[IPSM] More Nations resisting Mackenzie Pipeline

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Could the moderators of lefthook and IPSM-L please set me to no mail?
See you from somewhere not here...

Macdonald
--

Aboriginal group complains it has been ignored in pipeline plan

Canadian Press

Wednesday, May 18, 2005
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=27b352a6-c753-4b38-90ac-5a0b8f23c5dc


EDMONTON -- A second northern aboriginal group that says it has been 
ignored by government and industry has filed a lawsuit to try to stop 
hearings into a proposed $7-billion Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

"They were never even told about the process," said Robert Freedman, the 
lawyer who filed an application for a judicial review of the regulatory 
process Tuesday.

Freedman represents about 2,500 Dene Tha', whose members are spread over 
seven reserves in northwestern Alberta, northeastern British Columbia 
and the southern end of the Northwest Territories.

The pipeline would be routed across about 100 kilometres of Dene Tha' 
traditional lands, and the group says it has been ignored in the 
project's design and early regulatory process.

The lawsuit seeks a judicial stay of hearings by the joint review panel 
until the Dene Tha' voice is heard. It also asks the court to rule that 
Alberta sections of the pipeline should be included in the review and 
not hived off to provincial regulators.

The Dene Tha', signatories to Treaty 8, will seek a share of any 
benefits from the project.

Freedman said his clients have written Imperial Oil, federal ministries, 
the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment 
Agency to say "what about us?"

The lawsuit claims the federal government hasn't lived up to its 
responsibility to ensure that aboriginal concerns are taken into account 
over industrial development on traditional lands.

It says the lands have already been heavily affected by thousands of oil 
and gas wells and hundreds of kilometres of pipelines and roads, as well 
as by intensive logging.


-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.