Update: 12:52 p.m. Jan. 21, 2013
On Friday January 18th, the Hupacasath First Nation, located in Port Alberni B.C., launched a legal challenge of gigantic proportions. The challenge: The Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA) between Canada and China.
Brenda Sayers, Hupacasath Councillor stated, “This deal will pave the way for a massive natural resource buyout and allow foreign corporations to sue the Canadian government in secret tribunals, restricting Canadians from making democratic decisions about our economy, environment and energy.”
Steven Tatoosh, Chief Councillor of Hupacasath, added “We will argue that the Government of Canada breached its fiduciary duty to consult First Nations on our respective constitutionally-enshrined and judicially-recognized Aboriginal Title, Rights and Treaty Rights.”
The Chiefs of Ontario and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs will file supporting affidavits in support of the Hupacasath legal challenge. Leadnow.ca is lending its considerable online presence to the Hupacasath legal challenge.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs declared, “To recklessly disregard our Title, Rights and Treaty Rights is an outrage. Our inherent rights are our fundamental human rights. Canada repeatedly violates our human rights when our inherent rights are totally ignored in agreements such as the Canada-China FIPPA.”
"The Leadnow community is proud to play a part in supporting this important legal challenge. The Government has tried to pass this deal behind closed doors, and they have breached their constitutional obligation to consult with First Nations before entering into a 31-year agreement that locks Canada into a path of foreign-ownership and raw-resource export," said Julia Pope of Leadnow.ca.
Hupacasath has advised China's Ambassador to Canada that the Canada-China FIPPA investment deal violates Title, Rights and Treaty Rights as well as international law, and should be postponed indefinitely, pending nation-to-nation discussions between Canada and First Nations.
Original Story
Hupacasath bolsters "Thin Red Line" between Canadians and resource-hungry China
Hupacasath has some powerful allies in its bid to challenge the contentious Foreign Investment Protection Agreement with China. Hupacasath is joined by the Chiefs of Ontario, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) and gained the support of Council of Canadians and other aboriginal organizations in a court action to prevent the federal government from enacting the agreement.
Elected Hupacasath Councillor Brenda Sayers said the court action is intended to put the brakes on the FIPA process until all Canadians have had a chance to study the far-reaching and potentially devastating implications of the agreement. Leadnow is heading up fundraising.
“We are preparing a court injunction now and we will be prepared to go by the middle of January; earlier if we have to,” Sayers said.
One of the glaring threats in the agreement is in environmental protection.
Sayers points out that, under FIPA, the foreign investor is subject to all the environmental regulations of the host country, but only as those regulations were in place at the effective date of the agreement. That casts suspicion on a number of recent moves by the Harper Government, she said.
“We have to remember that the Conservative federal government gutted the environmental legislation in Bill C-38, and further in Bill C-45, so that now the Chinese state-owned companies can extract resources,” Sayers explained. “So now, if a future Canadian government decided to bring back our environmental standards to what they were prior to Canada/China FIPA, China could look at this as interference in their right to make money, and they could sue Canada.”
While federal officials scoff at the idea of China suing another sovereign government for financial losses, Sayers noted there is precedent. Prior to the 2008 world financial meltdown, Chinese investors purchased the Belgo-Dutch bank Fortis. The Chinese insurance company Ping An is now suing the Belgian government for $3 billion in losses after the failed bank was nationalized and sold off.
Under Section 35.2 of the Canadian Constitution, Ottawa is obliged to consult with and accommodate First Nations in all matters concerning their traditional territories. Sayers said the Harper Government has not only failed to consult with First Nations on FIPA, it is at the same time barrelling ahead on watering down environmental legislation in advance of its ratification.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of UBCIC said First Nations treaty and territorial rights are still very much a work in progress. This is no time to freeze Canada’s environmental protections in an artificially enfeebled state. He acknowledges that Canada has a number of FIPAs with different countries, but none of those nations has the economic clout of China.
