Press Contacts:
Annie Banks Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Front Bay Area 510-631-4653
Emily Luba Wet’suwet’en Solidarity U.K. 074 294 63976
Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Groups Call on Private Equity Firm to Stop Investments in the Coastal GasLink Pipeline and Respect Indigenous Sovereignty
Online event part of international protests targeting Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., calling to stop construction of the controversial British Columbia pipeline.
COAST SALISH TERRITORIES: This week, a coalition of groups, including Rising Tide North America, Wet’suwet’en Solidarity UK, Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Front Bay Area and Greenpeace USA, launched a virtual “day of action” against Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and individuals sent over 7,500 emails, and 275 phone calls in a communication’s blockade to the private equity firm’s CEOs, New York headquarters, plus California and London offices.
Today’s day of action is in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs currently resisting the illegal construction of the Coast GasLink pipeline slated to cut through our territories at a huge environmental, social, and economic cost. The resistance to the Coastal GasLink project has been widespread, including rail blockades, port shutdowns, government office occupations, and sit-ins at legislatures and banks investing in this illegal pipeline project. As an organizer from London explains, “it is incredibly key that we put global pressure on KKR & Co. From the heart of the British empire, we are watching Indigenous genocide continue in so-called Canada at the hands of Coastal GasLink.”
“Despite the COVID-19 crisis, TC Energy is still going ahead with construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline and sending more workers and federal police officers onto Wet’suwet’en territories, putting communities at even more risk,” said organizer Vanessa Butterworth of Rising Tide North America. “Billionaire oil and gas CEOs see the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to push through whatever they can when the world is looking the other way.”
KKR has plans to purchase 65% of the Coastal GasLink pipeline with Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCo).
This 670-kilometer-long pipeline would carry fracked gas from northeast BC to a future liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the coast, the largest of its kind ever proposed in Canada. The pipeline would cut through Wet’suwet’en territory, which is divided into 5 clans and 13 house groups, and stretches over 22,000 square kilometres, wherein each clan has full jurisdiction to control access to its territory. The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have maintained their land use, occupancy, hereditary governance system, and are the title holders with authority and jurisdiction to make decisions about unceded lands, including the land where the pipeline is scheduled to be built.
For more information about other Wet’suwet’en solidarity actions around the globe, please see https://actionnetwork.org/letters/messagekkr
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