Film screenings for BC Hydro employees spotlight Indigenous rights
Documentary shown at time when utility and some First Nations at odds over development
A BC Hydro employee hopes a Canadian documentary about Indigenous activism will help her colleagues better understand Indigenous rights at a time when development projects are causing friction between the company and some B.C. First Nations.
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Vicki George works for Powerex, an electricity marketing company and subsidiary of BC Hydro, and she is featured in the documentary, The Road Forward.
The film tells the story of a movement nearly 40 years ago, dubbed the "Constitution express," when hundreds of activists travelled by train from Vancouver to Ottawa and successfully lobbied for Indigenous rights to be recognized in the Canadian constitution.
At the time, the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau had introduced a resolution to patriate the Constitution, giving Canada the authority to amend its own laws and make it more independent from Britain.
According to George, the Trudeau government at that time planned to exclude Indigenous rights and title from the Constitution. When activists in B.C found out, they chartered trains to Ottawa and the Constitution express movement was born.
George's father helped organize the movement, and now his daughter is organizing screenings of the film for every BC Hydro employee.
It was during a series of employee workshops and forums on reconciliation that George had the idea to show her colleagues the documentary by Metis-Cree filmmaker Marie Clements.
"The dialogue and the information in The Road Forward is part of what needs to be discussed in Canada for Truth and Reconciliation to happen," said George.
"I think Truth and Reconciliation is just beginning in Canada, so it's going to take a long time to repair the problems that have come from colonization."
Timely screenings
Screenings of the film are taking place in the wake of the decision by B.C.'s NDP government to proceed with the Site C dam project on the Peace River, a plan opposed by some First Nations groups.
George said it is premature to speculate if those groups and BC Hydro will find common ground.
"I think it's too early to tell what's going to happen," said George, "I think it's really important for us to work together to get there together."
Clements' spoke with CBC last May when her film screened publicly in Vancouver at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival.
"Once we understand that this is a shared history, that we have been in this history together for a long time, I do believe that change can happen in a really real way," said Clements.
The Road Forward was produced in Vancouver by the National Film Board of Canada.