SITE C Dam - Human Rights at Risk

[Oscar]

Site C Dam - Human Rights at Risk

[ http://www.amnesty.ca/our-work/issues/i ... anada/site ]

NO DATE (2015)

The Peace River Valley in northeastern British Columbia is a unique ecosystem and one of the very few areas in the region that so far has been largely preserved from large-scale resource development. First Nations and Métis families and communities rely on the valley for hunting and fishing, gathering berries and sacred medicine, and holding ceremonies. Their ancestors are buried in this land.

The proposed $8 billion plus Site C hydroelectric dam would flood more than 80 km of the river valley, stretching west from Fort St. John. The severe impact on Indigenous peoples is beyond dispute. A joint federal-province environmental impact assessment concluded that the dam would “severely undermine” use of the land, would make fishing unsafe for at least a generation, and would submerge burial grounds and other crucial cultural and historical sites.

Construction of Site C would violate human rights

Government officials in British Columbia say that they have “consulted” with Indigenous peoples about Site C. But consultation is not supposed to be a hollow exercise: it’s purpose is to protect the underlying rights set out in Treaties, the Canadian Constitution, and in international human rights law.

These rights have not been protected. In fact, they've been largely ignored.

Amnesty International is not anti-development. We recognize that resource development can provide livelihoods and income necessary to ensuring a decent quality of life for everyone. But we have joined with First Nations and environmental groups to oppose the Site C dam because it's clear that the human cost is much too high.

International human rights law -- and rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada -- have made it clear that decisions with the potential for serious harm to the rights of Indigenous peoples should only made with their mutual agreement, or free, prior and informed consent.

This is the standard that should be applied to the Site C dam.

It's a matter of basic justice for people who have already suffered from decades of displacement, impoverishment and other harms resulting from decisions imposed without their agreement.

Making First Nations pay for British Columbia's electricity

The federal and provincial governments both gave their approval to the dam last year, despite the findings of the environmental assessment. In May of this year, the BC government announced that construction would begin this summer, despite legal challenges launched by First Nations and non-Indigenous landowners.

What's especially shocking is that neither government has provided a clear explanation of why they think the harm that would be caused by the dam can be justified. In fact, in response to the legal challenges launched by affected First Nations, the federal government has explicitly stated that at no point in the entire process was the question of justification ever really considered.

Furthermore, other sources of electricity generation that could potentially avoid such devastating harm were never explored.

Harry Swain, a former federal deputy minister of Indian Affairs who headed in the environmental impact assessment of Site C, has commented that the project should have been deferred, saying, "There’s a whole bunch of unanswered questions."

More than environmental impacts

Amnesty International recently carried out the first of a series of fact-finding missions to northeastern BC to look at the social impacts of the massive scale of resource development, including oil and gas development, already being carried out in the region.

Intensive resource development in northeastern BC has created a lot of high wage jobs in the region. But the rapid pace of development and the necessity of bringing in thousands upon thousands of temporary and transient workers to fill these jobs has also created serious social problems that are not being properly dealt with. Problems like a severe housing shortage, a shortage of doctors, and a shortage of quality, affordable day care. Problems like an enormous gulf in wages between women and men. Problems like rampant drug and alcohol abuse. Problems like overstretched police forces and underfunded and overworked social service agencies.

Women’s organizations and other frontline service providers told us that the failure to address the social impacts of existing resource development in the region has created conditions that puts women at much greater risk of violence – and Indigenous women and girls even more so.

And this is another reason why a better decision-making process, and more rigorous protection of human rights, is needed.


Get involved!

