Chiefs from across Canada gathering in Ottawa this month voted to reject the Federal-Alberta pipeline proposal, uphold the coastal large oil tanker ban, and reaffirm the right of affected First Nations to decide on any pipeline in British Columbia.

“Chiefs will be united — and are united — when it comes to the approval of projects on First Nations lands,” said National Chief Cindy Woodhouse at the annual Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Special Chiefs Assembly. “There will be no getting around rights-holders.”

Last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Smith made an agreement to get Alberta oil to the B.C. coast. Ottawa will support a new oil pipeline and potentially change a longstanding tanker ban to allow exports to Asia, in exchange for Alberta strengthening its carbon pricing and backing carbon capture projects. 

The deal caused a massive backlash because B.C. Indigenous groups were not consulted. That’s not surprising.

The Canadian and Alberta governments’ failure to meaningfully consult Indigenous Peoples on this pipeline deal is just another chapter in the same colonial playbook that’s been running since Canada’s founding — push Indigenous rights aside, grab the resources, and profit off them. 

This isn’t some new problem or mistake; it’s literally how this country was built and continues to operate.

One of the greatest concerns for First Nations is the lifting of the tanker ban that’s been legally in place since 2019. 

The Oil Tanker Moratorium Act prohibits oil tankers carrying more than 12,500 metric tons of crude oil from stopping, loading, or unloading along B.C.’s northern coast, from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the Alaska border. The law formalizes a voluntary moratorium that has been in place since 1972, when both the B.C. legislature and House of Commons passed unanimous motions opposing oil tanker traffic on the coast. 

The ban aims to protect the region’s temperate rainforests and address navigational hazards that would make responding to oil spills more challenging. While the law received strong support from coastal First Nations communities, environmental groups, and the B.C. government, it faced opposition from Alberta and the energy industry because it effectively blocks pipeline projects that would have transported Alberta oil to northern B.C. ports. The law carries penalties up to $5 million for violations.

Carney’s deal with Alberta had zero input from Indigenous leadership or consultation with the B.C. government.

“We will never tolerate exemptions to an oil tanker ban that has existed for over 50 years, and it is foundational to protecting our economy and our way of life,” Coastal First Nations (CFN) President Marilyn Slett said to the media on Thursday, after the MOU announcement.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin spoke at the House of Commons committee on environment and sustainable development on December 1, facing repeated questioning about whether the memorandum of understanding would result in pipeline construction.

When Conservative Alberta MP David Bexte questioned her stance on pipeline development, Dabrusin stated she supports it “if the provinces and the Indigenous Peoples are in agreement.”

Premier Smith told reporters in Calgary on December 1 there needs to be “more of an open mind” about the B.C. northwest coast and that the Port of Prince Rupert could safely accommodate oil tankers.

“I understand the concern about going through kilometres of channel and the issues that have been raised. I understand that concern,” Smith said. “But when I look at the Port of Prince Rupert, a lot of those issues don’t exist there because it is right on the ocean.”

“I think you’ve got tankers going past up, going to Alaska, around those same waters. I think that there has been a demonstration that we can do that safely,” Smith added.

However, on November 19, the Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative, which is an alliance of First Nations on the North Pacific Coast that includes the Gitga’at, Gitxaała, Haida, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo Xai’xais, Metlakatla, Nuxalk and Wuikinuxv First Nations, already denounced the idea of a pipeline in their territories.

“As the Rights and Title Holders of the Central and North Coast and Haida Gwaii, we are here to remind the Alberta government, the federal government, and any potential private proponent that we will never allow oil tankers on our coast, and that this pipeline project will never happen,” said President Slett in a statement.

“While the details of this MOU remain to be seen, under no circumstances can it override our inherent and constitutional Rights and Title or deter our deep interconnection of mutual respect for the ocean.

“Throughout this process we have been met with a wall of silence from the federal government. Such conduct is not honourable and is fundamentally at odds with Canada’s constitutional, legislative, and international obligations to coastal First Nations.”

All the talk about reconciliation over these past years means nothing when decisions that directly affect Indigenous lands and livelihoods get made without their real input or consent. Free, prior and informed consent isn’t just some nice idea to work toward — it’s actual rights and basic respect laid out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which Canada even passed into law. But when governments move forward on resource projects while shutting out the voices of the people whose territories and futures are on the line, they’re treating UNDRIP like it’s just words on paper instead of legally binding commitments.

It shows the same extractive, colonial mindset is still very much alive, and reconciliation is just talk until there are real structural changes, actual respect for Indigenous sovereignty, and follow-through on these international human rights standards.

First Nations are more equipped than ever to fight back against these violations. They’re winning landmark legal battles, including the recent B.C. Court of Appeal ruling that confirmed DRIPA (Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act) is legally enforceable, giving teeth to UNDRIP by forcing governments to actually align their laws with Indigenous rights. 

Indigenous communities have shown time and again that they’ll resist through every avenue available — whether that’s in colonial courtrooms armed with increasingly powerful legal precedents, or through direct action and blockades on the land itself. The days of steamrolling over Indigenous opposition without serious pushback are over, and nations across the country have made clear they won’t back down when their territories, rights, and futures are on the line.