LNG pact approved virtually

A virtual ceremony, where all involved pointed the freshly signed document at their cameras, marked the start of a new relationship between the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and the federal and B.C. governments.

Government representatives and the hereditary chiefs who oppose Coastal GasLink’s pipeline going across their traditional territories signed a memorandum of understanding that was negotiated amid countrywide blockades, marches and encampments this year.

“One by one we signed as it was being recorded and everyone could see it,” Scott Fraser, B.C.’s minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation, said Thursday. “Essentially, it was signed all today on the Zoom call.”

The traditional in-person signing ceremony was shelved to respect guidelines from public health officials to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The memorandum does not address Wet’suwet’en opposition to the pipeline, which is part of a $40-billion liquefied natural gas export terminal project in Kitimat, on B.C.’s northern coast. But it states that the federal and B.C. governments recognize Wet’suwet’en rights and title are held under their system of governance.

But the elected chiefs said they were shut out of the negotiating process and said Thursday that the agreement was not valid because it wasn’t approved by the Wet’suwet’en people. The chiefs called for the resignation of Carolyn Bennett, federal Indigenous-Crown relations minister.