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Northern Gateway panel hears harsh criticism from B.C. First Nations The Canadian Press Aboriginal leaders in British Columbia questioned the legitimacy of a review into a controversial Enbridge pipeline proposal that aims to connect oil sands crude to Asian markets.
"We have not engendered confidence that there is serious intent to give equal weight to the concerns and interests of those most affected by the proposed project," Dolores Pollard, chief councillor with the Haisla First Nation, told a regulatory panel Tuesday.
"We think it is important to go back to square one and look at the premise for this project and whose interests really are being served."
The Haisla live on the northern B.C. coast right by where Enbridge (TSX:ENB) plans to build a marine terminal to handle petroleum that will move through twin pipelines.
The side-by-side pipelines would stretch from the northern port city of Kitimat, B.C., to an oil sands processing hub at Bruderheim, Alta.
One would carry imported condensate from the coast inland, and the other would carry oil sands crude westward.
A town-hall style meeting was held in Kitimat on Tuesday to lay the groundwork for oral hearings into the project.
Police to stop posing as media, unless there's good reason to do so: OPP chief
The Canadian Press TORONTO - Ontario's new police commissioner says it's against police policy for officers to pretend to be journalists to gather evidence on suspects, but he can't rule out it happening again.
Chris Lewis said it would only happen in "rare" cases where public safety is an issue.
"To save a life to get close to that person, then we might do what we have to do," Lewis said Tuesday as he officially took over from retired Ontario Provincial Police commissioner Julian Fantino.
Media advocates are launching a court action this fall against the practice, saying it undermines the public's trust in reporters.
At first Lewis said his officers would no longer pose as reporters, citing a policy brought in three years ago that stopped the practice.
But he quickly added that he couldn't rule out "every exigency in the world" and that exceptions could arise.
In 2007, an OPP officer pretended to be a journalist at a Mohawk rally held in conjunction with the Aboriginal Day of Protest.
Recently an officer posed as a journalist to gather evidence from an inmate in a prison.
Three Quebec provincial police officers posed as protesters at the summit of the three North American leaders in Montebello, Que., in August 2007.
The group Canadian Journalists for Free Expression is aware of a handful of cases in Ontario, but called it the "tip of the iceberg."
Kerr, Mahan rally late, beat Sorenstam and Fowler in Notah Begay Challenge The Canadian Press VERONA, N.Y. - Cristie Kerr and Hunter Mahan rallied with six birdies on the back nine, combining to shoot 10-under 62 and win the NB3 Challenge.
Kerr and Mahan trailed Annika Sorenstam and Rickie Fowler by two shots at the turn before pulling away in the closing holes to win the $100,000 top prize in the best-ball competition at Atunyote Golf Club.
Sorenstam and Fowler were second at 8-under.
The event is the chief fundraiser for Begay's foundation, which is dedicated to helping fight obesity and diabetes in the Native American community.
The field included Lorena Ochoa, as well as current LPGA stars Suzann Pettersen, Morgan Pressel and Anna Rawson. PGA Tour regulars Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Vijay Singh and Notah Begay III completed the field.
Sports Headlines
REZ GOLF By Steve W Tooshkenig
Golf Pro
This article is dedicated to junior
golfers all over North
America and the support they
need to excel at the highest levels.
I have been very fortunate
to introduce the game of golf to
tribes across North America.
Many of the golf resorts are
tribally owned and developed
by top golf course designers.
The unfortunate side of the
business is there are many
youth who don’t get a chance
to learn the game in their own
backyards. I am in favour of
tribes taking on great business
initiatives through the game of
golf but please give your own
people a chance to learn the
game. Because what good is a
top class resort if your own
people don’t feel they have
ownership of it.
Junior golf programs need to be
top priority because one day
these talented young golfing
entrepreneurs may want to lead
or run the business. It would be
pretty difficult to entice these
youth to run an organization
when they aren’t included in
the long term planning. If golf
has taught me anything it’s to
always give back what you
were given. The road for me as
a junior golfer was tough, I was
the only First Nation golfer
competing at a provincial level,
but I believed that being First
Nation was what kept me from
giving up. I knew I could be
just as good as the person teeing
it up with me in the same
tournament.
Team Iroquois brings home GOLD
By Jamie Lewis
Writer
COQUITLAM-Team Iroquois
downed Team Alberta 4-2 to win
the gold medal at the Midget
Nationals Lacrosse Tournament.
