Tankers Can Tank Cultures
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Zachary R.W. Johnson
Publication (Outlet/Website): Assorted In-Sight (In-Sight Publishing)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/11/07
Indigenous populations throughout the world work within longstanding cultures, or remnants thereof. International agreements provide substantiation to preservation of their land, culture, religion, and language. In North America, terms and phrases can be “Native American” as well as “American Indian, Amerindian, Amerind, Indian, aboriginal American, or First Nation person” (Pauls, 2016). Two major documents and three United Nations bodies, in the international community, and two sections (at least) from the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms hold substantial weight – and if not, then should – within the nation.
First, internationally, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), or UNDRIP, is guided by the UN Charter, which affirms the equality of indigenous peoples, affirms their contributions to global civilization, shares concern about the injustices against Indigenous peoples, recognizes the need for respect of Indigenous peoples (as with all peoples reflected in the UN Charter, too), acknowledges prior documents instantiating rights, expresses being convinced about the recognized rights of Indigenous peoples as fundamental to peaceful cooperation between Indigenous peoples and the State, and solemnly “proclaims the following United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a standard of achievement to be pursued in a spirit of partnership and mutual respect” (United Nations, 2007).
The declaration opens in this tone and reiterates this throughout itself. As well, another document emerges from the work of the International Labor Organization (ILO) from 1989. The International Labor Organization C169 – Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (1989) covers ‘land, recruitment and conditions of employment, vocational training, handicrafts and rural industries, social security and health, education and means of communication, contacts and co-operation across borders, administration, and general and final provisions’ (ILO, 1989). For the purpose of this article on tanker spills, the impacts of tanker spills connect with both the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) and International Labor Organization C169 – Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (1989) (United Nations, 2007; ILO, 1989).
In addition, an advisory body of the United Nations entitled the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII or PFII) reports to the United Nation Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) with the first appointed president, Chief Ted Moses of the Grand Council of the Crees, from Canada (Division for Social Policy and Development of Indigenous Peoples, 2016). The UNPFII is one of three UN bodies. The others are the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur Rights of Indigenous Peoples (United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 2016a; United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 2016b). These organizations work within the UN for Indigenous rights too.
Second, aside from the international community, for Canada, it was “in 1982 the federal government enshrined Aboriginal rights in Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution, and in Section 25 of the Charter of Rights in Freedoms, the government further ensured that Charter rights cannot “abrogate or derogate” from Aboriginal rights” (Hanson, 2009a; Hanson, 2009b; Government of Canada, 1982a; Government of Canada, 1982b).1 By implication, individuals and collectives can argue for the rights of Indigenous and tribal peoples, especially in relation to the health of the water needed for sustenance, either as the source of water or the life support system for food such as fish – or as part of a lifestyle including methods of fishing and culture around it (Parliament of Canada, 1996).
1 Constitution Act (1982) Section 25 states:
The guarantee in this Charter of certain rights and freedoms shall not be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from any aboriginal, treaty or other rights or freedoms that pertain to the aboriginal peoples of Canada including:
(a) any rights or freedoms that have been recognized by the Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763; and
(b) any rights or freedoms that now exist by way of land claims agreements or may be so acquired. (94)
Marginal note: Other rights and freedoms not affected by Charter Government of Canada. (1982). Constitution Act, 1982. Retrieved from http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-15.html.
It seems ‘part and parcel’ of self-determination. Throughout the world, tanker spills impact Indigenous communities more than nonindigenous communities. Those with the necessity to live by rivers and other waterways have both their food and water sources polluted with contaminants. These contaminants can be, and often are, health deteriorating, and more.
Transport Canada has reported on liabilities and compensation for victims to some degree. (Transport Canada, 2016). As catalogued by the Coastal First Nation Great Bear Initiative, the impacts range widely and could include:
A tanker spill would adversely impact the environment:
Threats to endangered and rare species;
Damage to or loss of habitats;
Population declines, particularly in top predators and long-lived species; and
And the transformation of natural landscapes.
A spill would also have the following impacts:
Negative effects on human health, well-being, or quality of life;
Shrinkage in the economy and unemployment;
Detrimental changes in land and resource use by our communities; and
Loss or serious damage to commercial species and resources. (Coastal First Nations, n.d.)
Further, this is not dead history; it is living memory, even right into the present. In light of a somewhat recent development in public opinion over the Trudeau governments dedication to campaign promises, specifically the protest of working class youth at the National Young Workers Summit in Ottawa and the lone wolf pumpkin seed protester in Hamilton, the Liberals do seem to be attempting to keep their election promise on pipelines. That being the selective nature which Prime Minister Trudeau has brought to the governments approval process for proposed pipelines.
A moratorium for tanker traffic off the British Columbian north coast could be seen as an indirect expression of the governments disapproval toward the controversial Northern Gateway Pipeline (Tunney, 2016). Though such a moratorium is likely to appease some environmental activists as well as locals against the pipeline, the real benefactors would be the Haida, Tsimshian, Haisla, Heiltsuk and other First Nations of the surrounding area (Kew, 2015; Goldi Productions Ltd., 2007). Not only will the coast on which Aboriginal people have lived for countless generations stay unviolated by a life threatening substance, they will have been spared the burden of cleaning and restoring the area to at best a small fraction of what it is today, let alone the unknown ramifications for future generations in the area.
Our province has seen a similar scenario play out in October of 2016 when a diesel barge sank in the Seaforth Channel off the coast of Bella Bella (Lindsay, 2016). The barge is operated by the American-based corporation Kirby Offshore Marine, self-titled “the nations [US] largest offshore tank barge fleet.” First responders to the outpouring of diesel into BC coastal waters were the First Nations themselves, specifically the Heiltsuk people, who haven’t the resources necessary to even attempt a mass clean-up effort. “On the West Coast, we want to involve Aboriginal coastal nations who want to be involved with the whole issue of marine safety. We also need to look at derelict vessels,” Transportation Minister Marc Garneau said.
Transportation Minister Garneau’s statement about his understanding of the risks involved with an even greater amount of tanker traffic off the British Columbian coast is less than reassuring in its lack of detail. The fact that the federal government is not already involving First Nations of the area is nearly disgraceful to Trudeau’s government and overly disrespectful to First Nations.
As for looking at “derelict vessels,” there should already be an ongoing practice of maintenance or the regular recycling of the materials for outdated vessels by the corporation which owns them. Not only provincial as a concern, it is national and international, especially based in the history of the documentations in the United Nations about things that should be respected: land, language, culture, religion, and people.
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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightjournal.com.
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