| Site C Dam Protests Heating Up | 15 January 16 |
"We have a peaceful protest camp," Yvonne Tupper, a Saulteau First Nation woman from Chetwynd, told CBC News. "Site C is infringing our treaty rights. No Treaty 8 First Nation has ever given consent prior to construction. And it's an insult and an assault to continue construction while there are pending court cases. " Site C dam, the third on the Peace River in British Columbia, will create an 83-kilometre-long reservoir and flood an area where protesters are currently camping. It has long been a controversial debate in the region and has been opposed for years, prompting legal challenges by several groups concerned about the impact a new lake created by the dam will have on the Peace River area. Environmental activist David Suzuki is throwing his support behind First Nations protesting the construction of the $9-billion Site C dam in northeastern British Columbia. Suzuki and the grand chief of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, Stewart Phillip, travelled to the remote Rocky Mountain Fort Camp in the Peace Valley on Tuesday morning. Suzuki said he made the trip to thank the protestors for continuing the fight against the dam. "I wanted to go and thank them ... because I was one of many, many people 30 years ago that was opposing the dam at Site C — exactly the same dam and we won that one," he said. So I can't figure out what the hell — we already had this battle before and we're having it again." Meanwhile, Grand Chief Phillip says he is infuriated by what he called a "provocative and aggressive approach" from BC Hydro and the province. "It is absolutely unacceptable that BC Hydro is relentlessly clear-cutting forests right now to prepare for the flooding of the Peace River Valley, which will destroy archaeological sites and eradicate prime farmland," said Phillip.
View January 13, 2016 Aboriginal Peoples Television Network article |
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