the court dispute also says it’s in the process of hiring a Vancouver lawyer
to represent it.
The two First Nations and two environmental groups are being represented by one of the country's leading land claim legal experts, Thomas Berger.
He's also well-known in the North for his work with the Mackenzie Valley pipeline inquiry in the late 1970s.
A case management conference for the Peel lawsuit will be held in Yukon Supreme Court on March 11 at 4 p.m.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Gwich'in to launch own Peel lawsuit
The Gwich’in Tribal Council is filing its own legal challenge to the Yukon government’s new Peel watershed land use plan.
Last week two Yukon First Nations and two environmental groups sued the territory over the plan.
“This legal challenge will be tailored to the unique position of the Gwich’in in the Yukon and will be supportive of the action filed by the Na-cho Nyak Dun and the Tr’ondek Hwech’in,” said the GTC in a news release.
“A court decision will provide clarity for the Gwich’in, Yukon and other groups on the meaning of modern treaties and the future of the Peel watershed,” it said.
The council, which represents four N.W.T. Gwich’in communities, including Fort McPherson, says the new plan violates its modern-day treaty.
The Gwich’in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement, signed in 1992, recognized their strong ties to the Yukon and included a separate deal for transboundary concerns. That included a place at the land use planning table for the Yukon portion of the transboundary Peel watershed.
“When the Peel Watershed Planning Commission was established in 2004, the GTC was optimistic that it would result in a plan that would protect the exercise of Gwich’in rights in sacred areas of the Peel watershed. Such protection would be for the benefit of Gwich’in and northerners alike,” it said in the release.
“The final recommended plan proposed by the commission was a compromise for the Gwich’in, who made it clear that they wanted the entire Peel region to be protected from resource development.
“However, the GTC supported and continues to support, the final recommended plan’s proposed protection of 80% of the Peel watershed and its focus on sustainable development.
“Despite the Gwich’in good faith participation in this process, the Yukon government has drastically and unilaterally re-written the operative elements of the final recommended plan, significantly reducing the protections for the Peel watershed.
“The Yukon government’s new plan will allow substantial development in critical parts of the Peel watershed, threatening Gwich’in’s continued connection to this sacred area,” it said.
Last week two Yukon First Nations and two environmental groups sued the territory over the plan.
“This legal challenge will be tailored to the unique position of the Gwich’in in the Yukon and will be supportive of the action filed by the Na-cho Nyak Dun and the Tr’ondek Hwech’in,” said the GTC in a news release.
“A court decision will provide clarity for the Gwich’in, Yukon and other groups on the meaning of modern treaties and the future of the Peel watershed,” it said.
The council, which represents four N.W.T. Gwich’in communities, including Fort McPherson, says the new plan violates its modern-day treaty.
The Gwich’in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement, signed in 1992, recognized their strong ties to the Yukon and included a separate deal for transboundary concerns. That included a place at the land use planning table for the Yukon portion of the transboundary Peel watershed.
“When the Peel Watershed Planning Commission was established in 2004, the GTC was optimistic that it would result in a plan that would protect the exercise of Gwich’in rights in sacred areas of the Peel watershed. Such protection would be for the benefit of Gwich’in and northerners alike,” it said in the release.
“The final recommended plan proposed by the commission was a compromise for the Gwich’in, who made it clear that they wanted the entire Peel region to be protected from resource development.
“However, the GTC supported and continues to support, the final recommended plan’s proposed protection of 80% of the Peel watershed and its focus on sustainable development.
“Despite the Gwich’in good faith participation in this process, the Yukon government has drastically and unilaterally re-written the operative elements of the final recommended plan, significantly reducing the protections for the Peel watershed.
“The Yukon government’s new plan will allow substantial development in critical parts of the Peel watershed, threatening Gwich’in’s continued connection to this sacred area,” it said.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Peel land use plan lawsuit launched
It's official - the future of the Peel watershed is now in the hands of the Yukon Supreme Court.
