In this article we are going to do a full disclosure of how the Canadian society was duped by the Lake Babine Band. In over 60 years of living here locally, I have never quite ever witnessed such blatant deception by any Indian band as per what we witnessed here. Local residents and people from all over BC and Canada were denied their right to fish, due to the combined efforts of the Lake Babine Band, the BC NDP and Federal Liberals via the DFO.
The Lake Babine Band has repetitively duped, conned, lied and misled the Canadian public who are funding them, they live in large part on taxpayer funding, while accusing the same taxpayers as the root of all their problems. Racism directed at Canadians by Indians is at an all time high, but Canadians must take the slander in the name of a farce called reconciliation. The media is empowering them, encouraging them, to rise up, revolt, and publicly accuse the very people funding them of genocide, when they do not even know the meaning of the word. All of this to acquire more money, more power, more rights than the rest of society, then blame violence on reserves on non aboriginals. Most of the members of tent city in Smithers are status card holding members of the Lake Babine Band, and the band contributes nothing to the costs of Smithers residents.
“Racism is wrong, race based privilege is wrong, you cannot fix past racism by balancing racism, revenge is a horrid motivation for racism. Yet Canadians are being subjected to this on a daily basis, and the goverment does nothing to end it, instead they encourage it, they even fund the media pushing this agenda.” The BCNDP and Federal Liberals are intentionally feeding the problem.
The deceit is repetitive and its high time the Lake Babine Band started accounting for every dollar of tax payer funding, start disclosing where ever dollar spent went to, account for the profits derived from tax payer funding, and have it all dependently audited and released back to the public in full disclosure. Being First Nations should not mean a status card is a perpetual credit card others must pay for. Taxpayer dollars appear to be making some members independently wealthy over and above average Canadians. Canadians have been duped into funding projects that are mostly hidden from the public. Next I want to be clear, its not the Indians fault for taking advantage of the money both Federal and Provincial Goverments are using to buy votes. Both the Federal Goverment, via the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the NDP via Nathan Cullen as Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship of British Columbia, where in two instances he denied citizens right to fish, to allow Indians to close the Babine River Corridor Provincial Park, and the Meziadin Lake Park in order to allow commercial seine fishing, not food fishing in that park, and closing it, was a deceitful way to hide the practice of commercial fishing while closing both the Babine and Meziadin to the non aboriginal citizens of Canada.
For those of you condemning us for using the label “Indians” be aware that they are all subjects of the “Department of Indian Affairs”. So if Canada calls them Indians, then that is what we should call them as well. Canadians deserve better from both our province and federal goverment, that love quietly dropping millions of tax payer dollars that simply disappear, we need accountability, nothing less.
Back up the clock to 2023
Before we talk about what is occurring in our lakes and rivers today, I want to confirm the story Babine River Corridor Provincial Park – Sockeye Scam where the river was closed based on an outright lie. So its very clear here, they want Canadians to fish after they cherry pick sockeye for selling commercially, and deny Canadians the right to fishing below the counting fence on the Babine River, even though we own that counting fence, all under the deceitful auspices of protecting the sockeye. Meanwhile Nathan Cullen closed the park, under the false pretext that he was saving us from the bears. Using Park wardens to chase out anyone from witnessing that wholesale slaughter of sockeye on the Babine river. (see the photo below)
This was the summer of 2023, a cover-up by the Lake Babine Band using the publicly owned fish counting fence to harvest sockeye, not for ceremonial food, but for cask profits. Including selling sockeye for 10 dollars each to Canadians in Smithers, while blocking local residents from fishing below the fish counting fence.
Back up the clock to 2022
The following is very likely the reason for policing the park in 2023, to avoid someone exposing the Lake Babine Band’s commercial fishing.
TERMINAL FISHERY OR TERMINALLY ILL FISHERIES?
Last week Granisle Tourism shared a video of Babine Lake spawning channel entry with river being full of escapement sockeye spawners so the gates were down. Over 2 million sockeye below gates packed with many jumping at fence.
I made a call and spoke to Donna Macintyre from Babine First Nation. She is in their fisheries department.
Asking her questions on the amount they were catching and selling. She was belligerent, snapy and sarcastic to say the least. She kept saying Chief and Council need to answer those questions. Something smells fishy I thought and it ain’t dead sockeye.
I called Canfisco but was told they are not buying the Babine Lake fish. They said it was canned in the past, but pet food quality. Hmm, you seen the price of some upper end cat and dog food lately?
Chatter from docks was North Delta Seafoods was buying. I called them and was given main sales person in Bellingham. The salesman Rick Jefferies said they were harvesting and selling the Babine Lake red sockeye.
He stated they have North American markets and overseas markets. I called an Asian salmon broker and they said red skinned fish were lucky to eat and highly sought after by Asian consumers. Sockeye red skined were becoming sought after by their buyers.
Hmmm? It seems Babine Lake red skinned sockeye are supplying a unique market. Just like Alaskan Copper River sockeye and Chinook. Then there’s the marketing savyiess how low grade white spring fetched a higher price by being called Platinum salmon over a decade ago to present.
So today this picture appears showing North Delta Seafoods in their private commercial fishery caught by indigenous agreements no longer called Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy or AFS Fisheries.
Changing acronyms, but never changing ways to rid our coast of saltwater salmon fisheries. You see, Donna Macintyre said DFO did not want endangered stocks like Skenna River Chinook or Steelhead killed in salt water fisheries targeting Skenna sockeye. The excuse now used for companies to pay less per pound.
The bottom line is we commercial and sport fisherman got screwed royally so North Delta Seafoods could purchase cheaper fish while filling the void in an Asian monster market that desires lucky red skinned sockeye.
