November 19

Toronto

Rally
Friday, November 19 – 11:30 am
155 Wellington St., Corner of Simcoe and Wellington
Facebook

Winnipeg

Rally
Friday, November 19 – 1:00 pm
Portage and Main
Rally followed by march to legislature

Burnaby

Rally
Friday, November 19 – 9:00 am
RCMP Headquarters, 6355 Deer Lake Ave

Vancouver

Rally
Friday, November 19 – 12:00-2:00 pm
City Hall, 12th and Cambie
Organized by Fridays for Future

November 20

Peterborough

Rally
Saturday, November 20 – 2:00 pm
Hunter St. Bridge
Facebook

Toronto

Rally
Saturday, November 20 – 2:00-3:00 pm
Matt Cohen Park (SE corner of Spadina and Bloor)
Facebook

Guelph

March and Rally
Saturday, November 20 – 12:00 pm
Gather, Farmers’ Market, 2 Gordon St.

Sarnia

Rally
Saturday, November 20 – 1:00-4:00 pm
Facebook

Background

On Sunday, November 14, Cas Yikh enforced the eviction notice issued to Coastal GasLink that was originally issued January 4, 2020. Coastal GasLink was given eight hours to evacuate the Yintah, to remove all pipeline workers trespassing on their territory, before Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders and supporters blocked the road, effectively stopping all work within Cas Yikh territory. For Gidimt’en Checkpoint press release click here.

On Wednesday chartered flights transported several dozen RCMP officers to Wet’suwet’en territory, while an exclusionary zone was set up by the RCMP at 28km, with hereditary chiefs, food, and medical supplies being turned away. On Thursday afternoon RCMP officers began arriving en masse at Wet’suwet’en encampments, and began making arrests. There had been 15 confirmed arrests by the evening of November 18. To read the press release from Gidimt’en Checkpoint click here. To watch livestream click here.

Wet’suwet’en people have been defending their territory from a dozen pipelines and their accompanying colonial state violence for over a decade. Over the past few months Coastal GasLink, with government and RCMP support, have continued to build a pipeline through Wet’suwet’en Territory, demolishing ancient sites and threatening the sacred waters of the Wedzin Kwa – all without the consent of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs. Under ‘Anuc niwh’it’en (Wet’suwet’en law) all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en have unanimously opposed all pipeline proposals and have not provided free, prior, and informed consent to Coastal GasLink/TC Energy to do work on Wet’suwet’en lands.

The 1997 Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the Delgamuukw-Gisdaywa court case affirmed that Aboriginal title – the right to exclusively use and occupy land — has never been extinguished across 55,000 km2 of Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan territories. Despite this, in 2019 and again in 2020, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have trespassed onto Wet’suwet’en territory and undertaken a series of militarized assaults, enacting violent arrests and following the orders of fossil fuel behemoth TC Energy.