Unist'ot'en camp

Occupied Dish with One Spoon Territory Hamilton, ON

As of approximately 9am on Monday January 14th, a group entered & shut down a TransCanada (Now TC-Energy) facility in what is Dish with One Spoon Territory, known as Hamilton, ON. The facility, located at 1020 Rymal Road East, is a compressor station for the “Chippewa” line, which imports natural gas from the Appalachia region and directs it East beyond Tkaronto, as well as West toward the Empress connection which fuels tarsands operations in Northern Alberta.

The action is being done in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en peoples at Unist’ot’en & the Gidumt’en checkpoint, who were violently attacked and arrested on their own unceded homelands by police one week ago. In response to the armed violence and fourteen arrests, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have temporarily allowed TC-Energy workers onto the territory to begin field survey work, but assert there will be no pipelines built.

The group taking actions acknowledges itself as a mostly-settler and white-passing group; one that sees silence and inaction in these moments as complicity, and who see their responsibility as settlers to challenge and dismantle the harmful systems their ancestors have enacted....

A Peoples' Assembly could help First Nations assert their own sovereignty

Canada’s military assault against the Wet'suwet'en nation, the RCMP’s media blackout of the forceful removal of leaders from their land, and the access given to private contractors while the nation’s members were barred is only the latest example of how this country has failed Indigenous peoples and violated their sovereignty. Canada has shown its true colours as a violent petro-state, controlled by corporate interests and perpetuating colonialism for private gains.

Alberta’s premier, Rachel Notley, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline will be built despite massive opposition from local municipalities, the government of British Columbia, and citizens, but the army was not brought in against them, and B.C.’s premier, John Horgan, was not forcefully removed. Canada has a particular willingness to trample First Nations’ rights.

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Trudeau likes to claim that Canada supports nation-to-nation discussions on important issues, that Indigenous peoples are consulted and that their voices are heard and included in the decision-making process. This is at best a patronizing farce meant to invalidate any future objections. In an emergency meeting between Alberta, B.C., and Canada, Indigenous leaders were never considered for inclusion. As a colonial power, Canada continues to redefine Indigenous peoples’ power in whatever way is most advantageous and convenient to the private interests of the rich.

Canada and its constitution have failed Canadians and Indigenous peoples. Self-determination is a fundamental value of democracy. Ordinary people must have control over the decisions that concern them. We cannot be democrats and accept that the Canadian federation can force the will of oil companies on the peoples of Canada, who are speaking and acting out against this project and others like it.

There is only one solution. We need a Peoples’ Assembly to talk about sovereignty, not just for Quebec, but for Indigenous peoples. We need a new arrangement for people outside of the major power centres of Ottawa and Bay Street to ensure that Canadians can protect their drinking water without their access to health care being threatened.

The only party calling for such an assembly is Quebec Solidaire. As anglophones, we can force this dialogue to reflect the fundamental problems of our society: sovereignty for Indigenous peoples to govern themselves and their land traditionally, power for ordinary people to protect their land, and sovereignty from Ottawa but also from Bay Street and international capitalists.

..maybe the polling doesn't reflect it but it is real none the less. there is massive opposition. 

Canadian association of petroleum producers being occupied in ottawa right now!

Smoke, mirrors and roadblocks leave Canadians in the dark about Uni’sto’ten

Rachel A. Snow

2019 opens with Indigenous peoples PROTECTING their territory while Justin Trudeau’s Canada continues to try to deceive the Canadian public about the real relations between his government and the original people of this land.

At Unist’oten, RCMP enforced an interim court order delivered December 14, 2018. Less than one month later, the RCMP are on site to uphold “the rule of law” as Trudeau puts it.

Canadians should know that Trudeau cherry picks when his government will uphold the “rule of law”. This is clear in the First Nation child welfare crisis with babies being removed from mothers in hospitals, with 90,000 documents not given to the Human Rights Tribunal in Cindy Blackstock’s case, and with the federal Liberals continuing to refuse to compile with a court ordered remedy.

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Unist’oten like the recent stand off in Standing Rock over pipeline construction has had to bear the brunt of a foreign court with settler laws deciding the fate of their collective ability to follow their ancient ways of life. Is this fair?

Additionally, having to leave or ignore their ancestral teachings, the original people or First Nations are expected to embrace Whitespeak solutions like reconciliation without really having any say other than the paternal special words and tactics (SWAT) promoted by the government of the day.

This is our reality Canada.

Things are not getting better between the state and the original people, the First Nations, the Indians.

In Unist’oten for the media sources that did get into the site, the questions asked pertained to why there are two different forms of leadership at Unist’oten? Premier Hogan used political mish mashing and threw in the word complexity while the Prime Minister would not address it but later said, we need to do better.

In a nutshell, non-native academics have shown that Indian agents from the Department of Indian Affairs threw out First Nation original governance systems. Indian agents preferred to work with the more malleable band members. With “democracy” and “the voting elections” brought into Canadian Indian reserves, by Indian Affairs, it is easy to see that an unchanging demographic will result in the biggest family or clan controlling the vote, the leadership, and by extension the reserve.