Port Albernie sockeye will be next, then the Fraser River sockeye lakes.
Americans saw long sport fish closures on the Columbia this year and once again we hear Osoyoos Indian Band seining a bounty of red skinned sockeye that came up the Columbia into British Columbia, Canada.
In my research in last week I found red skinned salmon leather being marketed. Just look at Alibaba.com red salmon leather as one example.
I see our commercial salt water and sport fisheries are terminally ill due to corporate greed and inland First Nations taking our share away.
Yes I support all fellow indigenous propering, but not by being used by Government, corporations and environmental organizations to screw we saltwater commercial and sport fishers.
Remember, it’s about cheaper sockeye per pound and Canadian companies diversifying products so they don’t have to compete with the Bristol Bay glut of silver bright sockeye.
The Babine River is the indicator telling us our salt water fisheries shall soon be all but a memory if we do not unite and change the present coarse of our fisheries.
Pacific Balance Marine Management investigated and produced this story because as we see our fisheries are out of balance when corporations dictate where the commercial fisheries take place.
As we see in the Columbia River, maybe the need for in river terminal fisheries shall push for the removal of in river seals and sea lions all to protect profits?
Ask to join Pacific Balance Marine Management on Facebook to learn more and to see video of millions of sockeye below closed gates to spawning channels destined to be harvested by North Delta Seafoods and a few other corporations hiding themselves.
Share post with your local media outlets.
Media or anyone else can contact me at email tom.sewid@gmail.com or call my cell 604-724-7325 (SEAL)
This brings us to the summer of 2025 (this year)
This brings us to more lies, deceit and tax payer funding, with zero accountability to Canadians footing the bill. Then to add insult to injury they accuse commercial fisherman and sport fishing as the primary reason (see Interior News Press Release) they could face not eating sockeye without trading with another nation to get it. This is such a galling outrageous lie, I have no idea why the mainstream press even published their babbling in newsletters other than via Liberal funding, they are just using our stupid media to attack Canadians. The press release comes with the Lake Babine Bands full knowleg about funding they already recived to do a commercial harvest over and about the 100 sockeye per status card, they knew this at the time they wrote this bleeding heart press release.
We all were very aware that many people in the Smithers, Houston and Hazelton’s were able to buy sockeye at 10 dollars each, but not filleted like these are, and the dealer (seller) will not get charged if caught, the buyer gets hefty fines. We also know they hand picked members of various ethnic groups (recent immigrants) while pushing the high store prices as a reason they were privileged to get sockeye cheap, as long as they kept it quite nobody would ever notice. This amounted to thousands of dollars in sales in local communities, while the funds were pocketed by Indians. To protect our sources we had to omit what nationalities were targeted.
Below is a video (this year 2025) of the Lake Babine Band’s commercial fishery, that you and I funded, see the DFO donations below.
DOUBLE DIPPING
You and I are paying the tab on this fishery with zero accountability to taxpayers.
This is funding from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Tax Payer forked out over 3/4 Million dollars to the Babine Lake Indian Band to start a commercial fishery, with zero accountability of what happens with our tax dollars, while simultaneously taking away commercial fishing rights on the BC Coast, without offering those commercial fisherman the right to harvest the near spawning salmon of Babine Lake. Please understand the idea of not wasting sockeye that are not needed in the spawning grounds is a great idea, but taking money out of the pockets of commercial west coast fisherman, then using tax dollars to create competition is beyond insane. I am certain that no funds were needed if the DFO offered this opportunity to those who lost their fishing quotas due to DFO rules. It should have been bid out to the public, not pay one Indian band to do what could have been done at no cost to tax payers. This is about vote buying using our money to do it
Not only are they allowed 100 sockeye per status card, they are simultaneously harvesting sockeye for cash, recall how they condemned commercial fishing, and sport fishing (two per day for sport fisherman? This is what racial privilege looks like. What really blows me away is that they needed not only this massive (hidden total) of sockeye to sell, they could have given their band members fish from here, but they were able to double dip, getting both taxpayers to fund this for profit venture, and top that off by having band members get fish from the counting fence.
You need to read this to believe it, its that preposterous. This was intentional deception, created to manipulate the minds of Canadians, while hiding their real agenda.
A bit more off topic trivia is that the Lake Babine Band and the Wet’suwet’en, Stellat’en and Nadleh Whut’en all having have separate land claims but are actually one and the same “First Nations aka First Immigrants to Canada”. Secondly they are not aboriginal people, nor is there evidence that they lived here as the original people, they were transient people of the Carrier Sekani Nation. First Nations is correct description of immigrants into Canada, as they were the last known nations living here prior to European immigration, there is no historical documentation on who were living here first but DNA sampling has show there is a connection to East Asian populations. “The Asian lineage leading to First Americans is the most anciently diverged, whereas the Asian lineages that contributed some of the DNA to Eskimo-Aleut speakers and the Na-Dene-speaking Chipewyan from Canada are more closely related to present-day East Asian populations,” Quoted from here. More quote ““The Asian lineage leading to First Americans is the most anciently diverged, whereas the Asian lineages that contributed some of the DNA to Eskimo-Aleut speakers and the Na-Dene-speaking Chipewyan from Canada are more closely related to present-day East Asian populations,” To suggest they are aboriginal is a hypothesis without facts supporting it.
Yet somehow our governments are giving away what belongs to all of us, the land, resources, fish and wildlife on what we call crown land. Crown meaning belonging to all Canadians. Using our tax dollars in a racist manner as a means of causing conflict and division among us, to tear down the social fabric of Canada.
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