In a report released Monday, May 12th, the UN's special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, James Anaya, said aboriginal Canadians have expressed concerns over a number of proposed resource projects that they fear will pollute their traditional lands, including Enbridge Inc.'s Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan's TransMountain expansion.

The report, citing the UN Declaration on international human rights, says, "In accordance with the Canadian constitution and relevant international human rights standards, as a general rule resource extraction should not occur on lands subject to aboriginal claims without adequate consultations with, and the free, prior and informed consent of, the indigenous peoples concerned."

"The way it's supposed to work is that whenever these rights are affected, there needs to be consultation and agreement about any decision that would limit those rights in order to, in the end, protect them." Mr. Anaya said in an interview. "Whenever someone goes onto someone's land, there needs to be permissions sought and some kind of agreement."

View May 13, 2014 The Vancouver Sun article
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