The team suffered only one loss
in the tournament which was 7-3 to
Team Ontario who, went on to win
the bronze medal.
The Iroquois team opened the
tournament with an 18-3 win over
Team New Brunswick and followed
with a 20-2 win over Team
Manitoba, 9-4 over Team British
Columbia, 13-3 over Team Nova
Scotia and 7-5 Team Alberta.
For manager Chuck Brown the
work begins on next seasons team.
Brown says it cost $15,000.00 just
to fly to B.C. and lodging and food
is extra.
He asked players to chip in about
$1,000.00 each to help with costs.
Brown said not every player can
bring in a $1,000.00 to play.
“I tell everybody, just talk to me, I
was one of those kids, raised in a
single parent home and you know
what? if you don’t have it, you
don’t have it, that’s why we will
help,” added Brown.
He says they do not get any
money from the province or the
federal government and the teams
have to rely on donations and
fundraising.
DNF drops Styres to seventh
By Jamie Lewis
Writer
OHSWEKEN-For only the second
time this season Six Nations Glenn
Styres could not finish the feature at
the Ohsweken Speedway.
Styres driving the orange Amerks
“0” retired midway through the feature
last Friday night with mechanical
problems.
The DNF moves Styres from
fifth in the Corr/Pak Merchandising
Sprints to seventh on the season 137
points behind front runner Dave
Dykstra, who is poised to capture
the championship.
One hundred twenty racing cars
filed into the Ohsweken Speedway
for round eleven of Friday Night
Thunder.
Kyle Moffit took the checker
flag for the second time this season
in the Corr/Pak Merchandising
Sprint Car feature.
Moffit will represent the
CORR/Pak Sprints in the “Village
Pizza Ohsweken Shootout” on the
Night Before The Nationals on
September 17th.
Mike Ling and Jamie Turner
started on the front row for the
twenty lap Sprint Car feature.
Ling took the early lead with
Turner close behind, Moffit sliced
his way through traffic after starting
eighth on the grid and closed in on
Turner passing himon the fourth lap
to move into second.
Ling continued to lead the race with
Moffit closing in on him.
Pro-fit Gym sends gift to Nunavut
By Jamie Lewis
Writer
SIX NATIONS - For Robert
Tookoome returning to his community
in Nunavut will bring his
life full circle.
For the past two years Tookoome
has working out at Pro-Fit Gym.
Last Friday was his last day at the
gym after taking an interest in the
MMA training in last June.
After spending a couple of months
training he thought it would be
nice to bring the MMA experience
to his community of 1200 people.
“What I want to do is set up a
community gym to teach people
boxing and kick boxing,”
Tookoome said. (Who has a brown
belt in judo)
He says once the gym is up and
running he is hoping that his
instructor, Alin Halmagean will
come up and see the progress
being made.
“With a community this size there
is not allot to do, people do go to
the local school for volleyball and
there is hockey for the kids, as far
as I know there is nothing like this
in the community,” he said.
Tookoome says that there is nothing
for adults as far as exercise, so
this is a great opportunity for him
to introduce mixed martial arts to
his community.
Local News Headlines
Small turnout for talks on pipeline running through Six Nations lands
Christine McLaren Writer
Competitive Power Ventures presented
seven potential routes for a
new natural gas pipeline slated for
construction in the Haldimand tract
last Wednesday, in hopes of receiving
community feedback that
never came.
A total of six people-at least three
of whom belonged to the media or
the band council-signed into CPV's
four hour-long open house at the
Six Nations Community Hall in
Ohsweken Wednesday evening,
despite that the proposed pipeline
routes all run through territory included
in the Six Nations land negotiations.
The proposed routes start from various
points along the existing trans-
Canada pipeline north-east of Six
Nations and come south, eventually
crossing the Grand River either
west or east of Caledonia and
continuing parallel to the east side
of Highway Six before bending
east down to Nanticoke.
In Nanticoke the line will be
hooked up to a proposed 1,200
megawatt energy generating facility
that would produce enough
electricity to power more than 1
million homes.
Uncapped gas wells could be leaking poison gas By Christine McLaren Writer Two hundred and thirty gas wells
drilled decades ago still remain uncapped
at Six Nations, and some
may still be leaking poison gas, according
to Six Nations Environmental
Manager Clynt King.
