This thought-provoking panel discussion will bring together renowned Indigenous rights lawyer, Thomas R. Berger, along with First Nations and environmental leaders from the Yukon to talk about the landmark Peel Watershed case. In the 1970s, the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry was a precedent-setting process for listening to the social and environmental concerns of First Nations regarding resource development when Justice Berger travelled throughout the Yukon and Northwest Territories for community hearings. Forty years later, the Supreme Court is set to hear the Peel case, a present-day example of a contentious land-use planning process for one of Canada’s largest intact wilderness areas. This panel discussion will share insights from the Peel case and the efforts of Yukon First Nations and conservation groups to uphold the modern-day treaties and protect the Peel from widespread resource development.

Moderated by Frances Abele, Professor in Aboriginal-Canada Relations in the School of Public Policy and Administration

Panellists:

Thomas Berger
Dana Tizya-Tramm, Councilor with Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation
Roberta Joseph, Chief of Tr’ondek Hwech’in
Christina Macdonald, Yukon Conservation Society

While you are in the library, please visit Thunder in Our Voices, an interactive exhibit about the 1970s Berger Inquiry into the Construction of a Pipeline in the Mackenzie Valley. Forty years after Justice Berger’s report was published, you can watch interviews with the original Dene, Inuvialuit and corporate witnesses before the Inquiry, recorded then and now. The exhibit will be open March 18 to 25. Admission is free.

Hosted by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (Yukon Chapter), the Yukon Conservation Society, the School of Public Policy and Administration, and the MacOdrum Library, Carleton University.

This event is part of FPA Research Month.

Please register below.