(MENAFN- The Conversation) What comes after being ?
After a six-year battle, of in the Supreme Court of Canada to end a National Energy Board [NEB] that allowed a to conduct in the waters of Baffin Bay and Davis Strait.
The Inuit feared it would permanently damage their , and .
The the terms of adequate consultation, reaffirmed that regulatory tribunals and stressed the need to consider the impact on Indigenous rights rather than the environment.
But NEB transcripts from and also attest to the demand to end what Aluki Kotjerk, president of Nunavut's land claims representative, Nunavut Tungavik Inc., during Inuit consultations.
What does 'fixed ideas' mean? For Kotierk, it means any failure to ensure that Inuit peoples have a say in projects that impact Indigenous rights. Those rights are enshrined in the and in of Canada's Constitution.
But it's also about when decisions are made. Kotierk and others argue that developers cannot outline the future for Inuit prior to consulting with them, essentially treating consultations as merely a step towards the ultimate authorization of a development project. The recurring demand for underscores that Inuit and Indigenous peoples are often absent from discussions and decisions about their own future.
Clyde River's fight started in Stephen Harper's Canada. Under Harper, the Arctic was a standing reserve of resources of the highest , and importance to the future. It ended in Justin Trudeau's Canada, where only .
Inuit aren't anti-development
But if Clyde River's victory is going to truly result in renewed political activism and solidarity in the Arctic, the remnants of the Harper era's approach must be eliminated.
Thomas Berger, a judge who chaired the 1970s inquiry into the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, of assumptions about Indigenous peoples, including that they're 'locked in the past,' that are used to justify development. Harper's Arctic vision shared that belief.
But it's not that Inuit peoples are against development. The former mayor of Clyde River, Jerry Natanine, in his insistence that the . The trouble is kept the region locked — not in the past, but in the future.
The former prime minister once said: 'Canada's Arctic is central to our identity … It is part of our history and it represents the tremendous potential of our future.'
Inuit participation and benefit was presumed, or rather decided, before there was a willing community. Harper's future for the Arctic would consent to and benefit from the outcome. Consultation processes continued as a mere preamble to the ultimate green light for development.
Jerry Natanine, community leader and former mayor of Clyde River, speaks during a news conference on Parliament Hill following a ruling at the Supreme Court of Canada in July. Clyde River's legal counsel Nader Hasan looks on. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)
The pre-conceived assumption that Inuit would back development, and that consulation was a mere formality, against the project.
At the in Clyde River, one activist noted: '(Inuit) feel that the 'white man' continues to make promises they do not keep (and) they are tired of the white man tracking through their community and not hearing what they have to say.'
, Natanine told another consultation meeting: 'I wish I could welcome the company, but I don't.'
An elder also said, through a translator: 'It's unfortunate that you keep coming back when we didn't want anything.'
Months later, industry representatives that 'community engagement helps to identify Inuit use and knowledge of the area so that the proposed project will not impact or have minimal impact on traditional and current use of marine space and resources.'
Inuit had to offer up local knowledge
That argument left Inuit in a familiar position where implicit consent, and surrendered local knowledge to (affirmed by the Supreme as key to 'adequate' consultation), was the only option.
In the related battle against Enbridge Pipelines in southwestern Ontario, consultation was deemed adequate because funding was provided, oral testimonies were heard, rights were considered and the impact 'could be reasonably mitigated.' The Chippewa peoples complained, as the Inuit do, that the process amounted to little else but the chance to
So what's next for Inuit in Clyde River? If the Supreme Court decision calms the waters of Baffin Bay temporarily, there nonetheless remains much that's unresolved. Consultation can't continue to be theatre for predetermined outcomes, economic or otherwise, if Trudeau's insistence that Inuit have the final say on development is to be taken seriously.
An important part of the story, then, is Clyde River's response to into global contexts. In doing so, Clyde River's appeal .
Greenpeace, Inuit joined forces
The Supreme Court case was notable for the between Inuit and Greenpeace since the environmental group's official for its anti-sealing campaign. The campaign, to , drew and to Arctic development, hunting and Indigenous rights.
The campaign also placed these rights in the same league as , and the . Ironically, Greenpeace's alliance with Clyde River and its fight against seismic testing used the same emotional appeals that worked so well in its anti-seal hunt campaign.
In one video, the Supreme Court case affects 'whether [Inuit] survive or not.' In , Inuit are described as of a world on the edge.
Today, is a theme in climate change discourse, . Predicting the , and tying it to both climate change and greedy resource development, meant that Greenpeace supporters could 'save' the Inuit from this future while affirming their right to exist.
This type of global momentum outside the courts is promising if it can help billboard the Supreme Court's decision, and result in stopping governments and developers consulting Indigenous communities as an afterthought, without any real intention to listen to them.
As the impact of climate change and development continue to affect the Arctic, Inuit must be involved in addressing them wherever and whenever they occur.
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