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WEDNESDAY, November 26, 2014
NEWS BRIEFS
Nathan Cullen receives parliamentary award Jesse Cole Caledonia Courier
MP for SkeenaBulkey and New Democrat finance critic Nathan Cullen has been declared the Most Knowledgeable Parliamentarian of 2014 by his peers at an event hosted by Maclean’s magazine in Ottawa last Wednesday, Nov. 19. Cullen was chosen out of 308 other Members of Parliament to receive the award. The awards are chosen and voted for by MP’s with each MP casting a vote for any of their colleagues. MP’s may vote within party lines or for MP’s from opposing parties. There are seven categories of awards that MP’s can achieve including best constituency representative, most knowledgable, rising star, hardest working MP, best orator and parliamentarian of the year. “I’m a a bit of a loss for words,” Cullen said of his award. “There are such a lot of amazing MPs in the House; to be singled out in this way by my colleagues is truly an honour.” This is not the first time Cullen has received praise from his political peers, Cullen was named the favourite up-and-coming rookie politician in 2004, the year he was elected.
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Pull Together campaign increases fundraising goal from $250,000 to $300,000 Jesse Cole Caledonia Courier
An organization raising money to help support First Nations legal challenges against Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline has increased its fundraising goal from $250,000 to $300,000 by the end of December. Pull Together, the organization in question, is a grassroots fundraising group originally former in Smithers and Terrace, B.C. in 2014.
DROP THE PUCK: The Endako Enforcers took on Mt. Milligan’s hockey team last Saturday, Oct. 22 in Fraser Lake. The Enforcers beat Mt. Milligan with a finishing score of 13 - 10. A rematch will be held in Fort St. James in the new year.
Photo courtesy of Elaine Storey.
Endako takes on Mt. Milligan The movember ‘staches were out in full force at a packed house last Saturday at the Fraser Lake Arena. Thompson Creek Metals sponsored and brought their two northern mines together for an all-out hockey game to raise money for the Northern BC Friends of Children Society. The Endako Enforcers beat Mt. Milligan 13-10 in a well fought battle that will see a rematch in the new year in Fort St. James with the opposite shifts at each mine. Stay tuned for the next game! A big thank you to the two Thompson Creek Metal facilities for all their hard work in bringing Fraser Lake together for this event and thank you to everyone who came out to support this great cause.
“The Pull Together campaign is driven by people who care and are politically astute. They can see how the future of the country is shaping up and want to be part of it.” Currently there are nine or more First Nations communities involved in legal disputes with Enbridge, and six of those Nations have joined the Pull Together campaign including the Haida Nation which only recently joined as well as the Kitasoo/
Sarrah Nahornoff-Storey
The proposed route that the Northern Gateway pipeline would take from Alberta to its port in Kitimat. Photo via Google Images.
Xai’xais. Gitxaala Heiltsuk, Nadleh Whut’en and Nak’azdli. President of the Haida Nation Peter Lantin said of joining the Pull Together group. “The Pull Together
campaign is driven by people who care and are politically astute. They can see how the future of the country is shaping up and want to be part of it.” The legal claims of
these nations revolve around territorial disputes between First Nation’s communities who are opposed to the pipeline being developed on and through their traditional terri-
tories. First Nations groups are on the forefront of legal claims against Enbridge and cite the fact that according to constitutional law, Canada must consult and accommodate First Nations groups regarding development on their territories. A report conducted by the West Coast Environmental law group states that under constitutional and international law B.C. First Nations have the right to issue bans on oil pipelines in their territories. The Tsilhqot’in decision reached earlier this year in the Williams case, in which the Canadian courts ruled
that the Tsilhqot’in First Nation had legal title rights to their territories, has set precedent for other First Nation’s communities who are disputing the pipeline. Under that ruling the only times that economic development can go forward on First Nation’s territories without their consent is if the Crown can demonstrate the development is substantial and of immediate importance. Pull Together is managed in part by the Sierra Club B.C., an environmental nonprofit organization and the legal defence fund RAVEN Trust of Victoria. Continued on P. 2