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Police Launch Third Militarized Raid Against Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders

The RCMP arrested 15 people on Thursday November 18 as the land defence struggle against the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia continues. Gidimt’en land defender Sleydo’ says: “[The RCMP] came with intent and the ability to kill people and seriously harm people.” Those arrested included two Elders, a journalist and three legal observers.

Judge Keeps Oil Pipeline Case In Federal Court

A federal judge retained jurisdiction Tuesday in a dispute over a Canadian oil pipeline that runs through a section of the Great Lakes, rejecting Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's contention that the case belongs in state court. The clash over whether Enbridge Energy's Line 5 should continue operating raises issues “under consideration at the highest levels of this country's government” involving a U.S.-Canada treaty and federal pipeline safety regulation, U.S. District Judge Janet Neff ruled. The matter "is properly in federal court,” she wrote in a 15-page opinion that drew praise from Enbridge. Whitmer's office expressed disappointment and environmentalists ramped up pressure on President Joe Biden to intervene.

Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders Say Inaction Prompted Enforcement Of Coastal GasLink Eviction

Wet’suwet’en land defenders and supporters say inaction from B.C. and Canada left them no choice but to enforce an eviction order against Coastal GasLink workers and deactivate road access to the project, a pair of measures that have prompted the provincial and federal governments to call for a peaceful resolution to the blockades. “We were sending a clear message to the province, to Canada, and they weren’t acting on it — they weren’t hearing what we were saying — so we had to get a little bit louder,” Gidimt’en camp spokesperson Sleydo’ Molly Wickham told The Narwhal in an interview. “They’re destroying absolutely everything that is important to us in our territory. And they have been continuing to do work, despite the eviction order last year.”

Indigenous Campaigners Demand JPMorgan End Fossil Fuel Finance

Glasgow, Scotland — Indigenous activists on Wednesday staged a protest outside JPMorgan Chase headquarters in central Glasgow as pressure on banks to halt oil and gas extraction grows. A crowd of over a hundred chanted “enough is enough” and “shame on you” outside the American multinational bank’s office building, just over a mile from where crucial talks at the COP26 climate conference are currently taking place. JPMorgan Chase is the world’s biggest financier of fossil fuels, according to environmental organisations. In 2020 the bank pledged to end fossil fuel loans for Arctic oil drilling and phase out loans for coal mining. However, a recent report shows the bank provided £230 billion in support for fossil fuels between 2016-2020.

The World Has Millions Of Vacant Homes

The whole world is undergoing a housing shortage, but vacant homes are barely budging. The OECD‘s latest data drop shows 42 million of its 426 million homes are vacant. Yes, roughly one in ten homes in advanced economies are empty. There are literally years of housing supply being used as an alternative to gold. Rather than pondering why it’s so attractive to have vacant homes, many countries doubled down on reasons to hoard. If we only build more homes and give the investors cheap money, there can be enough to hoard too, right? I mean, you almost tried, so partial points. Let’s take a look at how bad the issue has become.

Extinction Rebellion Vancouver Breaks Through Media Near-Blackout

Canada - A group of climate activists tied up traffic last night (October 25) on the main road to Vancouver International Airport. According to Extinction Rebellion, 18 were arrested; that differed from a tweet from Richmond RCMP, which said that 20 were arrested. Regardless of the numbers, the tactic seems to have worked: Extinction Rebellion Vancouver spokesperson Zain Haq finally received some airtime on CBC Radio One to explain why the group has launched a 14-day campaign of peaceful civil disobedience. A story by CBC reporter Rafferty Baker respectfully included Haq's concerns about the climate breakdown. Baker noted Extinction Rebellion Vancouver's demand for an end to fossil-fuel subsidies. The group's "October rebellion" is intended to spark a nationwide discussion about fossil-fuel subsidies.

Environmental And Labor Groups Urge Canada To Support Just Transition

Canada has not provided a transition pathway for its fossil fuel workers to move into other industries, and as global demand for oil and gas wanes, tens of thousands of workers could lose their jobs, say the authors of a new report. Roughly 167,000 people are directly employed in Canada’s oil and gas industry, but increased automation combined with the energy transition and climate policy mean that half of those jobs are slated to disappear by the end of the decade, according to a report published on October 13 by the Climate Action Network Canada and Blue Green Canada, which is a coalition of labor and environmental groups. The report said there is potential to transition many of these workers into cleaner industries, but action is needed by the federal and provincial governments to ease the pathway.

Mi’kmaq Grandmothers And Water Protectors Celebrate Alton Gas Decommissioning

Unceded Mi’kmaq Territory – After eight years of resistance led by grassroots Mi’kmaw grandmothers and water protectors to defend the Shubenacadie River from Alton Gas, the company has announced they will be decommissioning this project. We wish to express with the utmost humility and gratitude our sincere thanks to Mi’kmaq rights holders, grandmothers, Elders, youth, and allies for all the support over the last eight years in standing to protect our sacred river. It was the unity of all these people, and the diversity of their sincere efforts, that led to this day. “My main concern has always been to protect this river for the next seven generations so they can fish as our ancestors did,” said Thunderbird Swooping Down Woman (Darlene Gilbert). “And so today, I am content.”

Make Gig Work Decent Work

On most days, Doug Ford’s Conservative government in Ontario does not respond well to problems, or it actively makes things worse. If an election had been called a year-and-a-half ago, Ford would have lost. However, when COVID hit, Ford nearly brought Ontario to its knees. Nevertheless, he managed to deceive some into thinking he managed well. Today, he is barely visible, having prorogued Queen’s Park during September’s federal election to protect his federal Conservative counterparts instead of stepping up to protect Ontarians and help guide our recovery. Schools are suffering, hospitals and healthcare workers are short-staffed and stressed. Many Ontarians are ashamed that Ford did not declare September 30th a statutory holiday to remember the colonial impact of residential schools.

What We Know About The RCMP’s Resource Extraction Protection Unit

The RCMP’s “Community-Industry Response Group” (C-IRG) could also be described as a resource extraction protection unit. It’s militarized responses to land defenders at Fairy Creek, Wet’suwet’en, or, most recently, Gidimt’en Checkpoint, have demonstrated which side of “community” versus “industry” the group is on. Here’s what we know: According to the RCMP: “The Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) was created in 2017 to provide strategic oversight addressing energy industry incidents and related public order, national security and crime issues.” The RCMP adds: “The C-IRG uses a measured approach in facilitating the peaceful resolution of public disorder issues. They proactively engage all stakeholders through open communication and meaningful dialogue.” This would not describe the experiences of Indigenous land and environmental rights defenders on their territories in Canada.

‘Boycott Tour’ Demands Justice And Liberation For Palestine

On Wednesday, 6 October, activists marched through downtown Vancouver, Canada, as part of the Boycott Tour, drawing attention to the complicity of corporations, universities and government institutions in Canada in the ongoing colonization, occupation and apartheid throughout occupied Palestine. The march took place as part of Palestine Action Week, five days of collective action in solidarity with Palestinians and their fight for liberation, and against settler-colonialism, apartheid, and imperialist violence. Palestine Action Week was organized by a coalition of Vancouver-area groups, including Palestinian Youth Movement, National Students for Justice in Palestine, Canada Palestine Association, UBC Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, SFU Students for Justice in Palestine, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, BDS Vancouver, Anti-racism coalition Vancouver, Independent Jewish Voices, Rise SFU, Sulong UBC, and the Caucus.

Extinction Rebellion Activists Plan Two-Week ‘October Rebellion’

Climate protesters are planning a series of protests in Vancouver this month that includes occupying major intersections, bridges, and “shutting down” Vancouver International Airport. Environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion Canada said it wants a commitment from the provincial and federal governments to end fossil fuel subsidies before the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow, which starts Oct. 31. If this demand isn’t met, Extinction Rebellion plans to initiate what it is calling the October Rebellion, a two-week campaign of mass civil disobedience in Vancouver starting Oct. 16. “We are going to be arrested in the streets,” said Extinction Rebellion member Brent Eichler. “(Trudeau) is going to face the embarrassment of not just telling world leaders why he has failed on the promises he has made, but why citizens of his own country are sitting on the streets and being arrested because he won’t act.”

Six Nations Lawsuit ‘Will Result In A Significant Damage Award’

Officials at Crown-Indigenous Relations worry the Crown may lose a lawsuit launched by Six Nations of the Grand River’s elected council over the community’s numerous outstanding land claims, internal documents suggest. Negotiators with the Treaties and Aboriginal Government branch informed their deputy minister, the department’s top public servant, of the law department’s opinion in an August 2020 briefing package obtained by APTN News. “The First Nation is claiming approximately 900,000 acres of land that was improperly surrendered in southwestern Ontario,” the memo explained. “Justice Canada advises that portions of the Six Nations litigation claim poses high risk for the Crown, and will result in a significant damage award.”

Let Haiti Breathe – CORE Group Out Of Haiti

On a hot August afternoon, members from Solidarité Québec-Haïti, a group rooted in Canada’s Haitian diaspora community, gathered In front of the Canadian parliament buildings in the capital city of Ottawa. They chanted and waved placards displaying a straightforward but powerful request: “Let Haiti Breathe.” Haiti could breathe, they argued, if the CORE Group was disbanded, taking its collective boot off of Haiti’s neck, and thus giving the Haitian people a chance to get out of an extended state of crisis. Canada and the United States are central members of the CORE Group, a group of unelected, unaccountable power brokers in Haiti, that also include representatives from the European Union and Organization of American States.

What Is Ecocide, And Why Does It Matter?

Jamie Hunter has just returned from defying a court injunction to protect old-growth forest in Fairy Creek and is going to Glasgow next month to push for a major change to international law that would provide another tool against environmental degradation. The 21-year-old from Nelson, B.C., sees the actions as two fronts of the same battle to confront forces otherwise damaging the planet and imperiling its inhabitants. “To me, Stop Ecocide is a really tangible solution,” said the co-founder of its Canadian chapter. “Obviously, it’s not the only solution, but it’s a big piece of the puzzle because it really says that causing this damage to the environment is not OK.” Stop Ecocide is a global movement involving international criminal lawyers, Indigenous advisers, researchers, and diplomats working to add ecocide as a crime considered by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

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