"This is about our freedom to choose our future, our freedom to live according to our own culture, our freedom to govern ourselves, and our freedom from the catastrophic risks of an Enbridge pipeline oil spill. We are fighting for our very survival. An oil spill into our lands and waters threatens our health, our culture and our very existence as separate peoples."

-- Chief Jackie Thomas of Saik'uz First Nation

Enbridge's Northern Gateway is a proposed 1,177 km pipeline that would move 525,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the Alberta oil sands to Kitimat on the pacific coast. From there, supertankers would transport it to overseas markets through B.C.'s coastal waters -- some of the most treacherous in the world.

The Yinka Dene Alliance is a coalition of six First Nations whose territories make up 25% of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline route. Canada and British Columbia have not concluded a treaty with any of the Yinka Dene Alliance nations.


The Save the Fraser Declaration -- signed by representatives of more than 160 First Nations -- uses Indigenous law to ban Northern Gateway and similar oil sands projects from the Fraser River watershed.

In April 2012, a delegation of the Yinka Dene Alliance boarded a train across Canada to enforce their legal ban at the Enbridge Annual General Meeting in Toronto, and to stand up for their freedom to choose their own future. (Visit Website)