The Syilx Okanagan Nation in B.C. says it did not issue a cease and desist letter that claims to protect a controversial ostrich farm from a Canada Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) cull, and questions its authenticity.
Universal Ostrich Farm in Edgewood, B.C., east of Kelowna, is embattled in court with CFIA after an avian flu outbreak in December killed 69 of the farm’s ostriches, prompting a cull order by the federal agency to destroy over 300 of the farm’s remaining birds.
In a Tuesday statement to CBC Indigenous, the Chiefs Executive Council of the Syilx Okanagan Nation said it had received a copy of a cease and desist letter reportedly shared with RCMP by the farm’s spokesperson.
The letter, given to CBC Indigenous by Okanagan Nation Alliance, said the farm “lies within the territorial boundaries of the Secwepemc and Sylix Tribal people,” and is “now under the protection of said tribes and this cease and desist order comes directly from the matriarchal authority of the Secwepemc Signatory Tribe.”
It is signed, “Manitou Wabski Kinew, legal advisor for Signatory Indian Tribes and all Subjects within Tribal Territories.”
In its statement, the Syilx Okanagan Nation said, “After reviewing the document, the Syilx Okanagan Nation can confirm definitively that it was not issued by our Nation.”
“Moreover, the claimed signatory appears to resemble the name of the Premier of Manitoba, Wab Kinew, raising serious concerns about the letter’s authenticity.”
“We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, any organization, company, or individual who falsely invokes the name of our Nation — or our authority as rights and title holders — to advance their own agenda,” said the Syilx Okanagan Nation statement.
The farm’s spokesperson Katie Pasitney, daughter of a co-owner Esperen, told CBC Indigenous earlier this week that the Syilx and a “signatory Indian tribe” sent the letter to order protection of the farmers’ land and their ostriches.
Appropriation growing, says academic
The farm, co-owned by David Bilinski and Karen Espersen, has amassed hundreds of supporters, some involved with the Freedom Convoy movement , who see the CFIA cull order as government overreach.
Hayden King, executive director of Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous-led research centre at Toronto Metropolitan University, said non-Indigenous campaigns or movements like the Freedom Convoy and Canadian Q-Anon have been known to attach an aura of Indigeneity for credibility.
“More conservative or conspiratorially minded movements, they’re using values, Indigenous values, to legitimize their own positions … taking the sort of scraps of their limited knowledge of Indigenous philosophy or politics and applying them to their own frameworks,” said King.
“I think that in most of these campaigns, this is really just a superficial, self-interested attempt to legitimize and and validate their campaigns using Indigenous values.”
King said Indigenous people hold a variety of views, and some may subscribe to populist or far-right campaigns but they are generally a minority.
“Indigenous people by and large are pretty critical thinkers and can tell the difference between genuine solidarity and, you know, tokenism and appropriation,” said King.
Indigenous appropriation by non-Indigenous movements has been growing over the past decade or so, said King.
“These individual and groups sort of popping up with whatever sort of fringe perspective and appropriating Indigenous language, tactics even,” he said.
“I think it’s informed first by the effectiveness of Indigenous resistance through time.”
‘Secwepemc Signatory Tribe’
CBC Indigenous was unable to find a First Nation called the “Secwepemc Signatory Tribe,” referred to in the cease and desist letter.
The Shuswap Nation Tribal Council in B.C. comprises nine Secwepemc communities — Adams Lake Indian Band, Bonaparte First Nation, Neskonlith Indian Band, Shuswap Indian Band, Simpcw First Nation, Skeetchestn Indian Band, Splatsín First Nation, Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc and Whispering Pines/Clinton Indian Band.
CBC Indigenous has been in contact with the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council but did not receive an official comment before time of publishing.
Katie Pasitney maintains there is First Nations support for her ostriches.
When told by CBC Indigenous that Syilx leadership had said they had nothing to do with the letter, Pastiney responded, “That’s wrong,” but would not do an interview on record.
Pasitney told CBC Indigenous she would call back when her lawyer sent “the First Nation’s positions,” but did not specify which First Nation she was referring to.
