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The cease and desist letter is signed by ‘Manitou Wabski Kinew, legal advisor for signatory Indian tribes and all subjects within tribal territories.’ (Submitted by Okanagan Nation Alliance)<\/p>\nThe 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s ostriches, prompting a cull order by the federal agency to destroy over 300 of the farm\u2019s remaining birds.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s spokesperson.<\/p>\n
The letter, given to CBC Indigenous by Okanagan Nation Alliance, said the farm \u201clies within the territorial boundaries of the Secwepemc and Sylix Tribal people,\u201d and is \u201cnow under the protection of said tribes and this cease and desist order comes directly from the matriarchal authority of the Secwepemc Signatory Tribe.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is signed, “Manitou Wabski Kinew, legal advisor for Signatory Indian Tribes and all Subjects within Tribal Territories.”<\/p>\n
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.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover, the claimed signatory appears to resemble the name of the Premier of Manitoba, Wab Kinew, raising serious concerns about the letter\u2019s authenticity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cease and desist letter is signed by ‘Manitou Wabski Kinew, legal advisor for signatory Indian tribes and all subjects within tribal territories.’ (Submitted by Okanagan Nation Alliance)<\/p>\n
“We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, any organization, company, or individual who falsely invokes the name of our Nation \u2014 or our authority as rights and title holders \u2014 to advance their own agenda,” said the Syilx Okanagan Nation statement.<\/p>\n
The farm\u2019s spokesperson Katie Pasitney, daughter of a co-owner Esperen, told CBC Indigenous earlier this week that the Syilx and a \u201csignatory Indian tribe<\/a>\u201d sent the letter to order protection of the farmers’ land and their ostriches.<\/p>\n Appropriation growing, says academic<\/p>\n The farm, co-owned by David Bilinski and Karen Espersen, has amassed hundreds of supporters, some involved with the \u00a0Freedom Convoy movement <\/a>, who see the CFIA cull order as government overreach. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cMore conservative or conspiratorially minded movements, they’re using values, Indigenous values, to legitimize their own positions \u2026 taking the sort of scraps of their limited knowledge of Indigenous philosophy or politics and applying them to their own frameworks,\u201d said King.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIndigenous people by and large are pretty critical thinkers and can tell the difference between genuine solidarity and, you know, tokenism and appropriation,\u201d said King.<\/p>\n Indigenous appropriation by non-Indigenous movements has been growing over the past decade or so, said King.<\/p>\n “These individual and groups sort of popping up with whatever sort of fringe perspective and appropriating Indigenous language, tactics even,” he said.<\/p>\n “I think it’s informed first by the effectiveness of Indigenous resistance through time.”<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760146584_291_default.jpg\")
Hayden King is the executive director of the Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous-led research centre based at Toronto Metropolitan University. (Submitted by Hayden King)<\/p>\n