How A Conservative Us Grid Undermined Indigenous Energy Rights In Canada Environment

The Atlas Network partnered with an Ottawa-based thinktank – the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) – which recruited pro-industry Indigenous representatives in its campaign to provide “a shield against the naysayers”. Atlas, which has deep ties to conservative politicians and oil and gas producers, claimed success in reports in 2018 and 2020, arguing that its partner was able to dissuade the Canadian government from supporting a United Nations declaration that would ensured greater participation of indigenous communities. Canada’s parliament finally approved legislation to begin implementing the declaration in 2021, but observers say the government has made little progress to push it forward. Meanwhile, indigenous groups associated with the MLI campaign—including the Indian Resource Council—continue to appear at conferences, testify before federal committees, and report to major media outlets to promote the view that indigenous welfare is essentially impossible without oil and natural gas. Floodlight logo Hayden King, executive director of a Toronto-based indigenous public policy think tank called the Yellowhead Institute, called the campaign “a modern expression of the type of imperialism that indigenous peoples have been dealing with here for many, many years.” MLI referred questions about the reports to the Atlas Network, which did not respond to requests for comment. The Atlas Network calls itself a “global freedom movement” and has nearly 500 partners, including think tanks like the Manhattan Institute. Other strong partners include the Cato Institute, a think tank co-founded by Charles Koch in 1977, as well as the Heritage Foundation, which hosted a keynote address by Donald Trump in April. Their influence on US politics includes leading campaigns to make Americans doubt that human-caused climate change is real. Atlas members have helped influence the views of Republican politicians, including George W. Bush. The Arlington, Virginia-based organization — which received more than $1 million from oil company ExxonMobil through 2012 and $745,000 from foundations linked to the Koch brothers through 2018, according to watchdog groups — has also wielded significant influence. in conservative politics in the United Kingdom and Latin America. Bob Neubauer, a researcher at a Canadian oil and gas watchdog known as the Corporate Mapping Project, said the Atlas includes “a very significant number of the most influential right-wing think tanks and advocacy organizations on the planet.” “It should make people nervous,” he added. Atlas and MLI have for years fought back against efforts by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government to align Canadian laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), a declaration Canada adopted more than a year ago. decade. That could have codified indigenous rights to reject pipelines or wells, the Atlas Network fears, according to its strategy papers, which were shared with Floodlight by a climate research think tank called DeSmog. This is because the treaty contains clauses that affirm the sovereignty of indigenous peoples over lands they have lived on for thousands of years. Its implementation would potentially make it difficult for mining companies to operate in these areas. At stake, the report explains, was Canada’s “monumental reserves of natural gas, hydropower, potash, uranium, oil and other natural resources.” In recent years the Atlas network has deepened its connections with Canada, creating a US-Canada Center that “works with local civil society organizations on both sides of the border to create positive perceptions of the role of freedom business and individual freedom”. according to its website. MLI is one of approximately a dozen Atlas Network partner organizations in Canada. It’s a relatively new organization, only founded in 2010, but its board members and advisors come from some of the top lobbying, legal and financial firms in the country. Justin Trudeau has signed a C$1.3 billion deal to settle a Blackfoot tribe’s century-old land claim. Photo: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images In 2018, the Atlas Network produced a 13-page thinktank Impact case study report on an MLI-led campaign called Aboriginal Canada and the Natural Resource Economy Project. Atlas wanted to showcase this work in a training academy for its partners around the world. The report is no longer accessible on the Atlas Network website, but was retrieved by DeSmog in an online archive called the Wayback Machine. “The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, its staff, and authors associated with the Canadian Aboriginal Project and the Natural Resource Economics Project were the only entities that worked on this project,” MLI spokesman Brett wrote in an email. Byers. “Questions about the content, nature or interpretation of a report published by the Atlas Network are best directed to the Atlas Network,” he added. The Atlas network did not respond to a detailed list of questions about its involvement. The report claims that this project was initiated “at the behest of the Assembly of First Nations,” a national advocacy group for Canada’s indigenous peoples, which “saw the potential in the natural resource economy as a key transformative driver of Indigenous opportunity.” The Assembly did not respond to a media request asking if this is accurate. The Atlas report notes that a primary goal of this collaboration was to remove barriers to fossil fuel production. He explains that as political momentum began to build in 2016 for Canada to implement the UN declaration, it was “about the team” at MLI. This was because the UN declaration contains a clause stating that indigenous peoples have the right to give “free, prior and informed consent” before governments make decisions that could have a major material impact on their traditional lands. Some legal experts see this as a reasonable way to ensure that indigenous communities are equal partners in decision-making. But MLI and the Atlas network appeared to interpret this to mean that these communities could effectively veto new oil pipelines, fracking operations and other resource extraction projects. “This provision, while well-intentioned, would allow even the most marginalized groups to veto improvement projects at the expense of entire communities,” Atlas argued. “It is difficult to overestimate the legal and financial disruptions that may have followed such a step,” the report continues. MLI with support from Atlas launched “a sophisticated communications and outreach strategy to convince government, business and Aboriginal communities of the risks involved in fully adopting UNDRIP,” the report says. Early success came in November when then-Canadian Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, who is a member of the We Wai Kai Nation, “offered her support for MLI’s view.” The report referred to a 2016 speech where he said full implementation of UNDRIP would be “unworkable”, casting doubt on the government’s commitment. “MLI experts are always in regular contact with MPs, ministers and government officials,” Byers wrote. Wilson-Raybould did not respond to a media request. Meanwhile, a member of the opposition party introduced a new bill aimed at enshrining UNDRIP into law. This effort slowly gained momentum and political support, but when the bill came to the Senate of Canada for approval in 2019, an MLI scholar named Dwight Newman submitted written comments that the inclusion of “free, prior and informed consent” legislation could “have huge implications for Canada”. “The bill was ultimately defeated,” Atlas explains on its website. “There could be some truth to that,” said King, who is Anishinaabe from the Beausoleil First Nation. “The bill died in the Senate because Conservative senators delayed and basically gutted the legislation.” And one of the senators accused of fighting, Don Platt, quoted at length from an MLI report during a Senate debate on UNDRIP. This was seen as a major victory by Atlas, which appears to have provided funding for the campaign. “The Atlas Network supported this initiative with a Poverty and Freedom grant,” notes a 2020 document on the Atlas website. That document also identified First Nations allies “working directly” on the campaign, such as the Indian Resource Council and the First Nations Major Projects Coalition. “This is inaccurate,” wrote a spokesperson for the First Nations Major Projects Coalition, referring to the 2018 testimony its vice-president gave in favor of UNDRIP. When the Trudeau government made another attempt to implement the UN declaration in 2021, Indian Resources Council chairman Stephen Buffalo told a Senate standing committee that there should be language in the legislation preventing “special interest groups” from being able to “weaponize” the statement to block new pipelines. “Whether you support the oil and gas industry or not, it is the right of the 131 nations of the Canadian Indian Resources Council to develop their resources as they see fit,” he said. The agency did not respond to a media request. The Trudeau government successfully passed a bill that begins implementation of the declaration in June 2021. But it’s been a slow process since then. “There is very little progress,” King said. “It’s bogged down in administrative quagmire.” The Atlas network appears to be moving into a new advocacy phase. At a conference in Guatemala earlier this year, leaders “from freedom…