Supporting Indigenous legal efforts to STOP fossil fuel infrastructure

This project was first established to support Indigenous activists working on the front lines of fights against the Trans Mountain Pipeline "expansion" project (TMX). It then expanded to include their legal battle as well as other Indigenous legal battles to hold governments and large infrastructure companies accountable for their actions on climate change.

Holding fossil fuel companies and governments accountable for climate change and other environmental damage through legal court cases is complex and expensive. But it can be extremely effective!

Indigenous Nations and groups pursuing this course of action need support.

Cases have been fought and won using rights and standing laws, environmental regulations, tort laws, human rights-based litigation, Fiduciary duty litigation, government accountability lawsuits and international and national treaty litigation.

We have worked with and helped fund:

The Tiny House Warriors: Ten tiny houses were placed in the path of the Trans Mountain pipeline. This action was a way of asserting control over the traditional unceded Secwepemc territory, where the company proposed building part of the pipeline. They have been criminalized and forced to defend their land in court.

Sundance Chief Rueben George and the George family: The George family, as part of their Nation’s (Tsleil Waututh) Sacred Trust initiative have been actively fighting the Trans Mountain pipeline both on the front lines and in court for over a decade. If the project were to go ahead it would mean massive and ongoing increases (instead of decreases) to the amount of carbon intensive tar sands oil extracted, and exported via oil tankers and then burned every year. This means huge risks for local people and ecosystems and its a big step in the wrong direction for the climate.

Chief George has also been supporting the Wet'suwet'en Nation and travelling to Camp 44 as they fight, on the ground, in prison and in the courts against the Coastal GasLink pipeline that, if built will be carrying fracked gas to LNG Canada’s (LNG Canada is a joint venture between Shell, PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and KOGAS) export terminal.

We Stand Together: As an off-shoot of the Canada/FIPA challenge was formed to craft legal challenges to government decisions on climate. They are presently gathering additional Indigenous allies in support of a First Nations legal climate challenge as well as targeted media, education and public engagement work.

The Canada/China FIPA challenge: The Hupacasath Nation choose to fight this trade treaty as it gave unprecedented powers to China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that were investing billions in Canada’s natural resources. The treaty allowed SOE’s to sue any Canada entities or governments for all future profits if they caused the SOE’s to be unable to do business in Canada. The treaty was irreversible by any court, legislature or other decision-maker for 31 years and had a 15 year out clause. The Hupacasath Nation and We Stand Together crowd-sourced $400,000 to pay for the court case, with donations from over 3,000 people.

In this next round we will continue to support Chief George, the Tiny House Warriors, We Stand Together and also will be supporting the Wet’suwet’en Climate challenge through RAVEN trust (see below)

Wet’suwet’en Legal Action: A Constitutional challenge asking the Federal Court to declare that Canada has a constitutional duty to keep the country’s greenhouse gas emissions well within the Paris Agreement limit of 2 C above pre-industrial levels. If successful, the lawsuit could lead to far-reaching changes to Canada’s environmental legislation.  It would enable the federal cabinet to cancel approvals previously given to fossil fuel projects such as the LNG export facilities and pipelines proposed for Wet’suwet’en Territories and the northwest B.C. region. Canadian courts recognized that the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs hold rights and title over ancestral lands.

“For decades, the government's actions and inactions have been a dominant factor in climate change and have violated the unceded rights of First Nations. At 'We stand Together', we believe we have strong legal grounds to challenge the federal/provincial government to uphold their fiduciary responsibility to First Nations peoples and protect the health of the next seven times seven generations." - Brenda Sayers, Hupacasath First Nation

As Canada continues to wrestle with what reconciliation with Indigenous peoples means, Indigenous Nations have been pushing both human rights laws and the laws of nature to the forefront with persuasive court cases that have stopped many, large industrial projects from not only destroying their traditional lands but the rights of us all of us for a healthy planet.

First Nations activists have been leading the opposition to these projects around the world. It has been our honor to work with and support their efforts. Please join us in supporting these amazing activists in their ongoing fight.