LAND USE: From a First Nation perspective A3 Friday, June 21, 2013 World Baseball Challenge facing uncertain future A15
Newsline 250-564-0005
www.pgfreepress.com RCMP REFLECTIONS
Plans for the land DELYNDA PILON
newsroom@pgfreepress.com
Bill PHILLIPS/F re e Pre s s
Victoria Street is reflected in the shiny glass windows of the RCMP detachment under construction downtown.
Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Doug Routledge, acting president of the Council of Forest Industries, opened his presentation with the famous quote, using it to analyze Land and Resource Management Plans (LRMP), some that work and some that need work. He added they can be used as a basis for the movement within government, industry and communities to create more comprehensive plans, a response to the many projects that can draw from a single land base. The time when projects can be approved in a vacuum have passed now that cumulative affects must be taken into account. The goal is one land base, one process. “Some (LRMPs) are good, and there are some not so good ones,” he said. He added existing LRMPs can be a basis for turn to PAGE A2
Frederick calls for respect of burial grounds DELYNDA PILON newsroom@pgfreepress.com
The Lheidli T’enneh as a nation does not believe in protest, rather in coming to a peaceful meeting of the minds, and it does not want protesters meeting on its sacred burial grounds. Members of the Idle No More movement jumped the gun, says Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dominic Frederick, when they announced they would meet at South Fort George Park and set up a camp and smoke-house, a symbolic gesture signifying their interest in reclaiming traditional territories. Frederick and his councillors made it clear the protest was unwelcome, particularly on a sacred burial ground, one that is
still in use. “It should not be done out of respect for our elders and the people who passed on before us,” Frederick said. “You have to have respect for a burial ground.” Besides the issue of respect, Frederick said the Lheidli T’enneh have never been ‘protesters’. “We are not a people that protest,” Frederick said. “When have you ever seen the Lheidli T’enneh protest? We work things out. That’s just the way we are. We try to build a relationship with the city, with the regional district and with industry.” However, just because they made their wishes known and firmly told the Idle No More protesters not to utilize their burial grounds, that doesn’t mean they have any-
JUDY RUSSELL Presents…
a new production of
BOUBLIL & SCHONBERG's
thing against the movement. “We respect what they do,” Frederick said. “The people that do the Idle No More, we support them. We didn’t say we are against them. We just asked them to respect our wishes, and our wish is they stay the heck away from our burial ground.” However, Frederick does not feel the respect was mutual, especially after Idle No More spokesman Steven Kakinoosit offered an apology. “He didn’t wholeheartedly apologize. It was half-hearted. We don’t need halfhearted leaders walking around,” Frederick said. “You either apologize or you don’t. “He sort of made it personal. We are not going to go there. We are rational. We ratio-
JULY 16TH TO AUGUST 3RD
at The Prince George Playhouse Tickets are on sale now at
Studio 2880 www.judyrusselldance.com
nalize on stuff and get stuff done.” Though their stance as a nation shies from protest, he said members of the band can feel free to join with the Idle No More movement. “If a member of the nation does join, that is their choice. We don’t try to discourage people from doing what want to do. If they want to join the Idle No More movement, that’s up to them and we don’t stop them,” he said. He also explained a bit of the history of the park. “It belongs to the city,” Frederick said. “It belonged to the band in 1911, but since then it’s been sold. We do have a piece of land down there – a burial grounds. “We asked them to stay away from it.”