Hereditary chiefs a no-show in B.C. supreme court

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An arrest warrant has been issued for three hereditary chiefs of the Nuxalk Nation who, along with 19 others charged in connection with a logging protest on King Island near Bella Coola, failed to appear in court for their trial.

The chiefs, Lawrence Pootlass, Edward Moody, and Charles Nelson, were to appear in the Supreme Court of British Columbia Jan. 22. They were charged with disobeying an injunction that would allow the forest company Interfor to harvest the logs on the island. They had set up a road block and stopped logging trucks from going into the area.

The group was arrested Sept. 26 when an RCMP assault force landed on the remote island off the B.C. coast where the Nuxalk had teamed up with environmentalists to protest the logging. The chiefs challenged the jurisdiction of the supreme court over the territory, and believe it is their hereditary responsibility, under traditional law, to protect the land from certain abuses.

The court proceeded with the trial in absentia. The chiefs decided not to appear in court, because the judge refused to hear their position on sovereignty and jurisdiction.

The site of the blockade has historic significance to the Nuxalkmc, who believe it is the place from which the first woman descended. King Island is also a part of the Great Coast Rainforest, the largest remaining ecosystem left in North America.

The hereditary chiefs say they are exercising their sovereign right to prevent logging in their territory, that they have never ceded their territory or entered into any treaties or agreement with the Canadian government, and therefore continue to have jurisdiction over the land.