Stand With the Wet'suwet'en!
Condemn the Violence of the
Colonial Canadian State!
Vancouver, February 6, 2020.
Early in the morning of February 6, RCMP in
tactical gear, and with dogs, guns drawn, and a
convoy of over a dozen vehicles, began removing
people from Wet'suwet'en traditional territory.
The target of the attack was the Gidimt'en Camp at
39KM (the distance from Highway 16) on the Morice
River Forest Service Road. RCMP were acting to
enforce an injunction that had been granted to
Coastal GasLink (CGL) by the BC Supreme Court on
December 31, 2019. Every effort was made by the
RCMP to prevent any journalists from observing and
reporting on what was taking place. The raid began
just before 5:00 am, when most people were
sleeping. At 6:22 am, the Unist'ot'en Camp
reported, "We have lost all communication
with the Gidimt'en watch post at 39KM after RCMP
smashed the window of the radio vehicle." The
window was smashed in order to arrest the person
who had been in the vehicle handling
communications. At 7:22 am, the Unist'ot'en Camp
reported, "36 vehicles, 1 ambulance and heavy
machinery went up from 4 KM. At least 2 bulldozers
and excavator."
 
February 6, RCMP raid Gidimt'en Camp at 39KM on
the Morice River Forest Service Road.
Within hours, more than 50 communities in Canada
and internationally, organized to hold actions
condemning the RCMP raid and the contemptible
behaviour of the governments of Canada and British
Columbia in refusing to meet with the Wet'suwet'en
hereditary chiefs. The hereditary chiefs issued an
eviction notice on January 4 to CGL, which
has invaded Wet'suwet'en land to construct a
portion of its pipeline to the LNG Canada plant in
Kitimat.
The RCMP raid had been anticipated and the people
were prepared and responded to the police and
through messages, including videos on social
media, reaffirming their right to defend the land
and its resources for the Wet'suwet'en people, and
their determination to not back down. On the same
day, the hereditary chiefs issued a press release
announcing that they had "filed an application for
a Judicial Review of the BC Environmental
Assessment Office (EAO) decision to extend the
environmental certificate for Coastal GasLink's
proposed fracked gas pipeline in Northwest BC for
another five years."
Bad Faith Negotiations Set the Stage for
Criminalization of Land Defenders
The police raid came exactly seven days after the
hereditary chiefs agreed to a proposed seven-day
period of talks with representatives of the BC
government, not including the Premier. The talks
ended after two days, on February 4, with no
resolution to the conflict, which was hardly
surprising as the Premier had declared, "I don't
expect the leadership to say tomorrow that they
love the pipeline. That's not my expectation. But
there needs to be a legitimate understating that
the majority of the people in the region are going
to benefit for this, and that's what dialogue will
produce." The hereditary chiefs participated in
good faith while the provincial government,
through its representative, Minister of Indigenous
Relations and Reconciliation Scott Fraser, did
not. During the entire seven days the RCMP were
massing in Houston, about 300 km northwest of
Prince George on Highway 16, preparing for the
invasion that the state had planned.
 The RCMP website
states: "On December 31, 2019, the BC Supreme
Court granted the Coastal GasLink interlocutory
injunction order against persons who interfere
with the Coastal GasLink project" and that, in
light of failed talks between the hereditary
chiefs and the BC government to come to an
agreement, and in light of the fact that the
maximum discretionary time stipulated by the
injunction had been reached, the RCMP had no
choice but to act.
In this manner, the RCMP spreads an outlook which
seeks to disorient Canadians about what is
happening and its significance. According to its
outdated colonial outlook, the RCMP is a neutral
party which is merely doing its job by upholding
the law whereas many would say it is the violent
instrument of the Canadian state, the financial
oligarchy and the gas and oil monopolies and their
governments, imposing their narrow private
interests above the interests of the Indigenous
and Canadian peoples. In this way, the
Wet'suwet'en are criminalized as persons "who
interfere with the Coastal GasLink project" and
must be stopped.
