The contested scales of indigenous and settler jurisdiction: Unist’ot’en struggles with Canadian pipeline governance

Abstract

This paper argues that theorizing pipeline governance in Canada necessitates engaging with Indigenous modes of effecting jurisdiction over development. Focusing on the Unist’ot’en land defence against the TransCanada Coastal GasLink pipeline, the paper argues that Indigenous resistance disrupts the scales of settler pipeline governance in British Columbia, Canada. Contesting the authority of the state, Indigenous territorial assertions constitute countervailing forms of jurisdiction grounded in and operationalized through distinct scales of resource governance.

Keywords:

• Indigenous peoples
• jurisdiction
• pipelines
• scale
• settler colonialism

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Philippe Le Billon, who invited us to participate in the workshop “Scales, Jurisdictions, and Struggles Over Hydrocarbon Development” at Berkeley and provided the encouragement to develop this work. We owe thanks to all participants of that workshop for their feedback, particularly Shiri Pasternak, whose work first inspired this line of thinking for us. Finally, we extend our gratitude to Rebecca Hall, Melanie Sommerville, Julie Tomiak, Anna Zalik, and the editors of SPE, who provided guidance as we developed the argument.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Culhane, The Pleasure of the Crown.

2 Mills, Eagle Down Is Our Law; Daly, Our Box Was Full; Morin, Niwhts’ide’ni Hibi’it’en.

3 Pasternak, “Jurisdiction and Settler Colonialism,” 146.

4 Hayter and Barnes, “Neoliberalization and Its Geographic Limits,” 36–41.

5 Huson and Toghestiy, Unist’ot’en and Indigenous Environmental Activism.

6 Barker and Ross, “Reoccupation and Resurgence,” 212–13.

7 Pasternak, “Jurisdiction and Settler Colonialism,” 148.

8 Freda Huson quoted in subMedia.tv, RCMP Blocked from Entering Unist’ot’en Camp.

9 Unist’ot’en Camp, “Unist’ot’en Camp.”

10 Dorsett and McVeigh, Jurisdiction.

11 Lamb, “Making Governance ‘Good,’” 386–96.

12 Berger, Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland.

13 Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada.

14 Hayter and Barnes, “Canada’s Resource Economy,” 37.

15 Watkins, “A Staple Theory of Economic Growth,”141–58.

16 MacNeil, “Canadian Environmental Policy Under Conservative Majority Rule,” 174–78; Peyton and Franks, “The New Nature of Things?” 453–73.

17 Stanford, “Staples, Deindustrialization, and Foreign Investment,” 7–34; Haley, “From Staples Trap to Carbon Trap,” 97–132; Carter, “Petro-Capitalism and the Tar Sands,” 23–35; Fast, “Stapled to the Front Door,” 31–60; MacNeil, “The Decline of Canadian Environmental Regulation,” 81–106.

18 Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks.

19 Preston, “Neoliberal Settler Colonialism, Canada and the Tar Sands,” 42–59; Veltmeyer and Bowles, “Extractivist Resistance,” 59–68; Preston, “Racial Extractivism and White Settler Colonialism,” 353–75.

20 Westman, “Social Impact Assessment and the Anthropology of the Future in Canada’s Tar Sands,” 111–20; Zalik, “Resource Sterilization,” 2446–64.

21 McCreary, “Beyond Token Recognition,” 146–59; McCreary et al., “Lands and Resources for Jobs,” 212–23.

22 Borrows, Recovering Canada; Borrows, Canada’s Indigenous Constitution; Napoleon, “Thinking About Indigenous Legal Orders,” 229–45.

23 Henderson, Indigenous Diplomacy and the Rights of Peoples.

24 Sossin, “The Duty to Consult and Accommodate,” 93–113; Mullan, “The Supreme Court and the Duty to Consult Aboriginal Peoples,” 233–60; Promislow, “Irreconcilable?,” 251–74.

25 Mills and Sweeney, “Employment Relations in the Neostaples Resource Economy,” 7–33.

26 Slowey, Navigating Neoliberalism; Montsion, “Disrupting Canadian Sovereignty?,” 114–21.

27 Caine and Krogman, “Powerful or Just Plain Power-Full?”, 76–98; Cameron and Levitan, “Impact and Benefit Agreements and the Neoliberalization of Resource Governance and Indigenous-State Relations in Northern Canada,” 29–56; Peterson St-Laurent and Le Billon, “Staking Claims and Shaking Hands,” 590–602.

28 McCreary, “Historicizing the Encounter between State, Corporate, and Indigenous Authorities on Gitxsan Lands,” 163–97.

29 See note 22 above.

30 Christie, “Indigenous Authority, Canadian Law, and Pipeline Proposals,” 189–215; McCreary and Milligan, “Pipelines, Permits, and Protests,” 115–29.

