Wet’suwet’en

CN Rail Wins Right To Privately Prosecute Rail Blockade Participants

December 30, 2021 Colin Dacre, Prince George Citizen. Resist! Canada, Coastal GasLink Pipeline, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Pipelines, Wet’suwet’en

CN Rail has won the right to privately pursue criminal charges against three people who participated in a 2020 rail blockade in northern B.C., despite the fact that provincial prosecutors declined to get involved. The ruling cements the B.C. Supreme Court’s ability to enforce court injunctions, with or without the participation of Crown prosecutors, who unsuccessfully fought the decision. A group of people, including three Gitxsan hereditary chiefs, were arrested at a blockade on a CN Rail line in New Hazelton, B.C. on Feb. 24, 2020. An injunction against the blockade had been issued two weeks prior amid nationwide protests in solidarity with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs fighting against the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline.

Wet’suwet’en Retake Checkpoint A Month After Police Crackdown

December 23, 2021 Anish R. M., People's Dispatch. Resist! Indigenous Rights, Oil and Gas, Police violence, Wet’suwet’en

On Saturday, December 19, activists leading the Wet’suwet’en resistance against the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline project declared that they evicted workers of the project from the drill site. This development comes exactly a month after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) violently dismantled a blockade led by the Gidimt’en clan near Camp Coyote and arrested dozens of protesters and even bystanders. The declaration of reclaiming Camp Coyote was made over a statement released by the Gidimt’en Checkpoint, on Sunday, December 20. “This courageous action took place one month after a wave of militarized raids on Gidimt’en land,” the statement read.

Wet’suwet’en Resistance And Solidarity: Evicting The Colonizers

December 19, 2021 YintahAccess.com. Resist! Canada, Fossil Fuels, Indigenous Resistance, Wet’suwet’en

One month ago today, the RCMP violently raided unceded Gidimt’en territory (November 18-19, 2021), removing Indigenous people from their land at gunpoint on behalf of TC Energy’s proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline. The Wet’suwet’en enforced our standing eviction of CGL by closing roads into the territory November 14-17. Following the raids, arrestees received cruel and violent treatment in prison. The conditions set forth by the court are human rights violations to Indigenous peoples. We’re still here. We’re still throwing down. We are more determined than ever to protect our traditional territories for future generations. In September 2021, Gidimt’en Checkpoint reoccupied Lhudis Bin territory, building a clan cabin on the drill pad site where Coastal GasLink pipeline wants to drill underneath our sacred headwaters, Wedzin Kwa.

Report-Back From A Rail Blockade In Saint-Lambert

December 10, 2021 It's Going Down. Resist! Blockade, Canada, Indigenous Rights, Wet’suwet’en

On Saturday, more than sixty people acting in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders blocked the CN main line in Saint-Lambert south of Montreal for over six hours. It was the longest rail blockade in Quebec since the winter of 2020, interrupting Via Rail service and immobilizing six freight trains. These notes reflect the experience of a couple participants in Saturday’s blockade. Nostalgia mixed with anticipation as we arrived at the tracks where they cross rue Saint-Georges, with banners ready to hang across the rail crossing and no police in sight. It was a bright morning, temperatures just below freezing and the ground snowless, a contrast with that first night in February 2020, when temperatures sunk to 25 below and snow could be piled into mounds atop the rails.

Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs Evict Government Liaison Nathan Cullen

November 28, 2021 Brent Patterson, PBI Canada. Resist! Canada, Coastal GasLink Pipeline, Indigenous Sovereignty, Wet’suwet’en

The Gitxsan have posted on Instagram: “Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs evict MLA Nathan Cullen from Gitxsan Lax’yip [territory].” Their post continues: “The NDP has failed to uphold good relations with our peoples, and due to the violence inflicted on Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan Wilp [house group] members, the NDP is no longer welcome on our territories.” “Someone needs to be accountable for the violent actions inflicted upon our peoples and territories by the RCMP and Coastal GasLink.” It concludes: “We do not believe these are simply renegade police actions following the rulings of a mere Provincial Court. We know that the feds and the province are guilty of trying to exterminate our way of life.” Cullen was a federal NDP Member of Parliament from June 2004 to October 2019.

Violence Against Wet’suwet’en And Apparent Police, Industry Collusion

November 27, 2021 Brent Patterson, Rabble.ca. Resist! Canada, Coastal GasLink Pipeline, Indigenous Rights, Pipelines, Wet’suwet’en

By January 24, 2014, the RCMP’s Critical Infrastructure Intelligence Team (CIIT) had produced an intelligence assessment on Criminal Threats to the Canadian Petroleum Industry that notes “violent aboriginal extremists” and includes in Appendix E an article from the Georgia Straight that briefly mentions the Unist’ot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation. A further document dated April 1, 2015, from the Government Operations Centre (GOC), which compiles information from the RCMP and other agencies, describes an unnamed Unist’ot’en leader as an “aboriginal extremist.” Within five years of that second report, the RCMP had launched two militarized raids against the Wet’suwet’en.

Wet’suwet’en Supporters Shut Down LaSalle Causeway

November 25, 2021 Owen Fullerton, Toronto Star. Resist! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Solidarity, Wet’suwet’en

A blockade shut down the LaSalle Causeway for part of Sunday afternoon. The Causeway was unusable for nearly an hour due to the protest, before Kingston Police officers were dispatched to remove the crowd from the crossing between Kingston East and downtown. This comes in the wake of continued and escalating RCMP presence, which on Thursday saw dozens of heavily armed police officers move in on a blocked stretch of access road, arresting fifteen. Among those fifteen arrested were two journalists documenting the standoff.

52nd National Day Of Mourning To Be Observed In Plymouth

November 24, 2021 UAINE, Popular Resistance. Resist! Indigenous Sovereignty, National Day of Mourning, Thanksgiving, Wet’suwet’en

According to UAINE youth coordinator Kisha James, who is Aquinnah Wampanoag and Oglala Lakota and the granddaughter of Wamsutta Frank James, the founder of National Day of Mourning, “We Native people have no reason to celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims. We want to educate people so that they understand the stories we all learned in school about the first Thanksgiving are nothing but lies. Wampanoag and other Indigenous people have certainly not lived happily ever after since the arrival of the Pilgrims. To us, Thanksgiving is a Day of Mourning, because we remember the millions of our ancestors who were murdered by uninvited European colonists such as the Pilgrims. Today, we and many Indigenous people around the country say, ‘No Thanks, No Giving.’"

Wet’suwet’en Block Effort To Tunnel Under Morice River

October 5, 2021 Amanda Follett Hosgood, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, Environment, Pipelines, Wet’suwet’en

At the turnoff, four workers with Coastal GasLink security gather in orange and yellow vests, their voices edged with frustration as they talk above four idling pickup trucks that release a haze of exhaust into the early morning light. Another pickup faces off against the group, blocking access to the rough and muddy spur road that leads to the pipeline worksite. It’s a scene that has played out every day for the past week and a half on Wet’suwet’en territory, as land defenders block pipeline workers from accessing a site where Coastal GasLink is preparing to drill under the Morice River and install the pipeline. On Sept. 24, protesters used Coastal GasLink’s own machinery to dig up the rough resource road that connects this junction to a worksite two kilometres beyond.

Violence Against Indigenous Peoples Is Happening In Plain Sight

February 18, 2021 Brandi Morin, Toronto Star. Educate! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Police violence, Wet’suwet’en

It’s been just over one year since the RCMP raided Wet’suwet’en camps along the route of the Coastal Gas Link (CGL) LNG pipeline in Northern B.C. Brandishing guns and tactical gear, the RCMP arrested dozens of Indigenous land defenders and supporters who defied an injunction obtained by CGL to not impede the construction right of way. The raids evoked outrage that saw supporters across Canada erect railway blockades and highway shutdowns. Demonstrators gathered by the thousands in the streets demanding governments, police and industry to uphold Indigenous rights and stop construction of the pipeline.