The situation was brought up coincidentally
at a meeting of the
Elected Council on August 10th,
while the council discussed who
would take responsibility for the
costs associated with the clean-up
of the Six Nations landfill.
During the discussion, Elected
Chief Bill Montour added that the
clean-up of the gas wells also
should be dealt with.
He said council wrote a letter to
Indian and Northern Affairs
Canada, stating that Six Nations
would not assume any responsibility
for the cleanup of the landfill
nor the wells, and demanded that
INAC provide funding to do so.
Former Elected Chief Wellington
Staats commissioned the report in
1999.
That report indicates that council
had been aware of the dangers the
wells pose to the community for
over a decade, and that the situation
should have been dealt with
long before now.
Six Nations garbage being turned into cement By Christine McLaren Writer
The Six Nations' new thermal oxidation
waste management plant
could turn the community's
garbage into cement, heating and
cooling, and electricity-should
the council pursue it.
The new plant is finally slated to
open this October, after a long
delay due to a change in the facility's
planned location.
The original site was hampered
by a high water table and concerns
of methane being emitted
from the old site could cause a
concern.
The landfill currently in use is
full, and still receiving on a backlog
of 30,000 tonnes per day.
"Right now we've got a huge
problem back there that we need
to deal with," said Elected Chief
Bill Montour.
The new facility will be able to
process up to 50 tonnes per day,
and will eventually break the
waste down into two reusable byproducts:
bottom ash and gas.
The garbage put into the system
smolders longer, and at a lower
temperature than most waste-to energy
treatment facilities, preserving
metals for recycling, and
reducing dust particle production.
As it smolders, the carbon and
other toxins are released from the
waste as a gas, which is siphoned
into a separate oxidizing chamber
where the gas is broken down
into CO2, nitrogen, chloride, and
sulfide.
Editorial
Six Nations needs to get
controls back in place
Six Nations Confederacy Council will be looking at whether or not
to lease community land that a local man has been squatting on for
three years, to him.
Three years ago Jeff Henhawk set up a smoke hut on Highway Six or
Plank Road as Six Nations land rights describe the lands along
Highway 6 that have never been surrendered.
He wasn’t alone.
Three others set up as well.
None of them asked for permission.
None of them have been asked to move or explain themselves to the
community.
Actually the only reason Jeff Henhawk is being singled out is he took
his squatting a step further. He built a house on stilts behind the
smoke hut on land band council has bought back for the community
and is awaiting return to reserve status on it.
Henhawk didn’t ask anyone if he could build the house.
Six Nations Band Council has been clear in its stand telling him to
move.
The only hold up has been the Confederacy Council, or more aptly
Henhawk’s attempt to prolong his residence by putting them in the
middle of his problem.
Oddly enough when asked by this newspaper if Confederacy council
told him to move, would he, his reply, in Confederacy Council was,
he would have to think about why the chiefs would say that.
He has nothing to think about.
He is squatting.
It’s time to move.
He has placed this community in an embarrassing position and made
both the Confederacy Council chiefs and Elected council; appear as if
they lack the leadership to run their community.
As long as Henhawk remains on that land it will not be returned to
reserve status and the community will likely say goodbye to any
chance the Burtch lands will be returned.
If that happens Six Nations has only itself to blame.
United Nations Declaration
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Please speak out! Within weeks, the United Nations General Assembly must make a decision on the long awaited and urgently needed UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Either the international community will move ahead with final adoption as has been urged by Indigenous peoples and their supporters worldwide, or adoption of the Declaration will once again be delayed due to the demands of a small, yet vocal group of states.
Please take this opportunity to support the Declaration.
More than 14,000 individuals and organizations have already signed a global petition hosted by Amnesty International Canada in support of the Declaration.
If you haven't already done so, please add your name and encourage many others to do so.
The petition, in English, Spanish, French and Russian is online at:
Six Nations police could be charging both drivers in a tragic
accident that claimed the lives of two Six Nations youth early
Sunday morning. Police Chief Glenn Lickers said the
accident is still under investigation
but “charges against one, or both
drivers could be pending.”
The drivers could be facing charges
of impaired driving causing death
that could lead to jail terms.
Two Six Nations youths were killed
when a Saturn and pickup truck collided
on Third Line just east of
Chiefswood Road at about 2:30 am.
