B.C. wildfires hit Indigenous reserves harder, human rights report says
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VANCOUVER — A new report from British Columbia’s Human Rights Commissioner says Indigenous reserves are four times more likely to face wildfires than non-reserve communities in the province.
The report from the office of Kasari Govender looking into the impact of wildfires on vulnerable communities finds Indigenous groups as well as children and those experiencing poverty are disproportionately impacted by the blazes.
Govender’s report says that between 2000 and 2024, Indigenous reserves comprised all but one of the 37 B.C. communities where at least half of their total land area was burned by wildfires.
Lytton, B.C., which was largely destroyed by the 2021 heat dome wildfire, was the exception, but Govender notes that more than 30 per cent of the community’s population was Indigenous.
