By Canadian Press

Indigenous LNG supporters chide human rights advocates over pipeline comments

Jan 21, 2020 | 2:51 PM

BURNS LAKE, B.C. — A collective of First Nations who support the liquefied natural gas industry in British Columbia say human rights advocates failed to do their research when they called for a pipeline project to be halted.

The First Nations LNG Alliance has issued open letters to the B.C. human rights commissioner and the United Nations Committee to End Racial Discrimination over statements they made about the Coastal GasLink project.

They called for the project to be stopped in the face of opposition from Wet’suwet’en hereditary clan chiefs who say the project has no authority without their consent.

Both said the free, prior and informed consent of all affected Indigenous groups should be granted before any project is allowed to proceed.

Coastal GasLink has signed agreements with 20 elected First Nation councils along the pipeline’s 670-kilometre path but the Wet’suwet’en chiefs say within their territory, those councils only administer small reserves and it’s the hereditary chiefs who hold jurisdiction over a broader area covering 22,000 square kilometres.

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Karen Ogen-Toews, CEO of the First Nations Alliance, says in the letter to commissioner Kasari Govender that the pipeline was approved through a democratic process that Indigenous people participated in freely, and neither the committee nor commissioner consulted supportive Indigenous groups before taking a position.

No one could be reached for comment at the UN committee and Govender was not available for an interview today.

The Canadian Press