Canada’s First Nations protest pipeline, demand share of revenues
Wed, 15 October 2008
A DAY AFTER a blockade shut down the Trans-Canada Highway in Saskatchewan, Canadian aboriginal leaders are demanding to meet with both federal and provincial officials about pipeline construction in their home area. The demonstrators also barricaded the road leading into the Waschuk Pipeline construction compound east of Regina on 28 September as part of Province-wide – and quite possibly Canada-wide – protests. In what they are terming “days of action”, numerous bands and tribal councils across the Province are taking part in or are in support of the protests, asking for a renewed relationship with the Crown in dealing with land issues.
At the heart of the issue in Saskatchewan is the continuing battle between First Nations groups and Enbridge Pipelines. "The boiling point, or the tipping of the scales, was some of the frustration that Chief Sheldon Wuttunee and the Red Pheasant First Nation had with their agreement with Enbridge Pipelines," said Treaty Four spokesman Edmund Bellegarde. "The pipeline is being expanded throughout this territory, throughout our territories ,and we feel that we're banding together with the Treaty Six First Nations and NW Saskatchewan and we're taking the days of action here, so we are fully intending to be peaceful. We need to bring attention to our rights and our concerns that our elders have talked to us about and counselled us on our role as stewards of the land."