Marilyn Slett

First Nations leaders and delegates from around British Columbia are slated to attend a ratification feast on Friday that will officially bring the Heiltsuk Nation's written constitution into effect.

The funding helps 15 coastal First Nations conserve B.C.'s ‘Galapagos of the North’ and move forward with a network of marine conservation areas that spans two-thirds of Canada's West Coast.

Tension reached a high point during a trauma-healing ceremony when a hereditary chief walked across a sand-covered floor and returned the gift he had received from Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer.

Maxwell Johnson looked out at empty chairs reserved for two Vancouver police officers who didn't attend an event originally intended to be an Indigenous apology ceremony for the false arrests of Johnson and his granddaughter nearly three years ago.

An Indigenous man from British Columbia has filed complaints with the BC Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Commission after he and his granddaughter were handcuffed when they tried to open a bank account.

Leaders from several north-coast B.C. First Nations say if the Senate doesn't approve a bill barring super-sized oil tankers from the region, their thriving but fragile marine-based economies will die.

Heiltsuk leadership say the federal government put its reconciliation process “on thin ice” by failing to adequately consult Indigenous communities and collaborate with them in developing its Oceans Protection Plan (OPP). They voiced concern after the government announced on Thursday the winner of an open competition for a $67 million three-year contract.

A coalition of First Nations is raising money through a GoFundMe campaign to mount a legal challenge to the proposed oil−tanker ban on British Columbia’s north coast.