Two First Nations and two environmental groups, represented by prominent B.C. aboriginal rights lawyer Thomas Berger, filed their lawsuit against the Yukon government today.
They announced the legal challenge in Vancouver to get the attention of those attending the Mineral Exploration Roundup, one of the country's largest industry gatherings.
Berger, who is best known for his work on the N.W.T.'s Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry in the 1970s, led the news briefing.
Flanked by Na-cho Nyak Dun chief Ed Champion and Tr'ondek Hwech'in chief Eddie Taylor, as well the Yukon Conservation Society's Karen Baltgailis and CPAWS-Yukon's Gill Cracknell, Berger said this is a lawsuit nobody wanted.
But after the Yukon government ditched the Peel commission's land use plan - a plan seven years in the making - and replaced it with its own unilateral blueprint for the region, it crossed the legal line, he said.
The territory's modern-day treaty, the constitutionally-entrenched Umbrella Final Agreement, spells out a process for land use planning that must be followed.
The commission's plan protected most of the watershed from industrial development whereas the plan released by the Yukon government last week opens most of the Peel to mining, oil/gas and roads.
"This is a complete rewrite and it has forced these people to court," said Berger.
Just because the conservative Yukon Party government has a majority, it can't ignore the agreements signed 20 years ago with First Nations and Canada, he said.
The agreements also ensure the public also has a say in planning but the Yukon government has ignored that too, he said.
Although this lawsuit deals with the Peel land plan, it's about much more than that, he said.
It's going to test whether governments are obligated to live up to the modern-day treaties signed across the North, he said.
Although the other two Peel First Nations - the Vuntut Gwitchin and the Gwich'in Tribal Council - were not named in this lawsuit, Champion and Taylor said the four First Nations are united behind this legal challenge.
It's now up to the Yukon government to file its statement of defence.
Berger said it's hard to say how long this case will take to make its way through the courts.
Two First Nations and two environmental groups, represented by prominent B.C. aboriginal rights lawyer Thomas Berger, filed their lawsuit against the Yukon government today.
They announced the legal challenge in Vancouver to get the attention of those attending the Mineral Exploration Roundup, one of the country's largest industry gatherings.
Berger, who is best known for his work on the N.W.T.'s Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry in the 1970s, led the news briefing.
Flanked by Na-cho Nyak Dun chief Ed Champion and Tr'ondek Hwech'in chief Eddie Taylor, as well the Yukon Conservation Society's Karen Baltgailis and CPAWS-Yukon's Gill Cracknell, Berger said this is a lawsuit nobody wanted.
But after the Yukon government ditched the Peel commission's land use plan - a plan seven years in the making - and replaced it with its own unilateral blueprint for the region, it crossed the legal line, he said.
The territory's modern-day treaty, the constitutionally-entrenched Umbrella Final Agreement, spells out a process for land use planning that must be followed.
The commission's plan protected most of the watershed from industrial development whereas the plan released by the Yukon government last week opens most of the Peel to mining, oil/gas and roads.
"This is a complete rewrite and it has forced these people to court," said Berger.
Just because the conservative Yukon Party government has a majority, it can't ignore the agreements signed 20 years ago with First Nations and Canada, he said.
The agreements also ensure the public also has a say in planning but the Yukon government has ignored that too, he said.
Although this lawsuit deals with the Peel land plan, it's about much more than that, he said.
It's going to test whether governments are obligated to live up to the modern-day treaties signed across the North, he said.
Although the other two Peel First Nations - the Vuntut Gwitchin and the Gwich'in Tribal Council - were not named in this lawsuit, Champion and Taylor said the four First Nations are united behind this legal challenge.
It's now up to the Yukon government to file its statement of defence.
Berger said it's hard to say how long this case will take to make its way through the courts.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Yukon releases new Peel plan, lifts ban
Despite threats of First Nation lawsuits, the Yukon government has bulled ahead, approving its own Peel watershed land use plan instead of the final recommended plan prepared by an independent commission.
