UPDATE: The BC premier John Horgan has publicly said the CGL pipeline will be built and the situation has worsened in the last few days: “RCMP have increased equipment and personnel presence in the area, conducting fly-overs, drone surveillance, and foot patrols. They have restricted helicopter access to the area and established an “exclusion zone”, blocking roads into Wet’suwet’en villages and denying entry to Wet’suwet’en people. Police are demanding identification, controlling access, and plan to detain all individuals who leave our territory. Several reporters have been denied access to the area, while supply lines for food, medical supplies, and crucial winter gear are threatened.” Source 1 + Source 2
We’ve updated the list of email addresses and added phone numbers for the BC premier. Please take action again and share widely. Thank you!
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Indigenous Solidarity Ottawa is responding to the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s “International Call to Solidarity: All Eyes on Wet’suwet’en”:
Unceded and sovereign Wet’suwet’en land is under attack.
On December 31, 2019, BC Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church granted an injunction against members of the Wet’suwet’en nation who have been stewarding and protecting their traditional territories from the destruction of multiple pipelines, including Coastal GasLink’s (CGL) liquified natural gas (LNG) pipeline.
Hereditary Chiefs of all five Wet’suwet’en clans have rejected Church’s decision, which criminalizes Anuk ‘nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law), and have issued and enforced an eviction of CGL’s workers from the territory. The last CGL contractor was escorted out by Wet’suwet’en Chiefs on Saturday, January 4, 2020.
January 7, 2020, also marks one year since the RCMP violently raided the Wet’suwet’en territories and criminalized the nation for upholding their responsibilities towards their land. We also learned recently, through reporting by The Guardian quoting official documents, that RCMP commanders instructed officers, for the January 7, 2019 attack, to “use as much violence toward the gate as you want” and said that “lethal overwatch” – which describes the deployment of an officer who is prepared to use lethal force (including snipers) – was required.
In order to support Indigenous peoples, their rights and sovereignty, we urge you to take as many of the following actions as possible:
1. UPDATED Call the prime minister’s office and leave a message at 613-992-4211 (Parliamentary office) and/or at 514-277-6020 (Montreal constituency office), and call the BC Premier, John Horgan, at (250) 387-1715 (Parliamentary office) and/or at (250) 391-2801 (Victoria constituency office).
2. UPDATED Send an email to the prime minister, the BC premier, the public safety minister, the minister of crown-Indigenous relations, minister of natural resources, minister of environment and climate change, the minister of justice, the minister of Indigenous services, and your MP: pm@pm.gc.ca; justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca; premier@gov.bc.ca; john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca; Bill.Blair@parl.gc.ca; carolyn.bennett@parl.gc.ca; Seamus.ORegan@parl.gc.ca; Jonathan.Wilkinson@parl.gc.ca; David.Lametti@parl.gc.ca; Marc.Miller@parl.gc.ca; find your MP’s email address at https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en
Here’s a blurb you can use if you’d like:
Hello, I’m contacting you from [city] on [this Indigenous territory: find which one here: https://native-land.ca/] to urge you to:
– Stop colonial violence: stop using the RCMP or any other force to harass and criminalize Indigenous peoples from protecting their land, water, air and cultures, as well as dispossess Indigenous peoples of their traditional unceded territories;
– Respect the sovereignty as well as the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples as stated in the UN Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples, which includes respecting the refusal of pipelines and other resource-extracting projects that are damaging to the environment and for which the Wet’suwet’en nation have not given free, prior and informed consent to.
– Stop violently supporting those members of the 1% who are stealing resources and condemning our children to a world rendered uninhabitable by climate change.
3. Sign this new petition: http://chng.it/KMD9bjwLNy
4. Donate to Unist’ot’en at https://unistoten.camp/support-us/donate/
Donate to Gidimt’en at https://www.yintahaccess.com/becomeadonor
Donate to Likhts’amisyu at https://ca.gofundme.com/f/likhtsamisyu2019
More ways you can support the Wet’suwet’en nation: http://unistoten.camp/supportertoolkit2020/
5. Sign a letter to Coastal Gas Link demanding they respect the Wet’suwet’en eviction order (created by RAVEN): https://raventrust.com/unistoten/
Please invite your friends and share widely to our Facebook event, and send this page to all your contacts.
Thank you!
Indigenous Solidarity Ottawa (ISO) is a grassroots collective that supports Indigenous struggles for justice, sovereignty and decolonization. It is based in Ottawa on unceded Anishinaabe territory.
Sources:
https://unistoten.camp/alleyesonwetsuweten/
https://aptnnews.ca/2020/01/03/pipeline-5/
https://aptnnews.ca/2020/01/05/hereditary-chiefs-issue-eviction-notice-to-pipeline-company-in-wetsuweten-territory/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/canada-indigenous-land-defenders-police-documents
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/24/indigenous-people-outraged-at-canada-polices-possible-use-of-lethal-force
INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY OTTAWA 