Indigenous reconciliation just a distraction for the Liberals

Trudeau paying lip service to environmental stewardship, writes Chelsea Vowel.

In approving a natural gas pipeline project in British Columbia, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says the project is “consistent with the government’s reconciliation agenda” with indigenous peoples.

Despite this claim, her government’s work on this file has been a travesty. It is clear that reconciliation as understood by the federal government is much more about “the economy” than building real relationships with indigenous peoples.

The government approved, on Sept. 27, the Pacific NorthWest Liquefied Natural Gas project, which has long faced opposition from First Nations. McKenna pointed to 190 conditions that govern the project as proof environmental and cultural concerns will be adequately dealt with, despite the fact that this $36-billion megaproject will become one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in Canada. She insisted that consultation was meaningful, and that three months were spent understanding the project’s impact on fisheries.

In March, more than 130 scientists urged McKenna to reject what they called a scientifically “flawed” draft report issued by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. And serious doubt has also been cast on whether the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation actually voted in favour of the project after previously rejecting $1.15 billion over 40 years in exchange for its consent.

This is only the latest incident in Liberal government letdowns with respect to its relationship with indigenous Canadians.

In December 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to implement all 94 calls to action issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, including implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“We need nothing less than a total renewal of the relationship between Canada and indigenous peoples,” he said. “I give you my word that we will renew and respect that relationship.”

Yet in August, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould claimed that implementing the UN declaration into Canadian law was “unworkable” and a “political distraction.” This about-face is particularly significant: the declaration is touted as the primary vehicle through which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission sees reconciliation being undertaken in this country.

That vehicle has been abandoned by the side of the road in favour of the equivalent of a Humvee with truck nuts.

So what exactly is the government’s reconciliation agenda that McKenna is referring to?

McKenna clarifies this for us in a tweet, saying that “together” (presumably with indigenous peoples) “we” (presumably Canadians) “will grow the economy, create good middle-class jobs” and, of course, “protect the environment for future generations.”

In the case of the natural gas pipeline, the economic focus is clear, stated as an obvious and universal good, while lip service is paid to environmental stewardship.

Next to Lelu Island, the proposed site of a gas liquefaction facility, is Flora Bank. It will be dredged in order to build a suspension bridge. These shallows are a vital habitat for a variety of fish and shellfish, including juvenile salmon, and are considered to be one of the most biologically significant areas in the Skeena River system, if not in all of British Columbia.

This will happen despite vigorous opposition from First Nations in the area and welldocumented scientific concerns that are not adequately met by the 190 conditions attached to approval.

Ultimately, the narrative is going to be that First Nations consented to these projects, no matter how that consent was acquired.

Free, prior and informed consent — arguably the backbone of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — has been roughly yanked out and discarded, because when the economy is king, reconciliation itself is just “unworkable” and a “political distraction.”