June 14th – Rally to support Hul’quimi’num people’s fight against takeover of TimberWest

TimberWest is holding their AGM tomorrow at the Sutton Place Hotel in Vancouver, BC starting at 10:00 am. People will start gathering at 9:00 am and the rally will begin at 9:30 am.

TimberWest’s holdings in British Columbia include 113,208 hectares of forest lands within the Hul’qumi’num Territory.  The takeover is being undertaken without full consultation of the Indigenous people of that territory, which is a direction violation under Canada’s International Human Rights treaty obligations.”   Kat Norris Indigenous Action Movement

“The Hul’qumi’num people continue to assert their fundamental human rights to these lands and resources on Vancouver Island. To protect their rights in their lands and resources involved in this billion dollar transaction, HTG has today filed a request for immediate assistance in the form of precautionary measures (the equivalent of an injunction) from the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the human rights monitoring organ of the Organization of American States, which Canada joined in 1990.”   https://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2011/12/c4226.html

“In the 1880s Canada seized—without agreement or compensation—over 385,000 hectares of lands and resources owned and occupied by the Hul’qumi’num, on the basis that the Hul’qumi’num as ‘indians’, were inferior and not entitled to the same rights as others.” Lawyers Rights Watch.  Gail Davidson, Executive Director

Clear cutting in Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group traditional territory on southeastern Vancouver Island:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEpuciCDCcw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL