BCTF should apologize to the Wet’suwet’en people

Hello BCTF

I was shocked to read your profoundly divisive statement in support of hereditary dictatorship over the democratic rights of the vast majority of the We'suwet'en people who do not support the naked power grab of a handful of self-styled Chiefs, some whom do not even hold legitimate claim to the titles they are presuming.

Your interpretation of the Delgamuukw Decision is wildly incorrect.  Jurisdiction was never granted to the Hereditary Chiefs nor was the territory ever declared to be "unceded" by it and the fact that you're using an essentially racist document, UNDRIP, to support that claim proves this. The Courts decision only established that First Nation Rights and Titles still existed but did not define what that meant and ordered a new trial, which was never carried forward, to make that clarification. In no place did the Court's decision state that lands not covered by treaty were not part of British Columbia, Canada despite the bogus claim that it is "unceded" which is not even recognized as a word by spellcheck. However, in order to make up for this deficiency of treaties in BC due to the 1858 Royal Proclamation that made mainland BC a Crown Colony to prevent its annexation to the United States, the Court ordered the treaty process.

The same area that the Office of the Wet'suwet'en (in reality a private company supported by foreign foundations and GoFund me pages) claims is also under dispute with the BC Treaty Commission by the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council which represents 90% of Wet'suwet'en land claims under the title of Wet'suwet'en First Nations.

You also ignore the fact that all of the democratically elected Wet'suwen'en tribal councils who are actually responsible for the well-being of their people support the natural gas pipeline and want the project to go through. Anti-pipeline hereditary Chiefs who ran for Chief and Council were soundly defeated.

Nor are these so-called hereditary Chiefs "respected" by the majority of the Wet'suwet'en people. The Globe and Mail recently reported on the supposed all-clan meeting called by the five dissenting hereditary Chiefs even though John Risdale made it clear that the outcome was not up for discussion. The meeting was held in a large sports complex yet it was mostly non-aboriginals attending and the turnout so small they were grouped together in one corner. Risdale himself did not even attend so as not to be publicly embarrassed by this complete show of non-support from the very people he claims to represent.

Given that the majority of so-called land defenders (eight out of ten of those arrested in the first two camps are neither Wet'suwet'en or status) have come from as far away as Quebec, Ontario and the US, your statement that they were removed from "their traditional unceded lands" is also false.

It is truly frightening that the education of the children of this province is in the hands of the BCTF if this is the kind of disinformation your statement displays. I honestly fear for the future of this province and only pray that it does not fall into a permanent state of the kind of chaos and division you are supporting. Keep in mind that the blockaders are in violation of a Court order and you are encouraging criminal activity. How can this possibly be in the mandate of the BCTF?

I demand that you withdraw this statement immediately and apologize to the Wet'suwet'en people for issuing it in the first place.

Name withheld by request
Merritt, B.C.

"Now you know the rest of the story"
brought to you by
"Two Feathers"

In the event we are using copyrighted material, we are doing so within the parameters of the Fair Dealing exception of the Canadian Copyright Act.


See our Copyright Notice