Tuesday, January 15, 2019
UN v Canada
While the UN has no enforcement authority over Canada, it does have authority to investigate racial discrimination by its member states. As reported at The Narwhal,
Canada has until April 8 to report back to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination outlining steps it has taken to halt construction of the hydro project, which would flood 128 kilometres of the Peace River and its tributaries in the heart of Treaty 8 traditional territory.
As committee chair Noureddine Amir wrote in a December 14 letter to Canada's UN ambassador,
As I asked in Corporate Crimes, First Nations & Environmental Organizations, "Would our society accept this if the victims were white?"
Canada has until April 8 to report back to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination outlining steps it has taken to halt construction of the hydro project, which would flood 128 kilometres of the Peace River and its tributaries in the heart of Treaty 8 traditional territory.
As committee chair Noureddine Amir wrote in a December 14 letter to Canada's UN ambassador,
The Committee is concerned about the alleged lack of measures taken to ensure the right to consultation and free, prior and informed consent with regard to the Site C dam, considering its impact on indigenous peoples’ control and use of their lands and natural resources...The Committee is further concerned that the realization of the Site C dam without free, prior and informed consent, would permanently affects the land rights of affected indigenous peoples in the Province of British Columbia. Accordingly, it would infringe indigenous peoples’ rights protected under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.Hydropower on the Peace River--a tributary of the Athabasca in the Mackenzie River system--is essential to Alberta Tar Sands refinery development, a project which daily uses enough natural gas to heat six million homes and has turned independent and sustainable indigenous communities into islands of sickness and death.
As I asked in Corporate Crimes, First Nations & Environmental Organizations, "Would our society accept this if the victims were white?"
