Videos from the Wet’suwet’en territories show the spiritual power and ceremonies of the people the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are trying to remove from their lands on behalf of the fossil fuel corporations.
Reconciliation is Dead: Unist’ot’en Women Arrested in Ceremony Feb. 10
Canada invades. Invades on behalf of industry. Invades during ceremony. Canada tears us from our land. Tears us from our families, from our homes. Takes our drums away. Takes our women away. Jails us for protecting the land, for being in ceremony, for honouring our ancestors.
On February 10, RCMP invaded unceded Unist’ot’en territory, arresting and forcibly removing Freda Huson (Chief Howilhkat), Brenda Michell (Chief Geltiy), Dr. Karla Tait, and four Indigenous land defenders from our yintah. They were arrested in the middle of a ceremony to honour the ancestors. Police tore down the red dresses that were hung to hold the spirits of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two spirit people. They extinguished our sacred fire.
We have had enough. Enough dialogue, discussion, negotiation at the barrel of a gun. Canada comes to colonize. Reconciliation is dead.
It is time to fight for our land, our lives, our children, our future.
Revolution lives.
#RECONCILIATIONISDEAD #WETSUWETENSTRONG #UNISTOTEN
Supporter toolkit: http://unistoten.camp/supportertoolkit2020/
Legal fund: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/unistoten2020legalfund
All This for Four Land Defenders
February 8th 2020:
Day two of the RCMP raid on Wet’suwet’en land defenders. Military police invaded Gidimt’en territory to arrest four indigenous land defenders.
This will be a long and costly struggle judging by the fact that 13 months after the first RCMP raid to supposedly uphold a provincial court order which is meant to disposess the Wet’suwet’en of their unceded land.
Millions of dollars were spent forcibly removing 4 peaceful indigenous land defenders off of sovereign Wet’suwet’en territory in one day alone.
Donate to the three Clans camps as we continue to collaborate with local and long distance supporters, everyone upstream and downstream of this proposed energy corridor nightmare.
#WetsuwetenStrong #ReconciliationIsDead #alleyesonWetsuweten #shutdowncanada #unistoten #gidimten #landback
Gidimt’en Call to action: http://www.yintahaccess.com
Donate to Gidimt’en camp: https://www.gofundme.com/f/gidimt039en-strong
Wet’suwet’en Supporter Toolkit: http://unistoten.camp/supportertoolkit2020
Unist’ot’en Legal Fund: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/unistoten2020legalfund
PRINCE GEORGE – With the forced shut down of parts of significant portions of its Canadian network, the economic implications are quickly being felt across the country.
The blockades have been set up on CN’s northern mainline between Prince George and Prince Rupert, as well as blockades near Belleville, ON, on CN’s only eastern link between Western Canada and Eastern Canada and between Eastern Canada and the US Mid-West.
“We have obtained court injunctions for both locations and we are working with local enforcement agencies to enforce the orders,” said JJ Ruest, president and CEO of CN Rail. “We have also engaged with customers, industry associations as well as officials in Ottawa and across Canada to explain to them the consequences and material impact that shutting down the railroad will have on their constituents.”
The head of international trade with the Forest Products Association of Canada says the shutdown of rail lines in Ontario and B.C. is causing a crisis for the industry as protests continue against the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Joel Neuheimer says wood, pulp and paper producers have lost tens of millions of dollars so far.
UNBC lecturer Charles Scott told CKPG that he’s worried.
“This is an asset of national strategic importance that can not to be allowed to be disrupted. I don’t see this being allowed to go on for much longer. Do we really want to have national scaled resource development stopped because a handful of people don’t like it? I worry about where that leads us.”
Todd Doherty, Cariboo-Prince George MP and Shadow Minister for Transport says he’s frustrated with the events unfolding as it pertains to the transportation of goods across Canada, as well as the CGL pipeline.
CN Rail blockades cost wood, pulp and paper producers tens of millions By Ethan Ready, CKPGToday, Feb 13, 2020
See interactive train blockade map here:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/wetsuwetenstrong-rail-blockades_418039?fbclid=IwAR0ESpiFVs7aCrCkFPbfli-dlQH7sx_wqMxx-lvAe1g-Qs4zysxaraf-r6A#4/47.37/-96.50
TYENDINAGA MOHAWK TERRITORY – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police invaded Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia on February 5th, 2020 to enforce a court injunction to remove the Wet’suwet’en from their own land. The injunction was obtained by the Coastal GasLink corporation (CGL) in order to force their 670-kilometer long natural gas pipeline project through traditional unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. This development poses deep and significant threats to human and non-human life in a culturally and environmentally important region, and goes against the Canadian government’s supposed process of “Peace and Reconciliation” with First Nations peoples.
