Lax Kw’alaams (under former Mayor Garry Reece) announces it is launching an Aboriginal title claim "to protect Flora Bank and the crucial salmon habitat,” which is adjacent to Lelu Island.
MARCH 7TH, 2016
Mayor John Helin sends a letter to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, outlining the reasons his community continues to oppose an LNG plant on Lelu Island. “It is of fundamental importance to the Lax Kw’alaams that this project be altered to provide an alternative site for the LNG facility,” it reads.
MARCH 15TH, 2016
Mayor John Helin sends an about-face letter, granting conditional support for PNW LNG. He writes that he has “had further discussions within our community about the Project and as a result of these discussions I would like to retract the Initial Letter in favour of the terms and conditions set out in this letter.”
APRIL 11TH, 2016
Prince Rupert Port Authority delivers a letter to occupiers on Lelu Island asserting its authority (under the Canada Marine Act) over Lelu – “PRPA reserves its right as administrator of the Federal Crown lands at Lelu Island and does not waive and has not waived its rights over control over the island” – and further asserts, “We therefore require that you immediately cease and desist from any further construction activities.”
APRIL 11TH, 2016
Lelu Island occupiers Donnie Wesley and Ken Lawson (who describe themselves, respectively, as Hereditary Chief and House Leader) send a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau voicing concerns over actions taken concerning Lelu by the Port Authority, the Lax Kw’alaams mayor, and by extension, the federal government.
MAY 17TH, 2016
A collective letter challenging Donnie Wesley’s claim to hereditary chiefdom and signed by 11 members of the Nine Allied Tribes of Lax Kw’alaams, is sent to (and reported on by) local media outlets. This group, which describes itself as a representation of “Ts’msyen Chiefs, matrons, elders and hereditary leaders” calls the Lelu Island occupiers a “radical handful of our community members… who continually mislead the public as to their powers and support.”
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