One Year Anniversary Of Wet’suwet’en Protests, Blockades

February 12, 2021 Adam Olsen. Resist! Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Pipelines, Wet’suwet’en

The protests were a result of the BC NDP’s decision to press ahead with the Coastal GasLink pipeline through the Wet’suwet’en territory using militarized RCMP to enforce their decision. I had just returned from a visit to the territory. I was invited by the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs to witness firsthand their beautiful lands and the violence delivered by the BC NDP government. As the protestors pulsed with anger, solidarity blockades popped up on rail lines and other infrastructure across the country. Just a few short weeks after passing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in November 2019, it looked like 2020 was going to be a difficult year for Crown-Indigenous relations in British Columbia.

How The Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Actions Changed Their Lives

January 30, 2021 Emily Fagan, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, Indigenous Sovereignty, Pipelines, Wet’suwet’en

It was the first week of Kolin Sutherland-Wilson’s final semester at the University of Victoria. But he wasn’t there. Instead, on a chilly January morning in 2020, he sat alone on the front steps of the British Columbia legislature, dressed warmly and holding signs that called on provincial leaders to stand with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs opposing the Coastal GasLink project in their traditional territory. For a week, he spent all day on the steps. MLAs and staff who passed by barely glanced at him. But soon friends, classmates and community members joined him. The growing group took on bigger actions — a ferry blockade and a sit-in at the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum resources.

Wet’suwet’en Call On Province To Close Pipeline Work Camps

December 4, 2020 Amanda Follett Hosgood, The Tyee. Resist! Canada, COVID-19, Man Camps, Pipeline, Wet’suwet’en

Members of the Wet’suwet’en Nation are calling on B.C.’s public health officer to shut down work camps operating on their territory as COVID-19 numbers rise in northern B.C. In an open letter to Dr. Bonnie Henry signed by 22 Ts’ako ze’, or female chiefs, the women express “grave concern” over continued construction of the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline through the region. Three work camps currently house close to 700 people on Wet’suwet’en territory, according to the pipeline builder’s November update.

Wet’suwet’en Clans Endorse Governance Agreement With Canada And BC

May 8, 2020 The Energy Mix. Create! Indigenous People, Oil and Gas, Sovereignty, Wet’suwet’en

Wet’suwet’en clans in British Columbia have ratified a memorandum of understanding that will see them take back management of their traditional territories, although one clan says the deal doesn’t go far enough in response to the controversial Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline now being built across their lands. The communities’ deliberation over the draft agreement between the Wet’suwet’en, Canada, and British Columbia took two months, and the result “could change the future of Indigenous rights and title negotiations in B.C.,” The Narwhal reports. It has yet to be ratified by Ottawa or B.C. “The Wet’suwet’en People have reached consensus and have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding between the federal government and province of B.C. to resume the full management of our yintahs [traditional territory] using our governance system...

Women Are The Face Of Mohawk Resistance

March 1, 2020 Christopher Curtis, Montreal Gazette. Resist! Indigenous Rights, Oil and Gas, Wet’suwet’en, Women

Kanesatake — Brigitte Rice had been on her feet for 24 hours by Tuesday morning, hoisting the Warrior flag in one hand and using the other to slow traffic into Mohawk territory. She came to the blockade Monday to “hold it down” for the protesters arrested for stopping rail traffic in Tyendinaga that morning. Hours after the raid, Rice was among the dozens of Mohawks on the front lines in Kanesatake, sealing off access to the reserve to show solidarity with her sister community. They lifted the blockade early Tuesday and are allowing a single lane of traffic to pass through the reserve along Route 344. “My son asked me if he would have to do this when he grows up. It hit me hard,” Rice said. “I really hope he doesn’t have to. I was watching live when the RCMP moved into the Wet’suwet’en camp. I started crying. It really hurt me.

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