People are shutting down one of the largest rail yards in Vancouver at Grandview and Hebb and plan to stay the night! Join them if you can! 2.15.2020
At its core, this week of rotating blockades and demonstrations across B.C. is the same conflict that has always existed in this province.
But it’s also different.
It’s the same because British Columbia’s political culture has long involved strikes and protests and civil disobedience, often meant to inconvenience, usually centred around rights and race and resources.
“These have happened before and they will continue to happen,” said Rod Mickleburgh, a longtime B.C. journalist who has written books on the labour movement.
“We’re so wired to cover the latest thing and perhaps boost it out of all proportion to its relevance … and people forget our history.”
But the demonstrations supporting the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs who oppose the Coastal GasLink pipeline are different, because technology and social media allow the dispute to play out in real time to the entire nation, with a level of coordination among young Indigenous leaders never before attained.
“It seems like they’ve always been five steps ahead of law enforcement, five steps ahead of the politicians inside the legislature,” said Vyas Saran, a University of Victoria law student and policy researcher who acted as a legal observer at Tuesday’s legislature protest.
However, it’s also different, argues Ben Isitt — a Victoria councillor who participated in this week’s blockade of the legislature — because it’s a new type of coalition, less centred around traditional labour and more focused on younger environmentalists and Indigenous leaders.
“We’re seeing those two movements come together … giving more strength to this movement than some other ones we’ve seen in recent years,” he said.
Isitt, who wrote his PhD dissertation on the history of protests in B.C., also believes these demonstrators are willing to push the envelope.
“I was surprised to see, in terms of the depth of support … the openness to militant tactics, or to more non-violent civil disobedience that the young people demonstrated.”
But Khelsilem says it’s different because there’s a greater awareness around injustices faced by Indigenous people than ever before.
And a new generation of leaders might not take the same tactics as those before them.
“They’ve seen too much hypocrisy. They have too much history to draw on,” said Saran.
“They see that direct action is the only thing that works. It’s the only thing that gets them the goods.”
B.C.’s DNA is embedded in Wet’suwet’en demonstrations. It’s about privilege and power, race and resources, just as it’s been since Gold Rush days. by Justin McElroy · CBC News · Feb 15, 2020
At least 66 shipping vessels are stalled in British Columbia’s waters, according to the maritime shipping industry, as rail blockades continue in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs’ opposition to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C.
Robert Lewis-Manning, president of the Chamber of Shipping of B.C., says Canadians will eventually notice consequences from the backlog.
“It will hit in the pocket book, it will hit in necessary supplies for key industries and it will take a long time to recover,” he said.
The vessels move commodities like consumer goods, food and raw materials between Canada and international destinations.
The Chamber of Shipping, along with the B.C. Maritime Employers Association and the B.C. Marine Terminal Operators Association, issued a joint statement Friday calling on the province and federal government to de-escalate tensions and remove blockades.
More than 60 shipping vessels stalled off B.C. coast due to rail blockades. Industries in B.C. are asking for provincial and federal governments to prioritize ending pipeline dispute. CBC News · Posted: Feb 14, 202
When All Else Fails… Wet’suwet’en Supporters Block the Rails
[From Sub.Media] In the week following the RCMP invasion of Wet’suwet’en territories supporters have risen up and #ShutDownCanada. Some of the most effective solidarity actions have come in the form of rail blockades that have paralyzed the national economy. Supporters have vowed to keep up the pressure until the RCMP leaves Wet’suwet’en territory and CGL adheres to the eviction handed down by the hereditary chiefs.
Featuring footage from Kit, Jesse & Real People’s Media – http://realpeoples.media
Music: Lee Reed
#WetsuwetenStrong#LandBack#RCMPOut
CBC News 2.15.2020
A new blockade in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs took place in Vaughan, Ont., on Saturday. Pressure is mounting on the federal government to end the rail disruptions.
As acts of protest and civil disobedience in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en land defenders cascade throughout Canada, the nation’s fainting couches are straining under the weight of so many concerned citizens and commentators who see these actions as unconscionable and dangerous threats to the rule of law. Responses critical of the resistance express worry about disruption: to the market, to order, to the smooth and privileged and unencumbered day-to-day lives we expect to live. Protest is meant to disrupt.
Protest is meant to bring a reality that lurks beyond the sight lines of most people crashing down in front of them. The Wet’suwet’en protests are doing just that. The Wet’suwet’en protests are working. And three cheers for that.
When resistance to the current order arises, citizens are put to the test. We are forced to reveal where our allegiances lie. What are we willing to support, or do, in the pursuit of rightness and justice? In the case of the Wet’suwet’en resistance to the Coastal Gaslink project, those who are blockading road and rail, preventing politicians from entering the B.C. legislature and other buildings, and those supporting them on air and online are calling public attention to the tensions, disjunctures, contradictions and injustices of a colonial system of governance. That system has been thrust upon Indigenous peoples; so too has the violence of a market and political orthodoxy that says energy projects will only go through with consent, while implicitly assuming and expecting that consent—even through unceded land, so much of which covers B.C.—from hereditary chiefs. It’s a put-up job.
OPINION The need for protest. When resistance to the current order arises, citizens are put to the test. We are forced to reveal our allegiances. What do we think is right and just? by David Moscrop, Macleans, Feb 13, 2020
Quakers, social justice and revolution 
Any chance you would want to be on my talk show sometime early March to discuss the situation in British Columbia?
On Sat, Feb 15, 2020 at 9:19 PM Quakers, social justice and revolution wrote:
> jakisling posted: ” People are shutting down one of the largest rail yards > in Vancouver at Grandview and Hebb and plan to stay the night! Join them if > you can! 2.15.2020 At its core, this week of rotating blockades and > demonstrations across B.C. is the same co” >
Yes, I think so.