Diplomacy as Self-representation: British Columbia’s First Nations and China

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Michel Montsion

China’s recent interest and substantial investments in Canada’s natural resource sector have led some First Nations in British Columbia to undertake diplomatic activities to represent their interests to Chinese officials and investors. This article explores the interplay developing between the diplomatic activities of British Columbia’s First Nations and those of the Canadian state in the area of natural resource promotion. It does so by examining the diplomatic efforts of British Columbia’s First Nations Energy and Mining Council and the Canadian government’s Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with China. The article argues that this interplay represents a struggle over diplomatic representation, in which British Columbia’s First Nations challenge the Canadian state’s monopoly on the representation of indigenous interests abroad, whereas the Canadian state constantly reframes indigenous perspectives on international affairs as a matter of domestic jurisdiction, in order to re-ground its control over Canadian foreign diplomatic practices.

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-50
Author(s):  
Glen Schmidt ◽  
Dawn Hemingway ◽  
Gerard Bellefeuille

This study examines and evaluates the effects of one-time funding on capacity building of health and social welfare organizations in a remote and northern section of British Columbia Canada. The Province of British Columbia awarded a two million dollar grant (Canadian) to the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). Organizations applied for funds through a competitive process that was managed by the School of Social Work at UNBC. Twenty-five different community organizations and agencies received funding for a period of eighteen months. The organizations and agencies delivered a range of services and activities located in remote First Nations communities as well as the natural resource-based single industry towns of northern BC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cowichan Tribes

Cowichan Tribes’ territory, located in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, is experiencing an alarmingly high rate of preterm births compared to the national average of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. In response, and in partnership with the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), Cowichan Tribes is in the first year of a 3-year study to investigate causes. Cowichan Tribes’ Elders and community members are guiding the study to ensure it follows Cowichan Tribes’ research processes and to support self- determination in research. Furthermore, as a way to enhance reconciliation, Elders and community members guided an on-site ethics review on Cowichan Tribes territory. This article outlines the collaborative, in-person research ethics review process that Cowichan Tribes, Island Health, and FNHA completed on August 21, 2019. The purpose of this article is to provide suggestions other First Nations could use when conducting a research ethics review, and to explain how this process aligns with the principles of ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP®), the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and above all, the Cowichan snuw’uy’ulh (teachings from Elders).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13270
Author(s):  
Max C. Leveridge ◽  
Amélie Y. Davis ◽  
Sarah L. Dumyahn

Cohabitation between humans and carnivores is vital to the continued existence and integrity of ecosystems, often playing a large role in the success of large carnivore conservation. We focus on interactions between humans and carnivores in the world’s largest, relatively intact temperate rainforest—The Great Bear Rainforest (GBR), British Columbia, Canada. Specifically, we focus on residents of Prince Rupert, a city within the GBR, and examine its residents’ ecological and relational attitudes towards the surrounding area of protected rainforest and the large carnivores present in the area. We aim to determine the strength of public attitudes and values of the environment and carnivores in the GBR, and to examine whether they differ between First Nations and non-First Nations residents of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. We conducted 28 semi-structured interviews of Prince Rupert residents. At the start of the interview, respondents self-administered a survey consisting of statements from the Social Ecological Relational Value and the New Ecological Paradigm scales. We find no significant difference between First Nations and non-First Nations respondent attitudes. This is possibly due to three factors: (1) cultural influence from the local First Nations, (2) the fact that these carnivores are important for the local economy through tourism, and (3) a strong sense of place associated with the area and the carnivores that inhabit it regardless of positive or negative encounters with these animals. While we find positive attitudes towards carnivores and little evidence of human–wildlife conflict, feelings towards carnivores encountered in town or while hiking tend to be negative, especially when they involve wolves. In order to mitigate these effects in a way that protects these valuable creatures, respondents overwhelmingly clamored for a conservation officer to be assigned to Prince Rupert. We conclude that policy and management might alleviate human–carnivore conflicts in the area should our results be corroborated by studies with larger sample sizes.


Author(s):  
Larisa Germanovna Chuvakhina

The article highlights the current problems of investments in the development of the world economy, when international investment needs are significantly high. The priority is given to the issues of investment resources for achieving the goals of sustainable development of the world economy. It has been stated that for creating the effective economic policy, the countries need to attract foreign investment. The current trends in the development of global market for foreign direct investment flows are examined. The flows of global foreign direct investment in 2017-2018 are analyzed. Special attention is given to the study of the US investment policy. The reduction in US investments into the Russian economy in terms of the sanctions policy against Russia is marked. The changes in the investment policy of the administration of D. Trump in terms of strengthening American protectionism are underlined. The issues of US-EU investment cooperation are considered. The role of the US Federal Reserve in regulating the activities of foreign companies in the US market is defined. The main decisions taken at the X World Investment Forum of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in October, 2018 are considered. The role of investment promotion agencies is defined as one of the tools to attract foreign investments into the country's economy. The decrease in the level of international investment and increased competition between countries for attracting foreign investment is stated. The study confirms that the investment attractiveness of the country, stability of the national financial system, and legal security of business play a decisive role in attracting foreign direct investment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-59
Author(s):  
Kenneth Chen

The work of Ida Halpern (1910–87), one of Canada's first musicologists and a pioneer ethnomusicologist, has been largely ignored. This essay illuminates her most important contribution to the musical development of this country: the documentation of Native musics. Halpern devoted some four decades to recording and analyzing over five hundred songs of the Kwakwaka'wakw, the Nuuchahnulth, the Haida, the Nuxalk, and the Coast Salish First Nations of British Columbia—a truly remarkable achievement considering that a large part of her fieldwork was conducted during a period when it was illegal for Native cultures to be celebrated, much less preserved. The author discusses the strengths and weaknesses of her methodology as well as some factors affecting the reception of her work by academic peers and by the communities she worked with. While Halpern did not always thoroughly investigate context, she endeavoured to write heteroglossically and to invent a theory that accounted for the music of these songs.


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