“China has billions of dollars in cash revenues and they are more than eager to invest that capital,” Phillip said. “They have been buying up entire companies and corporations, like Nexen [an oil and gas company]. So obviously, they pose an enormous threat to our indigenous land rights, to the integrity of the ecosystems within our territories. That will further infringe our ability to practice our aboriginal right to hunt and fish and gather.”
As the Idle No More movement gathers momentum, Phillip said, there is a growing awareness that Bill C-45, by eviscerating environmental laws that have evolved over decades of hard-won experience, threatens all Canadians.
And Canada’s First Nations, by virtue of the territorial rights enshrined in the Constitution, may be the last defensive bulwark between Canadians, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, and a massive, resource-hungry China with a friendly government in its corner.
“I call it the Thin Red Line,” he said.
Phillip is seeing a groundswell of opposition to bills C-38 and C-45.
“Here in British Columbia, the New Democratic Party has committed, in the event they form government, they will seriously look at re-introducing environmental protections from the provincial side, in order to re-build [the capacity],” Phillip said. “And who is to say, if the Opposition parties get their act together, a new national government wouldn’t revisit some of the extreme measures taken by the Harper government?”
But if FIPA is already in place, China-owned companies could argue that the upgraded regulations do not apply to their operations, or they could sue for compensation if the new measures trigger financial losses. And if individual provinces step up to create new legislation, they will be on the hook for those costs.
“This is not just a First Nations battle,” Sayers said. “This is a battle for the rights of aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians. Both of our constitutional rights are being violated. There are a lot of common threads behind our two communities: the protection of our water, the protection of natural resources and our environment, the protection of our future. Canadians need to realize this is a fight for Canadians as a whole.”
While Canadian reaction to the Idle No More movement has been mixed, Phillip said the campaign has been evolving, and it is critical that Canadians recognize the stakes involved.
“I saw a placard at one of the rallies: ‘There is no Planet B,’” Phillip said.
Phillip pointed out that in 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement eventually foundered due to lack of leadership or a coherent agenda, but not before it unleashed a wave of public sentiment against a financial system that profits at the expense of ordinary citizens.
Now, First Nations leaders across Canada are hoping that the spirit of Idle No More will resonate with ordinary Canadians. But for First Nations people, Phillip said, the arrogance of the Harper Government has reached a tipping point with Bill C-45 and, by extension, the Canada/China FIPA.
“The people are sick and tired of being stonewalled by indifferent governments, vis a vis all of our court victories, and no movement towards implementing them. That frustration that has built up is, in many ways, what Idle No More is, and I don¹t think they are going to stand down any time soon until such time as they are convinced that there is a commitment on the part of government and a credible strategy to move the agenda forward,” Phillip said.
Sayers noted that despite the potentially huge economic implications of Canada/China FIPA, the Harper Government was almost successful in finessing it into Canadian law without public discussion.
“We were not given any forewarning. I actually heard about it from a friend who e-mailed me a link to [Green Party leader and MP] Elizabeth May’s Web site. It was tabled in the House on Sept. 26, quietly, mind you, and if it wasn¹t for Elizabeth May speaking out to Canadians, we probably would have woken up to a new Canada on Nov. 1 without even knowing what happened,” Sayers said.
“That is where the Constitutional piece comes in: we should have been able to participate in that whole process and have a say in what our country is going to look like.”
The agreement now requires a cabinet order in council to take effect.
Related: Idle No More
http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2012-12-31/watts-works-raise-awareness-idle-no-more-events
http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2012-12-30/nuu-chah-nulth-aht-stand-solidarity-chief-theresa-spence
http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2012-12-23/idle-no-more-hits-west-coast
Galleries:
http://www.hashilthsa.com/gallery/idle-no-more-whaling-shrine-port-alberni-dec-31
http://www.hashilthsa.com/gallery/idle-no-more-port-alberni-dec-21-11-am-1215-am-harbour-quay
Youtube:
