Above photo: A group of protesters has blocked the intersection at Clark and Hastings since Tuesday night and are calling for the release of an elder jailed for his role in a 2019 Trans Mountain pipeline protest. Thor Diakow/Vancouver Is Awesome.
A protester calls the jailing of elder Stacy Gallagher a “blatant act of systemic racism.”
A group of protesters has blocked the port access at Clark and Hastings in Vancouver since Tuesday night.
The action was organized by Braided Warriors, a newly formed group, made up of Indigenous youth from many Nations, who fights for Indigenous sovereignty mostly on the unceded territories of the Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.
The group is calling for the release of Indigenous elder Stacy Gallagher who was sentenced to 90 days in jail Tuesday.
Gallagher was handed the sentence in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday by judge Shelley Fitzpatrick for violating an injunction that bars people from protests at Trans Mountain sites in Burnaby. It was at the Burnaby tank farm in 2019 where Gallagher took part in a smudging ceremony and was subsequently apprehended and charged.
A participant in the overnight protest who spoke with V.I.A. News Wednesday morning on scene calls Gallagher’s jailing a “blatant act of systemic racism.”
“We’re here in solidarity with our ‘uncle’ who has been fighting this for years,” she adds.
Vancouver Police were present for a time on scene but had not taken any action against protesters as recently as around 9 a.m.