It is important to note that besides not having
the approval of the hereditary chiefs, who are the
traditional political authority within
Wet'suwet'en territory, CGL has not yet fully
complied with the legal requirements of the
Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) to address
what measures they will take to mitigate the
adverse effects of the pipeline, even though the
EAO has issued a permit for the pipeline
construction to proceed. The assessment report
submitted by CGL to the EAO does not even mention
the existence of the Unist'ot'en Healing Centre,
which represents a sacred healing centre for the
Unist'ot'en, one of the five clans that make up
the Wet'suwet'en Nation. The Unist'ot'en note that
their "Healing Centre was built with the
assistance of settler supporters working hand in
hand with us to fund and construct the
infrastructure that allows us to provide
self-determined culturally rooted, land-based
healing programming by, and for, Indigenous
Peoples. It is the fruition of decades of planning
and de-colonizing work. This vision of healing
through cultural revitalization and reconnection
to the land is the foundation of our land use
plan, and it depends on healthy, intact land."
On February 6, the day of the RCMP assault, the
hereditary chiefs filed for a judicial review of
the EAO's decision to give the green light to the
project.
In response to the violent invasion of
Wet'suwet'en territory and the arrests of the land
defenders, Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chief Na'Moks
denounced the attack stating: "Our people are
peaceful, our supporters are peaceful but they
came in with armed forces to remove people that
were peaceful [and] doing the right thing, at the
right time for the right reasons [...] We're
exercising our jurisdiction."
 The excuses given
by the Canadian state and the monopoly media to
justify pushing the pipeline and targeting the
Wet'suwet'en, conveniently covers up that the
Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs and people have
acted lawfully within their own Anuc'niwh'it'en
(Wet'suwet'en law), and international and Canadian
laws, which recognize the Wet'suwet'en as the
title holders of their territory, and they
continue to call for a peaceful solution to the
stand-off. It is the Canadian state that has acted
illegally to try to suppress the Wet'suwet'en
affirmation of their rights in their own
territory. What is also not recognized is that the
sovereign Wet'suwet'en nation and their laws are
equal in status politically to Canada and its
laws, and that this must be acknowledged and
respected as the basis of reconciliation between
Canada and Indigenous peoples. This is what the
Indigenous peoples and the Canadian people want
and are demanding, to break with Canada's colonial
past.
BC Chief Justice Margaret Church ruled in her
decision on January 31 granting the injunction
requested by CGL to proceed with the illegal
construction of the pipeline, that Wet'suwet'en
laws have no legal standing within the Canadian
legal system. They are simply not recognized.
Meanwhile, working people across the country have
no shortage of experience with Canadian law and
how it serves the financial oligarchy and their
narrow private interests, as in this case of
modern day colonialism.
This refusal to acknowledge the authority of
Indigenous laws within Indigenous territory is
reflected in the statement of the RCMP who have
now declared that the "exclusionary zone" is out
of bounds and it is their senior commander, not
the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs, who will
decide who can enter the "exclusionary zone." This
must not pass!
Molly Wickham, a spokesperson for the Gidimt'en
clan, part of the Wet'suwet'en nation, noted of
those arrested and later released without
conditions: "They're on their way back, and it's a
testament to the fact that we're not going
anywhere [...]
"You can arrest us, you can try to remove us from
the territory, you can remove us from the
territory violently, and we will always come
back."
Police Suppression of Journalists
As occurred in January 2019 when the RCMP
assaulted and removed people from Wet'suwet'en
territory, journalists were also harassed,
interfered with, threatened and prevented from
doing their work. Amber Bracken, a freelance
journalist for The Narwhal, a BC-based
publication, has been on site since January 12 and
is at the Unist'ot'en Camp at 66KM which, as of
5:00 pm February 6, was behind police lines -- an
exclusion zone set up at 27KM -- and had not been
raided. The Narwhal reported that she
finds herself in the challenging position of
risking arrest simply by documenting unfolding
events. The
Narwhal quoted Karyn Pugliese, President
of the Canadian Association of Journalists, saying
that "she confirmed reports that journalists were
told by the RCMP not to photograph or film
officers in tactical gear carrying assault rifles
or arrests -- or they'd be at risk of arrest
themselves. Police also detained journalists in a
van and removed them from the site."
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 3 - February 8, 2020
Article Link:
Stand
With the Wet'suwet'en!: Condemn the Violence of
the Colonial Canadian State!
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
