The Gitwangak First Nation is calling out the Conservative Party for not asking permission before placing their signage on Gitwangak territory.
Elected Chief Sandra Larin says that after the Ellis Ross Conservative signs popped up without notice, the band respectfully asked the Conservatives to remove the signs.
“We said it was fine if there was any individual who wanted them on their property or if he had sought approval from our rights and title holders who are our Hereditary Chiefs. And he could convey that, then we would also be fine with it. ”
Ellis Ross did respond to CFTK-TV about the signs in a statement, saying in a statement;
““For twenty years, I’ve stood up for Aboriginals’ rights and title to get our people out of poverty and unemployment to build a future for our youth...”
Ross goes on to say;
“It is our understanding that the signs placed by our team were on the provincial highway right-of-way.”
Larin says the band can’t control that a highway runs through their traditional territory.
“He, or it wasn’t him, it was his campaign team, simply came back and said, ‘can you take pictures of where they are because they’re on the right of way?’ which is a very colonial way of thinking, and it just reinforces our point that he’s not respecting how to have respectful dialogue with Indigenous peoples in this area, especially, and so we wrote that back saying, like, we don’t think that way.
We’d still appreciate you removing them. And still no acknowledgment of how we were feeling, or the reason, and came back and said, are you asking everybody to take them off? And, you know, quite frankly, Taylor Bachrach, the NDP candidate in the area, always asks for permission ahead of time, and has relationships with our Hereditary Chiefs. So it’s not even a question because he does engage respectfully. He won’t ever do anything like that. Whereas Ellis Ross won’t even have, you know, a respectful dialogue back and forth. ”
Larin says that currently, the band does not plan to remove the signs themselves.
“That remains to be seen. Other areas have taken it upon themselves to just physically remove them themselves. I don’t think I want to be feeding into that kind of behavior and model that for our children. And I think, you know, we don’t want there to be hate and anger and resentment and retaliation.”
CFTK-TV did reach out to the Provincial Government asking about the legalities of highway shoulders on Indigenous land. But we have yet to get the response.