Tag: Coastal Gaslink

Idaho: Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Actions Supporting Indigenous Rights

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cross-posted from Wild Idaho Rising Tide

via Wild Idaho Rising Tide

Media contact: Helen Yost, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com, 208-301-8039

Friday, February 21, Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Actions Supporting Indigenous Rights

  • Sandpoint, Idaho (Kalispel Territory): 12 pm on the?southwest corner of North Third Avenue and Oak Street, across from the Farmin Park clock, with the weekly, 350Sandpoint Climate Strike
  • Spokane, Washington (Spokane Territory): 3 pm at the park on the southeast corner of North Division Street and East Martin Luther King, Jr. Way
  • Moscow, Idaho (Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) Territory): 5:30 pm at Friendship Square on the west side of South Main Street at West Fourth Street, with the weekly, Palouse Peace Coalition demonstration

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), #No2ndBridge, and regional, climate activists are hosting demonstrations in Spokane, Washington, and Moscow and Sandpoint, Idaho, on Friday, February 21, in solidarity with five Wet’suwet’en Nation clans in west central British Columbia (B.C.) defending their sovereignty from Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) invasions imposing TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) fracked gas pipeline from northeastern B.C., across unceded, Wet’suwet’en territories, to an unbuilt, liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Kitimat, B.C.  The clans’ hereditary chiefs have not provided their free, prior, and informed consent, as required by law, and have unanimously opposed the pipeline and police occupations.  They closed the Morice West Road into their lands and on January 4, evicted CGL from their territories, where it was building housing for 400-plus workers.

Amid rising tensions, RCMP attempted to enforce a December 2019, B.C. Supreme Court injunction that seeks to block Wet’suwet’en people from their traditional lands, by establishing an exclusion zone that eases CGL access to pipeline sites.  On February 6 to 10, militarized police with rifles, dogs, vehicles, and helicopters staged multiple raids of two Gidimt’en clan camps and checkpoints along the road, and the Unist’ot’en clan’s healing center beyond the gated, Morice River bridge.  At gunpoint, they detained journalists, arrested and removed 28 tribal members and supporters, some while in ceremony, towed resident vehicles, and dismantled camps, sacred fires, and dozens of red dresses strung along the road to symbolize the missing and murdered, indigenous women and girls victimized by transient, pipeline “man camps.”

Denouncing Canada’s failed reconciliation processes with First Nations, indigenous and allied, frontline activists across Canada and around the Earth have sustained scores of protests, marching, rallying, and blockading at government offices and buildings, city streets and highways, and ports and train tracks.  Canadian and western Washington sabotage and blockades of relatively indefensible rail lines connecting ports, refineries, and passenger and freight traffic have caused major railroad networks to cancel services, discouraged investments in energy projects, and disrupted business-as-usual, national economies.

Inland Northwest solidarity actions support Wet’suwet’en rights and title to their lands and waters and increasing, worldwide opposition to fossil fuels extraction, transportation, infrastructure, and pollution risks and impacts to public and environmental health and safety, which privatize public police and officials and criminalize land, water, and climate protectors.  Protest organizers encourage participants to learn more about Wet’suwet’en resistance to colonization, contact Canadian politicians to demand that they stop police violence, donate toward the Wet’suwet’en legal fund, and attend a demonstration in Moscow, Sandpoint, and Spokane on Friday, February 21.  For further issue and event information and ideas for relevant signs and banners, please see Wet’suwet’en supporter toolkits [1, 2], the international solidarity actions page [3], WIRT website and facebook event posts [4, 5], and the attached flyer.  Dress for winter warmth and dryness, bring friends, family, and creative signs, assist with carpools to these community events, and contact WIRT with your questions and suggestions.

[1] Wet’suwet’en Strong: Supporter Toolkit, Unist’ot’en Camp

[2] Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Art Kit

[3] When Justice Fails: Wet’suwet’en Strong Solidarity Actions, February 16, 2020 Harsha Walia

[4] Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Actions, February 16, 2020 Wild Idaho Rising Tide (website)

[5] Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Actions, February 16, 2020 Wild Idaho Rising Tide (facebook)

 

Guardian: New train blockade piles pressure on Trudeau in Wet’suwet’en pipeline fight

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cross-posted from the Guardian

via Cuzzins for Wet’suwet’en

New train blockade piles pressure on Trudeau in Wet’suwet’en pipeline fight

Group of about 20 blocked Canadian National Railway Co rail line near Edmonton, capital of the western province of Alberta

Demonstrators opposed to a Canadian gas pipelinehave blockaded another railway line in the west of the country, adding to pressure on Justin Trudeau to solve a two-week protest.

Freight traffic in eastern Canada has already been stopped for days after campaigners blockaded a main line in Ontario. Protesters across the country have taken up the cause of the Wet’suwet’en indigenous people who are seeking to stop the C$6.6bn (US$4.98bn) Coastal GasLink gas pipeline project in British Columbia.

On Wednesday, a group of about 20 people blocked a Canadian National Railway Co rail line near Edmonton, the capital of the western province of Alberta.

“They’re on the CN property, and we’re working with the CN police to resolve it,” a local police spokesman, Barry Maron, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Television footage showed the group standing on the rails behind a banner that read “No pipelines on stolen land.” The company said it was assessing legal options.

Trudeau, who insists his government will not use force against the protesters, toughened his language on Wednesday, calling the disruptions unacceptable.

The blockades pose a delicate challenge for Trudeau, who says one of his main priorities is to improve relations with Canada’s marginalized and impoverished indigenous population.

“This government is working extremely hard to resolve this situation. We know people are facing shortages, they’re facing disruptions, they’re facing layoffs – that’s unacceptable,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

His tone was noticeably harsher than in a speech he gave to legislators on Tuesday in which he stressed the importance of “dialogue and mutual respect”.

Canada’s main opposition parties say the federal government should send in police to clear the blockades, which are also hitting Quebec, Canada’s second most populous province.

Quebec’s premier, François Legault, on Wednesday demanded Trudeau come up with a timetable to end the blockades.

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Downtown Seattle Rail Lines Blocked in Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders

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Downtown Seattle Rail Lines Blocked in Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders

Mass Protests Currently Erupting Across Canada, Spreading Globally

SEATTLE, WA – Today, on Sunday, February 16, dozens of people in downtown Seattle blockaded the rail lines to show support for Wet’suwet’en Nation hereditary chiefs who evicted Coastal Gas Link Pipeline workers from their territory in early January.

Starting on February 7th, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police used assault rifles, snipers, dogs, sound cannons and helicopters to carry out a four-day militarized police raid to remove peaceful Indigenous land defenders from their homes on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory.

The removal of Indigenous people from their homes has sparked mass protests throughout Canada. Indigenous peoples and allies are gathering at government buildings throughout the country, blockading the offices of Coastal GasLink and its financial backers, and shutting down ports, streets, bridges, and rail lines in support of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. These actions, particularly those targeting the railways, are having a huge impact, with large portions of the Canadian rail network shut down.

“It is important these actions take place. They help to bring attention to the atrocities that these fossil fuel companies are inflicting against Mother Earth and vulnerable communities,” said Rachel Heaton, member of the Muckleshoot Tribe and founder of Mazaska Talks. “We stand with Wet’suwet’en People in this fight against these greedy corporations and the Canadian government, and we uplift them, because their fight is our fight.”

Unistoten.Camp: Six Land Defenders Violently Arrested on Wet’suwet’en Territories

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cross-posted from Unistoten.camp

[Breaking story, info incoming] February 6, 2020:

Six people have been arrested and several others, including members of the press, have been detained and removed from Wet’suwet’en territories in an aggressive pre-dawn raid by RCMP on behalf of Coastal GasLink (TC Energy). Reports and footage are coming in from the siege. Dogs were used, media was banned from filming arrests. Militarized police with night vision and automatic weapons raided the camp in the dead of night.

Legal Fund 

Supporter Toolkit 

All photos by Jesse Winter @jwints

All photos by Jesse Winter @jwints