Stand with coast heroes on this devastating anniversary

Details: Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00; Written by editor

Stand with coast heroes on this devastating anniversary r1 ...

PAOV,

You know the threat of an oil spill is real; and the Heiltsuk people know that a spill is more devastating than you can imagine. One year ago today, on October 13, 2016, the Nathan E. Stewart tugboat was travelling through Heiltsuk Nation’s main marine harvesting area. With questionable federal waivers allowing it to be on the inside waters, and with no pilot, the tug ran aground on a calm night with seven men on board and spilled over 110,000 litres of diesel fuel right into the Heiltsuk breadbasket.

“It’s not just a small diesel spill in the middle of nowhere. It’s families who are going to go hungry; it’s people who aren’t going to have access to at least 25 different species that have sustained them for 1000’s of years. It couldn’t have happened in a worse place. It’s so rich there. And now it’s gone.” - Ayla Brown, Heiltsuk Nation

The Heiltsuk community spent weeks fighting in vain to contain the oil spill and trying to get Canada’s so-called “world class” oil response system in gear. Now they have also spent 12 months preparing legal actions against the Government of Canada and the U.S.- based Kirby Corporation, to recover damages from the loss of their Aboriginal rights to food, social and ceremonial harvesting, and the loss of their commercial harvesting of marine resources.

“Government representatives travel the province, country, and the world preaching reconciliation and nation-to-nation relationships with First People. Meanwhile, back home, they are avoiding our calls and emails, excluding us from meetings, and ignoring our rights,” says first responder and Hereditary Chief Harvey Humchitt. “If the courts have to explain that this is not what nation-to-nation relationships and reconciliation look like, so be it.”

And that’s not all the Heiltsuk are doing. They are leading the way with a new science that brings together western biochemical, physiological and histological tools with traditional Indigenous knowledge and techniques. With these knowledge bases working together, the Heiltsuk will set a new standard for assessing the impacts of oil spills on fish and invertebrate stocks and safe consumption. They are developing a standard they can trust to answer these questions: When will the clams, abalone and rockfish stocks be stable enough to harvest? And when will they be safe for Heiltsuk children and families to eat?

“Recently, we learned the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Kirby have been secretly negotiating an agreement on the post-spill environmental impact assessment since early this year,” says Chief Councillor Slett. "We have no choice but to turn to the courts.”

The Heiltsuk aim to expose the actual state of British Columbia and Canada’s “world class” oil-spill response system. Proof of the poor spill response in this case will support the need for increased environmental awareness, better safety measures and/or restrictions on oil shipping, and real improvements to spill response.

RAVEN donors like you have donated more than $92,000 towards the legal costs of the Heiltsuk Nation. Will you help the Heiltsuk’s legal team bring the best evidence and arguments to court, and hold the polluters accountable?

Traditional knowledge of Indigenous Nations all along the coast warn for the need to protect our water and the life within it. Heiltsuk Nation now stands ready to take this to court, and they need your support. This can happen anywhere, any time and we're not ready.

With gratitude,

the RAVEN team

For more info please see the Heiltsuk Nation media release: Heiltsuk Nation turning to courts in wake of spill and botched response

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