Sunday. Killed in the accident were Samantha
Lee Henry-Thomas, 18, of
Brantford and Joshua Edward Farnham,
21, of Ohsweken. Both were
occupants of the 1999 black Saturn
involved in the collision.
Ms. Henry Thomas was found by
police, deceased, on the south
shoulder of the roadway. Mr. Farnham
was found, deceased, in the
passenger side of the Saturn.
Four others, also in the Saturn,
were all taken to hospital with non life
threatening injuries.
The lone occupant of the Ford
pickup truck was identified as
Keith Jonathan, 53, of Ohsweken.
He was taken by ambulance to
Brantford General Hospital where
he is being examined for chest injuries.
Confederacy may lease Hwy
6 land to smoke hut owner
By Lynda Powless
Editor A controversial Hwy 6 smoke hut owner, who built his home on stilts
on community owned land may get his wish to lease the property his
house has been squatting on.
Turtle Island News has learned Six Nations Confederacy Council may be leasing
Jeff Henhawk the land he has built
a home on, despite community demands
to remove him.
Henhawk, who also operates a
smoke hut on lands under claim
on Plank Road (Hwy 6), has been
asking Six Nations Band Council
to allow him to stay on the land.
He is one of four smoke huts that
have cropped up along Highway
6.
Henhawk built a house on lands
he doesn't own, behind the smoke
hut three years ago.
The house itself is located on land
bought back by the band council.
The land is being held in trust for
Six Nations by three trustees, all
Six Nations lawyers, while it
awaits return to reserve status.
Haldimand County has zoned the
land as agricultural and the band
has been paying land taxes.
In an effort to remove the house,
Haldimand County charged the
trustees in 2009. The trustees,
three Six Nations lawyers, then
petition the courts for an order
have Henhawk removed.
In April, the court stayed the
order forcing Henhawk to remove
his house from the land, and gave
him two months to work out an
agreement with the Band
An eviction order was posted on
the building a week ago.
Ontario will follow B.C. in sharing tax
revenues with First Nations
By Christine McLaren and Lynda Powless Writers
The Ontario government will follow
in British Columbia's footsteps
in sharing the tax revenue from resource
extraction on traditional
lands with First Nations, according
to the Ontario Ministry for Aboriginal
Affairs, and they will look toward
BC as a model.
"The Ontario government is committed
to developing-in collaboration
with Aboriginal
communities-a system of Resource
Benefits Sharing; which would include
Crown revenue sharing as
one element of a Resource Benefits
Sharing framework," said Greg
Flood, spokesperson for media relations
and issue management for
the ministry.
Six Nations Confederacy land
rights negotiators had proposed
such a premise with Ontario and
federal representatives as part of
the four year old Six Nations land
rights deal.
Confederacy lead negotiator Allen
MacNaughton said “this has been mentioned
several times at the negotiation
table. There was mixed reaction from the two Crown reps.
What they have said in the past is simply
no.”
Chief MacNaugton said the turnaround
is a surprise.
“If this is true, then it is a change of
heart. I do have a degree of optimism
in me and we will broach this at the
table later this month.”
Six Nations firefighters busy fighting vacant building fires and garages
Six Nations Fire fighters have
been battling blazes around Six
Nations all weekend with a third
set Monday afternoon.
Fires consumed three entire buildings
over the weekend and early
this week, all in separate instances.
The series of fires began Saturday
night on Sour Springs Road when
a family garage went up in flames.
At about 8:15 p.m. firefighters
were called to the blaze on Second
Line and found a detached garage
going up in flames.
The family was unharmed.
According to Six Nations Fire
Chief, Mike Seth, the occupant of
the house was unaware of the
cause of the fire that destroyed the
structure. A police investigation is
underway
But firefighters found themselves
battling more than the blaze at the
garage fire.
After putting out the fire, three
firefighter were left at the scene to
await Ontario Hydro crews who
were called to shut off the power
to the garage and home for safety.
Your guide to tourism, festivals and entertainment in aboriginal country nationwide!
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Six Nations at the Cross Roads
The Day The Trust Died
April 20, 2006 OPP Raid Kanonhstaton
Exclusive Photos by Turtle Island News photographer Jim C Powless.
Written by Turtle Island News Editor Lynda Powless.
Order your copy today $17.99 Canadian.