In response to this colonial aggression against the Wet’suwet’en, Tyendinaga Mohawks have set-up an encampment alongside the CN railway and issued their demand: no trains should pass the tracks until the RCMP has left Wet’suwet’en territory. As a result, all train traffic along the Toronto-Montreal corridor passing through Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, has come to a halt with the economic toll to Canada steadily rising. Within a few days of the beginning of the railway stoppage, CN rail succeeded in getting a court-ordered injunction, and the Ontario Provincial Police delivered the injunction demanding the Tyendinaga land defenders to leave and allow rail traffic to resume. The response from the people of Tyendinaga is unwavering:
“In regards to the “Injunction” served on the people of Tyendinaga, We the people refuse to have the laws of the Canadian nation-state imposed upon us. We have, and have always had our own laws and customs, prior to, during and after Canada’s attempts at genocide and assimilation. A paper ordering us to vacate our own land, and or allow passage of foreign goods through our territory is meaningless. We will stand our ground, and as stated, not leave until the RCMP pull out of Wet’suwet’en traditional territories.”
Longest Railway Shutdown in Canadian History Entering it’s 8th day, Real People’s Media, February 13, 2020
For Immediate Release – Occupation of Office of Attorney General David Eby in Support of Wet’suwet’en Nation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCCUPATION OF OFFICE OF MLA & ATTORNEY GENERAL DAVID EBY IN SUPPORT OF WET’SUWET’EN NATION
February 13, 2020 Coast Salish Territories / Vancouver BC: Urban Indigenous sovereigntists and supporters of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs are occupying the office of MLA and Attorney General David Eby to demand the immediate withdrawal of the RCMP and Coastal GasLink from unceded Wet’suwet’en territory.
The past seven days have seen daily civil disobedience actions in Vancouver including blockades of the Port of Vancouver and Deltaport as well as rail lines and the Granville Bridge. Hundreds of supporters of Indigenous sovereignty have joined urban Indigenous sovereigntists in the streets to express solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation.
Herb Varley, Haida,,Nisga’a, Tlingit, and Nuu-chah-nulth organizer of Vancouver solidarity actions states: “The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs are practicing Anuk Nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en Law) in opposition to the colonial Canadian legal system. We are disrupting business as usual in David Eby’s office to highlight his hand in the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples required by the Canadian colonial project.”
Natalie Knight, Yurok and Navajo organizer asserts:“It was only a few decades ago that Indigenous peoples in Canada were not legally allowed to assemble in groups of more than three, seek legal representation, or in Coastal Salish territories, practice the potlatch ceremony. Today’s crisis between Wet’suwet’en and the Canadian government is yet another flashpoint that reveals the inherent injustice embedded in the uneven and unequal relationship between the Canadian government and Indigenous Nations.”
The group of Wet’suwet’en supporters are occupying the office until David Eby meets the following demands:
Revoke all permits associated with LNG Canada and Coastal Gas Link’s $40 billion fracked gas projects until the projects meet the standards of free, prior, and informed consent under Anuk Nu’at’en and UNDRIP, the full principles of which your government made into law at the end of November, 2019.
Use your power as an Executive Council member to intervene in the injunction and enforcement order against the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs. This order clearly violates and criminalizes the right of the Wet’suwet’en to occupy, manage, and maintain their lands.
If you are unable to uphold your responsibility to Anuk Nu’at’en as well as the principles of UNDRIP, we demand that you resign from the Executive Council immediately.
Ayendri Riddell – 604 787 6560
Raquel Park (778) 988-8143
OTTAWA—The federal government insists it has no role in the resolution of a pipeline construction dispute in British Columbia, even as the resulting Indigenous protest movement disrupts travel and commerce across the country.
Ottawa argues the Coastal GasLink pipeline project’s standoff with certain Wet’suwet’en activists is an issue for the company and the B.C. government to resolve.
After the company got another injunction from B.C. Superior Court, and the RCMP moved in to enforce it and take down the barricades, the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs issued a national call for solidarity protests.
Cross-country demonstrations — by other First Nations groups and climate change activists — sprang up in sympathy with the B.C. Indigenous protesters, and are fast spiralling into a national test of wills.
For now, federal and provincial governments — and the prime minister — have urged dialogue and calm.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking from Senegal, said, “We recognize the important democratic right — and will always defend it — of peaceful protest.”
“But we are also a country of the rule of law, and we need to make sure those laws are respected.”
But whose law? The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and supporters say the unceded territory means their ancient uncodified laws — passed down through oral traditions and history — must prevail.
Ottawa says it won’t interfere in the dispute between Wet’suwet’en chiefs and Coastal GasLink. So, what’s next? By Tonda MacCharles, Ottawa Bureau, The Star, Wed., Feb. 12, 2020
Quakers, social justice and revolution 