Sechelt Elder and Hereditary Chief Xwu’p’a’lich Calls for Long House Tribunal

VANCOUVER – Sechelt Elder and Hereditary Chief Xwu’p’a’lich/Barb Higgins has called upon Elders, Hereditary Chiefs, and Clan Mothers in B.C. to attend a Nation to Nation Long House Tribunal in Sechelt, B.C.

The purpose of the Long House Tribunal is to summon Premier Christy Clark, the Minister of Forests Steven Thomson, the Minister of Justice Suzanne Anton, the Sunshine Coast Community Forest, the Municipality of Sechelt and Mayor John Henderson, former Chair and President of the SCCF, and the RCMP to explain “their deliberate and ongoing violations of the Delgamuukw Supreme Court Decision and the continuing violation of First Nations Rights that are enshrined in the Constitution and in the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada.”

This Long House Tribunal was originally scheduled for October 12, 2013, but, there have been no responses by any summoned party of their intention to attend or find out the Protocols of such a Long House Tribunal.

Sechelt Elder and Hereditary Chief Xwu’p’a’lich/Barb Higgin’s says, “We anticipated this kind of behaviour on the part of all of the Parties that were summoned. So we had some discussions and decided to expand the Long House Tribunal and invite all of the Elders, Hereditary Chiefs, Clan Mothers, and Spiritual Leaders in the Province to also attend this Log House Tribunal at a later date.”

That date is now November 29 – December 3^rd, 2013

“We won the Canadian Supreme Court Decision Delgamuukw which put our oral history “on an equal footing with the types of historical evidence that courts are familiar with, which largely consists of historical documents.” (Section 87 of the Delgamuukw Canadian Supreme Court Decision).

         

First Nations in B.C. spent 10’s of millions of dollars winning this case and we have spent at least that much trying to have that decision enforced. “The Provincial Government, since 1997, has conducted itself as if the Delgamuukw Court Decision never happened. They keep mining and logging, and fishing in our territories with impunity… all the while arresting us at will if we try to stop them by enforcing the Delgamuukw Decision. They use the Courts and the RCMP’s power to arrest to support these illegal activities.” (Xwu’p’a’lich was arrested last December for trying to enforce the Delgamuukw Court Decision on Elphinstone Mountain in unceded Shishalh Territories)

         

“We are not spending anymore money in the Courts just to get arrested again”, says the Shishalh Elder. “Those days are over and there is a day of reckoning coming very soon for the B.C. Government. Long ago many of our children went to Law School to defend and further our rights in Canadian Courts, but, those efforts have been wasted. We win in the Canadian Supreme Court, but, lose anyways and we have had arrests after arrests since 1997 to prove it”.

“We will be releasing more information about the nature of this Long House Tribunal in the coming weeks”, says the Shishalh Elder.