Take Action!
[ http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action? ... n.id=40607 ]

Treaty 8 and RAVEN Trust Video
[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsl6YB10DNY ]

Join the Circle
[ http://raventrust.com/join-the-circle-no-site-c/ ]

Treaty 8 First Nations
[ http://treaty8.bc.ca/current-affairs/site-c/ ]



Ready the Environmental Impact Assessment (large download)
[ http://www.ceaa.gc.ca/050/documents/p63919/99173E.pdf ]


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United Nations raises concerns about impact of tar sands and Site C dam

[ http://canadians.org/blog/united-nation ... site-c-dam ]

July 2, 2015 - 9:32 am

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee is concerned about the impact of the tar sands and the proposed Site C dam on Wood Buffalo National Park and the Peace–Athabasca Delta region in north-eastern Alberta.

The Canadian Press reports, "The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has asked Canada to invite a team to Alberta to study how the [tar sands] and other nearby projects will affect Wood Buffalo National Park. The UN committee’s request follows a petition by the Mikisew Cree First Nation in December that asked for the park to be added to a list of world heritage sites in danger."
[ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... -park.html ]

The Edmonton Journal adds, "[UNESCO has] asked Canada not to make any decisions about future projects that would be difficult to reverse, and to conduct a strategic environmental assessment to determine the potential cumulative impact of development on the park. It wants to see results of the assessment by Dec. 1, 2016. In the meantime, the advisory group to the World Heritage Committee will plan a visit to Wood Buffalo National Park to see what’s happening on the ground, [Mikisew spokesperson Melody] Lepine said. She hopes that party will come in September or October before winter’s freeze, in time to provide a summary at [their] conference [next July]." [ http://www.edmontonjournal.com/UNESCO+s ... story.html ]

Just prior to the committee's decision, a spokesperson for Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq stated, "[Canada] has some of the most stringent environmental and park legislation in the world, and we are protecting and improving the ecological integrity of Wood Buffalo National Park." [ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/alb ... e25156281/ ]

[And now, a news report notes, "George Green, vice-president of heritage conservation with Parks Canada, [says] that the proposed Site C Dam on the Peace River was reviewed by an independent, joint federal-provincial panel and that it found there would be no impact on the Peace-Athabasca Delta. Green also noted that at 45,000 square kilometres, the park’s size, provides
for 'considerable potential resilience'." [ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... -park.html ]

The Peace–Athabasca Delta is the largest freshwater inland river delta in the world. It is located partially within the southeast corner of Wood Buffalo National Park. The delta is formed where the Peace and Athabasca rivers converge on the Slave River and Lake Athabasca. In 1983, Peace–Athabasca Delta was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its biological diversity and for the population of wild bison. The previous year the region had also been designated by the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty of 169 countries, as a wetland of international importance.

The Council of Canadians thanks the Mikisew Cree First Nation for their petition to UNESCO, as well as the World Heritage Committee for its decision.

We have been opposing Site C for the past five years and support the court challenge launched by four First Nations against it. Site C would be a 60-metre high, 1,050-metre-long dam and hydroelectric generation station located on the Peace River between the communities of Hudson's Hope and Taylor in northeastern British Columbia. It would create an 83-kilometre-long reservoir and flood about 5,550 hectares of agricultural land southwest of Fort St. John. It would submerge 78 First Nations heritage sites, including burial grounds and places of cultural and spiritual significance. Construction on Site C could begin this summer (if not stopped by a court injunction) and be completed by 2024.

We also oppose the TransCanada Energy East pipeline as well as other tar sands pipelines including the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain, Enbridge Northern Gateway and TransCanada Keystone XL pipelines. Filling the 1.1 million barrels per day Energy East pipeline would spur a 40 per cent increase in tar sands production and undoubtedly further endanger the delta and park.

It might also be noted that the Energy East pipeline would also cross the Rideau River just south of Ottawa. That river feeds into the Rideau Canal just a short distance downstream. In 2007 the Rideau Canal was also recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for being a work of human creative genius.

Further reading

Mikisew Cree First Nation applauds UNESCO decision on Wood Buffalo National Park
[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/mediame ... ood-buffal ]

Brent Patterson's blog
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]
Political Director of the Council of Canadians