Rossiter to discuss aboriginal land claims and the Northern Gateway Pipeline May 16

Western Washington University Associate Professor of Environmental Studies David Rossiter will present “Aboriginal Land Claims and the Politics of a Pipeline” as part of Western’s Huxley College of the Environment Speaker Series at 4 p.m. on May 16 in Western’s Biology Building room 212.

The presentation is free and open to the public. The presentation will include a question-and-answer period.

Rossiter argues that the discourse concerning the Northern Gateway proposal effectively downplays the question of aboriginal title and the federal government's obligation to resolve the issue.

Recent court decisions have placed natural resource development inextricably in the context of the unresolved legal question of the existence of aboriginal title in British Columbia.

Rossiter received his doctorate in Geography in 2005 from York University in Toronto, Canada.

He is currently in working on a multi-year research project investigating historical geographies of nature and recreation in the mountainous North Shore region of Vancouver, B.C.

The speaker series is held by Western's Huxley College of the Environment to bring together the environmentally minded community and other interested members of the Western and Bellingham communities. Speakers address topics of contemporary environmental concern in the region and the world.

For more information, please contact the main office of Huxley College of the Environment, at (360) 650-3520.