The Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) and the Chiefs of Syilx Okanagan Nation are responding with "profound disappointment" to a petition filed by four professors and one graduate student from the University of B.C. Vancouver and Okanagan over the school's breach of the University Act regarding its Indigenous land acknowledgement.
Philosophy professor Andrew Irvine, political science professor Christopher Kam, English professor Michael Treschow, political science associate professor Brad Epperly and graduate student Nathan Cockram, filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court on April 7, seeking an order that UBC must prohibit and restrain "from engaging in political activity within the meaning of s. 66 of the University Act... which requires that '[a] university must be non-sectarian and non-political in principle'."
The petitioners claim UBC has overstepped its use of power in ways that infringe upon academic freedom by engaging and encouraging faculty and students to acknowledge Indigenous land rights.
It also claims that the school engages in "political activity" that condemns violence in Gaza. The professors and graduate student state that the criteria in the faculty hiring and appointing process require "applicants to express agreement with, fidelity to or loyalty to diversity, inclusion and equity doctrines."
Chief Clarence Louie, chair of the Chiefs Executive Council, stated in a press release on April 9, that “The recognition of unceded Syilx Okanagan land is not a political manoeuvre; it is an acknowledgement of historical truths and legal realities. Attempts to silence these acknowledgements are attempts to erase Syilx Okanagan's presence and rights.”
Westbank First Nation Chief Robert Louie added, “Academic educational institutions have a duty to foster environments of truth and reconciliation. Challenging the acknowledgement of unceded Syilx Okanagan territories undermines this duty and disrespects the Syilx Okanagan communities whose lands these institutions occupy.”
However, the petition claims an acknowledgement of being situated on unceded Indigenous territory is political in that, "The term... means, in ordinary use, that the claim to Canadian sovereign territory is illegitimate or unethical or contrary to international law," making 'unceded' a political term. Furthermore, the petitioners claim that the land acknowledgement puts the university "at odds with the law as articulated by the Supreme Court of Canada in Delgamuuk, which finds that Canadian territory may be impressed with Indigenous rights and/or title and/or that such rights or title may be extinguished."
Petitioners are asking the court for the following prohibitions and restraints on UBC:
- Declaring or acknowledging that the university is on unceded Indigenous land, and prohibiting the institute from requiring or encouraging others to do the same,
- Making statements or declarations of support or condemnation of Israel or Palestine,
- Requiring expressions of agreement from faculty or faculty position applicants to the diversity, equity and inclusion doctrines or any other political beliefs as a condition of appointment.
Syilx Okanagan Chiefs are calling on UBC to remain committed, "To truth and reconciliation by continuing to acknowledge the unceded territories of the Syilx and other First Nations peoples."
UBC has yet to respond to the petition. The court has yet to comment on the petition.
