Secwépemc leaders form industry response group rooted in Indigenous law

Following years of violent arrests at industry injunction sites throughout the province, Secwépemc leaders have launched a response group that is dedicated to preventing harm against the land and its defenders.

The Unceded Law Response Group (ULRG) officially went live this month, announcing it would utilize Indigenous law and related policies to uphold sovereignty on unceded lands and provide resources for those on the front lines.

ULRG’s launch comes shortly after the Canada Energy Regulator’s (CER) approved the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project’s (TMX) application to dig an open trench through a sacred Secwépemc site at the end of September.

An Oct. 10 press release announcing the ULRG’s launch said that the CER’s decision to allow the company to dig through Pípsell “marks a turning point in Canada.”

Earlier in October, the ULRG reached out to the White House, asking American investigators to look into “Canada’s” actions in the name of reconciliation. On Oct. 13, the group also requested a meeting with the “B.C.” premier and lieutenant governor.

“Should this request be ignored, we will be exercising our fundamental rights and freedoms to begin peaceful protesting across British Columbia,” an email to the province states, in part. 

“It is important that Canada, especially the Crown, takes our rights, title, and jurisdiction on unceded lands seriously. These are the lands of the Indigenous peoples since time immemorial, and, the Secwépemc peoples and their families, including Salish language speaking peoples and families, and surrounding, have never ceded, sold, or surrendered our rights, title, and jurisdiction to any state.”

The group’s mandate pushes back against the colonial legal system and how it’s been weaponized against Indigenous land defenders — with B.C. Supreme Court-ordered injunction orders that protect corporate interests and the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) using force to protect resource extraction projects.

Uplifting Indigenous laws

Though the ULRG just launched, the idea behind the group’s formation has been brewing for years, according to Mike McKenzie, a Skeetchestn knowledge keeper serving as ULRG’s commissioner. 

“We had a situation where all these people were showing up on frontlines, trying to stop industry projects based on Indigenous law and based on Indigenous worldviews,” McKenzie said in an interview.

“But we didn’t have chief and council supporting people because of non-disclosure agreements and industry agreements. So there was this disconnect between what elected-Indian Act legislated leadership was doing, and what our laws and our hereditaries say that we should be doing.”

Earlier this year, during the sentencing of Indigenous land defenders April Thomas and Red Deer Billie Pierre for disrupting TMX’s development in Sqeq’petsin (Mission Flats area) in 2020, Crown counsel Trevor Shaw presented a statement from Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc (TteS) Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir as evidence against the land defenders.

“TteS Elders and membership were not part of yesterday’s incident, nor do they endorse the protesters,” Casimir wrote. “The area that Trans Mountain is working in is our area of responsibility. No one else has the right to speak on our behalf.”

McKenzie himself was called in as witness during the sentencing, where he provided testimony on how Thomas and Pierre had acted in line with Secwépemc hereditary laws, duties and the obligations to protecting the land. 

And while acknowledging the Secwépemc duty to protect the land, B.C. Supreme Court Judge Shelley Fitzpatrick ultimately concluded that Indigenous people do not have the right to oppose Trans Mountain’s pipeline.

Along with McKenzie, the group is being led by Thomas as the chief commissioner, and Secwépemc knowledge keeper Shawna Knight is acting as an associate commissioner.

The group is also in the process of launching a foundation so that they can receive charitable status, and they received consent from the Law Society of B.C. to use the word “law” in the foundation’s name.

“I think that’s historic because it shows that the law society is creating space for self-determination,” said McKenzie.

“Self-determination is the key piece of how we’re going to get back to our laws, because everyone who is legislated under Canada’s authority can’t do that. They’re stuck working in putting Canada’s interests first. We don’t have to do that.”

ULRG, he added, would then serve as a space to fill in that gap for land defenders to find resources, legal assistance and connect with other Indigenous land defenders when the support from chief and council isn’t there.

“If people would like our help, we can show them how what they’re doing is based on Indigenous law. We can help them provide the resources in their circles so that people don’t miss the messaging,” McKenzie said.

“Because this is where the courts are getting away with what they’ve done — and the corporations are getting away with what they’ve done — because we don’t have a unified Indigenous communications on this.”

The group’s website has a resource menu that lists a number of services that people can access, everything from RCMP complaints, legal aid, Indigenous law documents and more.

“This is supposed to be a space where somebody can spend a couple hours, and they should be able to determine how they could move forward to protect themselves if there’s some kind of abuse against them,” McKenzie said.

This past summer saw record-breaking wildfires devastate communities throughout Secwepemcúl’ecw. And with the summer season concluding with the CER approving TMX’s application to excavate through Pípsell without Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation’s consent, the ULRG said that these recent events “underscored the urgency of our mission.”

“We’re trying to provide space for our Elders and our people who are often held back by those institutions,” McKenzie explained. “We’re giving them a place to share what is happening to them.”

‘The land can’t be treated like it is’

ḥin̓ačačišt Estella White, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law from the Hesquiaht First Nation, said that Indigenous law is comprised of legal orders that are unique to an Indigenous nation.

Indigenous law, she said, can include relationships to the land, the spirit world, creation stories, codes of conduct, rules, teachings and more.

McKenzie noted that the group’s purpose of promoting the wellbeing of everybody isn’t limited to people — it includes wildlife, the natural and supernatural worlds.

“The number one priority, for me, is to make sure that the Indigenous laws are followed,” he said.

“The land can’t be treated like it is. And the country’s government and provincial government needs to stop acting the way they do.”

The group is currently looking at different options as to how to take action based on both Indigenous and “Canadian” laws. They’re also networking with Salish language-speaking nations, and exploring how they can connect with different international Indigenous groups to join the cause.

“If the world starts to pay attention to what we’re saying, we can start a global conversation about how to take care of each other and how to take care of our land,” McKenzie said.

“That should have an effect on how we treat each other as countries, and how we treat each other in these countries.”

He said that it is important to note, however, that the group is not looking to relinquish any of their laws or authorities just to fit within “Canada’s” legal system.

“Once you start doing that, you start losing your ability to be a nation. Our nations are nations because we have laws,” he said.

As for if he sees a time where the colonial system will recognize Indigenous law as legitimate, he said that’s going to change, so long as “Canada” has integrity. 

“Because the reality is, Canada is already saying that our laws come first on our land – and it’s unceded land – so we are the ones that are supposed to be consulted,” he said.

If Canada wants to show the world that they have integrity, he continued, it starts with changing the judicial system.

“So that integrity needs to be there, and it starts with changing the way we see judiciary and law. The Unceded Law Group will show people how we can do things differently,” he said.