31 Scott, “The Networked Infrastructure of Fossil Capitalism,” 11–66.

32 International Energy Agency (IEA), “World Energy Outlook 2014,” 122.

33 Thomas-Muller, “The Rise of the Native Rights-Based Strategic Framework,” 243.

34 See note 10 above; Pasternak, “Jurisdiction and Settler Colonialism,” 145–61.

35 Borrows, “Sovereignty’s Alchemy,” 537–98.

36 See note 10 above.

37 Pasternak, “Jurisdiction and Settler Colonialism,” 148.

38 OED Online.

39 Dorsett and McVeigh, Jurisdiction, 4.

40 Dorsett and McVeigh, Jurisdiction, 50.

41 Jenness, “The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River,” 540.

42 See note 2 above.

43 See note 1 above.

44 Delgamuukw v. the Queen BCSC Trial Proceedings Vol. 2. At the time of the trial, Ken Muldoe and Alfred Joseph held the titles Delgamuukw and Gisdewe, respectively.

45 Fabian, Time and the Other.

46 Pahuja, “Public Debt, the Peace of Utrecht and the Rivalry between Company and State.”

47 Borrows, “Sovereignty’s Alchemy.”

48 Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law.

49 See note 2 above; Borrows, Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, 94–6.

50 See note 46 above.

51 McCreary and Lamb, “A Political Ecology of Sovereignty in Practice and on the Map,” 595–619.

52 Belanger and Lackenbauer, Blockades or Breakthroughs?

53 Sellars, Price Paid, 143–45.

54 Unist’ot’en Camp, “Unist’ot’en Camp.”

55 Unist’ot’en Camp.

56 Simpson, Mohawk Interruptus.

57 Borrows, Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, 337.

58 See note 2 above.

59 See note 2 above.

60 See note 2 above.

61 Budhwa and McCreary, “Reconciling Cultural Resource Management with Indigenous Geographies,” 195–214.

62 Gisday Wa and Delgam Uukw, The Spirit in the Land.

63 Huson, Interview.

64 Wilson-Raybould, Special Statement at the Opening Ceremonies of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 3.

65 Wilson-Raybould, 4.

66 Wilson-Raybould, 4.

67 See note 23 above.

68 Huson, Interview.

69 Gottesfeld and Rabnett, Skeena River Fish and Their Habitat.

70 Huson and Toghestiy, Unist’ot’en and Indigenous Environmental Activism.

71 Huson and Toghestiy.

72 Brenner, “Beyond State Centrism,” 39–78; Whitaker, “Sovereignties Old and New,” 69–96; Watts, “Resource Curse?,” 50–80; Reed and Bruyneel, “Rescaling Environmental Governance, Rethinking the State,” 646–53.

73 Coburn, “Alternatives,” 206–15.

74 Newman, Natural Resource Jurisdiction in Canada.

75 Coastal Gaslink, “Aboriginal Consultation Report 1.”

76 Ridsdale, “Letter to Brian Westgate re: CGL Application.”

77 Baker and McLelland, “Evaluating the Effectiveness of British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment Process for First Nations’ Participation in Mining Development,” 581–603; Booth and Skelton, “‘We Are Fighting for Ourselves’,” 367–404.

78 See note 21 above.

79 Environmental Assessment Office, “EAO Project Statistics.”

80 Environmental Assessment Office, “Fairness and Service Code.”

81 Environmental Assessment Office.

82 Peterson St-Laurent and Le Billon, “Staking Claims and Shaking Hands,” 590–602; See note 21 above.

83 TransCanada Corporation, “13 Project Agreements Completed with First Nations Along Coastal GasLink Pipeline Route.”

84 See note 27 above.

85 McCreary, “The Burden of Sovereignty,” 64–78; Barker and Ross, “Reoccupation and Resurgence,” 199–220.

86 See note 51 above.

87 Stoffle and Evans, “Holistic Conservation and Cultural Triage,” 91–99.

88 Oil and Gas Commission, “Coastal GasLink Pipeline.”

89 Oil and Gas Commission, “Environmental Protection and Management Guideline, Version 2.3,” 24.

90 See note 88 above.

91 Pasternak, “Jurisdiction and Settler Colonialism,” 151.

92 Smith, “Geography, Difference and the Politics of Scale,” 57–59; Herod and Wright, Geographies of Power.

93 McCarthy, “Scale, Sovereignty, and Strategy in Environmental Governance,” 736.

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes on contributors

Tyler McCreary

Tyler McCreary teaches in the Department of Geography at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, USA. A descendant of white settlers, he was born in Witsuwit’en territory in northern British Columbia, Canada.

Jerome Turner

Jerome Turner is a freelance journalist who covers national and provincial issues with a focus on Indigenous peoples. He was born and raised in Hazelton, British Columbia, and is of Gitxsan and Swedish descent.