by Tiffany Crawford / Vancouver Sun
Members of the Gitxsan First Nation told CN Rail officials to stop sending trains through Gitxsan traditional territories as of 10 p.m. Tuesday, said a negotiator for the First Nation.
“There will be a shutdown of services through the Gitxsan territories,” said Beverly Clifton Percival minutes before the deadline.
Percival would not say how members of the First Nation planned to stop any trains heading into the nation’s 33,000 square kilometres of territory in northwestern B.C.
“We already notified CN Rail yesterday of our intention so they are aware of the deadline,” she said.
The hereditary chiefs of the Gitxsan First Nations served notice July 9 to CN Rail, logging companies and sport fishermen to leave their territory along the Skeena River in a dispute with the federal and provincial governments over treaty talks.
The notice was served on the heels of a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision that significantly expanded aboriginal land title rights, and stalled negotiations with the Crown, said Clifton Percival.
“We have been in a process with Canada and B.C. For more than two years and nothing has come to our satisfaction,” she said.
The Gitxsan hereditary chiefs have invited federal and provincial representatives to a Thursday meeting “to come to a solution and avoid further closures” read a Tuesday news release.
