Deal violates UN declaration: First Nations Council

The First Nations community in New Brunswick is voicing its opposition to the proposed sale of NB Power to Hydro-Québec.

The Wolastoqewiyik Traditional Council of Tobic states that the deal is “illegal” because it violates articles in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The declaration was adopted in 2007.

Canada was not among the nations who signed the declaration.

An indigenous injunction filed by the Maliseet nation on Jan. 28 gives New Brunswick and Quebec notice to “cease and desist in their efforts to buy and sell … what does not belong to them.”

“We served notice to the province of New Brunswick and the next thing is to send the document to the UN,” said Dan Ennis, Chief of the Wolastoqewiyik Traditional Council of Tobic.

“They know they’re in the wrong, and they know we are in the right.”

Ennis said that the province of New Brunswick doesn’t own the land and resources being sold to Hydro-Québec.

“We’ve been trying to get a meeting with some government body to see if we can have them show us what part of those treaties indicates that we gave up something,” he said.

There has been “no response” from the province regarding the injunction.

A representative for the Premier said meetings were “planned” to discuss the issue, but Ennis hasn’t heard any specifics on a meeting date.

“That could be sometime in May or April after the deal is done,” said Ennis.

The lack of consultation between the province of New Brunswick and its First Nations communities about the sale has been disappointing, said Frank Jr. Molley, President of St. Thomas’ Native Student Council.

“It’s almost like an insult when you’re not consulted,” he said. “It’s telling me that you have no respect for me, and that I don’t matter.”

Molley proposed the idea that all of the First Nations chiefs in the province come together “as equals” at a summit to discuss the ramifications of the proposed sale.

He believes a summit would make it easier for the First Nations community to stand as one, something they must do if they want to fight against the sale.

“Everybody is so isolated, everybody is so spread out,” said Molley. “It’s band by band, everybody’s treated differently.”

Ennis has received an outpour of messages since the release of the indigenous injunction.

He’s received emails from “ordinary Joe-blow citizens, looking for meetings with us looking to see what we may be able to do with this deal.”

In the meantime, Molley hopes to see more mainstream media coverage about the NB Power sale from an Aboriginal perspective.

“I personally don’t feel that native people in New Brunswick are at the forefront of the issue,” he said.

Molley said it raises the issue of coverage of Aboriginal issues in the media in general.

“It seems the only time we’re on the news is when our youth commit suicide or somebody murders somebody. It’s never about our struggle.”