It also lifted a four-year ban on new mineral claims as of Jan. 22.
The Yukon’s new plan welcomes industrial development in most of the 68,000-sq.km wilderness region.
Similar to the blueprint it put forward in late 2012, it designates 27% as integrated management areas and 44% as restricted use wilderness areas, paving the way for mines and roads in both.
The other 29% is labelled as protected areas. Although no new claims will be allowed in these, the existing claims can be worked and temporary roads will be allowed, if required.
The protected areas include the corridors of the Wind, Snake, Hart, Bonnet Plume and Peel River. The corridors vary from two to 10 kilometres in width. A chunk of the upper Hart and Snake are also set aside as protected from new claims.
Most of the southern portion of the region - the most contentious area – falls under the RUWA classification. And even though it’s coloured a light shade of green on the government’s map, it allows for a greater industrial footprint than the lowest IMA zone.
This new plan, developed unilaterally by the government without input from the four Peel First Nations, is markedly different than the commission’s final recommended plan which protected 80% of the watershed.
Although that plan has the backing of the Na-cho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondek Hwech’in, Vuntut Gwitchin and Gwich’in Tribal Council, the government decided to ditch it and draw up its own.
The First Nations say that violates the Yukon’s modern day treaty, the Umbrella Final Agreement. The government, on the other hand, insists it has stayed within the letter of the law.
Environmental groups were quick to condemn the government’s new plan released Jan. 21. They called it an affront to democracy and an insult to all who participated in the seven-year, $1.6 million planning process.
They also warned companies to think twice about working in the Peel.
“Companies considering industrial exploration or development in the Peel region do so at their own risk,” said Karen Baltgaillis, executive director of the Yukon Conservation Society in a news release. “The tide of public opinion will be against anyone who tries to develop in the region.”
The Yukon NDP criticized the government for choosing the "path of confrontation and litigation." The uncertainty created will be bad for both the economy and the environment, they said.
Click here to see the full plan.
Click here to see the government land use map.
It also lifted a four-year ban on new mineral claims as of Jan. 22.
The Yukon’s new plan welcomes industrial development in most of the 68,000-sq.km wilderness region.
Similar to the blueprint it put forward in late 2012, it designates 27% as integrated management areas and 44% as restricted use wilderness areas, paving the way for mines and roads in both.
The other 29% is labelled as protected areas. Although no new claims will be allowed in these, the existing claims can be worked and temporary roads will be allowed, if required.
The protected areas include the corridors of the Wind, Snake, Hart, Bonnet Plume and Peel River. The corridors vary from two to 10 kilometres in width. A chunk of the upper Hart and Snake are also set aside as protected from new claims.
Most of the southern portion of the region - the most contentious area – falls under the RUWA classification. And even though it’s coloured a light shade of green on the government’s map, it allows for a greater industrial footprint than the lowest IMA zone.
This new plan, developed unilaterally by the government without input from the four Peel First Nations, is markedly different than the commission’s final recommended plan which protected 80% of the watershed.
Although that plan has the backing of the Na-cho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondek Hwech’in, Vuntut Gwitchin and Gwich’in Tribal Council, the government decided to ditch it and draw up its own.
The First Nations say that violates the Yukon’s modern day treaty, the Umbrella Final Agreement. The government, on the other hand, insists it has stayed within the letter of the law.
Environmental groups were quick to condemn the government’s new plan released Jan. 21. They called it an affront to democracy and an insult to all who participated in the seven-year, $1.6 million planning process.
They also warned companies to think twice about working in the Peel.
“Companies considering industrial exploration or development in the Peel region do so at their own risk,” said Karen Baltgaillis, executive director of the Yukon Conservation Society in a news release. “The tide of public opinion will be against anyone who tries to develop in the region.”
The Yukon NDP criticized the government for choosing the "path of confrontation and litigation." The uncertainty created will be bad for both the economy and the environment, they said.
Click here to see the full plan.
Click here to see the government land use map.
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