This is why there are occasional documents or incidents that surface about corruption or mismanagement on reserve. The missing part of the analysis is that Indian Affairs under the Federal government has created and maintains this systemic wrong at the expense of other band members and Canadians.

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Cases like Nisga’a, Sparrow, Delgamuukw, and Haida came out of this province on land title, rights pertaining to fishing, land title and rights pending title agreement. It seems that Canada or British Colombia can’t negotiate title which is the bigger issue because: with definitive agreement on who “owns” the land, First Nations will receive all other “aboriginal” rights.

Hogan tried to state that hereditary clans of leadership of the Wet’suwet’en are the “emerging” governance models coming out in the clash at Unist’oten. Wrong. The hereditary leadership and their clans are the true governance system that existed for millennia pre-contact.

Once it became clear that mainstream media was zeroing in on two groups the Indian Act Band council consenters and the hereditary leadership that is saying they do not consent, this issue was somehow “settled”. LNG subsidiaries are driving through the Unist’oten camp undisturbed.

Trudeau also got a letter from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination stating his proposed “framework” would infringe on Indigenous peoples rights to be protected at International law. Trudeau then shuffles his cabinet demoting his top “aboriginal” Minister from Justice to Veteran Affairs.

Wetsuweten Voice is live now. in smithers.

..i get it when i hit the link. try this.

https://www.facebook.com/wetsuweten/videos/1985917108172333/

..live feed just ended. excellent gathering in smithers. main message this is far from over.

..for anyone that's interested it canbe viewed here. video 1hr 11min.

Cabinet shuffle shows reconciliation dropping in priority for Trudeau, say Indigenous advocates

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Indication of priorities

Hayden King, executive director of the Yellowhead Institute research centre at Ryerson University in Toronto, said the cabinet shuffle signals a shift in priorities for the Trudeau Liberal government.

King said Philpott was well liked by the elected First Nations leadership, but the loss of Wilson-Raybould at Justice delivers a particular blow because her department plays a pivotal role in the relationship between Canada and Indigenous Peoples.

"Having Jody Wilson-Raybould out of the Attorney General's office when she was pushing so much on a more progressive approach on Indigenous justice issues and litigation is an indication that the Trudeau Liberals are not prioritizing that relationship heading into the election," said King.

In one of Wilson-Raybould's last acts as minister, she issued a directive aimed at guiding the government to settle Indigenous rights cases rather than spend millions in court fighting them.

Wilson-Raybould said in a statement accompanying the directive that the aim was to "advance an approach to litigation that promotes resolution and settlement and ... narrow or avoid potential litigation."

'Promises ring hollow'

Turpel-Lafond said Wilson-Raybould seemed to have been signalling in speeches delivered over the past few months that she was meeting internal resistance to reforming Ottawa's approach to Indigenous rights.

"There was certainly …. at least through the eyes of this most prominent Indigenous member of that cabinet, a concern that things were not being accelerated," said Turpel-Lafond.

"They were perhaps being decelerated, and they were also being managed more than they were being resolved."

Turpel-Lafond referred to one speech in particular delivered by Wilson-Raybould on Nov. 29 in Vancouver.

"Within government, when discussing matters of Indigenous rights, one still often finds a seeming disproportionate focus on 'risk' — speculation that the sky may fall," Wilson-Raybould said, according to a transcript of the speech.

Cheryl Casimer, a member of the First Nations Summit task force in B.C., said Philpott's and Wilson-Raybould's departures suggest Trudeau is no longer committed to reforging Canada's relationship with Indigenous Peoples, as he promised in a speech in the House of Commons last February.

CUPE supports reconciliation in Wet’suwet’en Territory and across Canada

The Canadian Union of Public Employees is offering solidarity and support to the people of the Wet’suwet’en Nation in British Columbia.

CUPE is relieved that the police standoff has been averted for the time being, and hopeful that the federal government will recognize that it is long past time for real action when it comes to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

“Canadians were shocked to see the aggressive action of heavily armed police at the Unist’ot’en camp as they removed peaceful protestors and blocked access to journalists,” says Mark Hancock, national president of CUPE. “We would never accept this kind of behaviour towards striking workers on a picket line. Protest is a fundamental right, and the Wet’suwet’en people have a right to protect their unceded territory.”

The five clans of the Wet’suwet’en have never signed a treaty with Canada and have never ceded their territory in central British Columbia. For almost a decade, the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have maintained several checkpoints and camps to halt any development in their territories from proceeding without their consent. Last week, heavily armed police began dismantling these checkpoints, and forcefully removed peaceful land defenders.

“If the Prime Minister and his government are truly committed to reconciliation, to the UN Declaration, and to building a better relationship with Indigenous peoples, the time and place to prove it is right here and right now,” says Charles Fleury, national secretary-treasurer of CUPE.

Department Statement Regarding Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders

The UBC Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory condemns the invasion of the Unist’ot’en Camp and Gidimt’en checkpoint and forcible removal of citizens and land and water protectors from the unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. Concerned members of the department have written the following statement to President Santa Ono urging action.

Dear President Santa Ono,

The undersigned faculty, staff and students of The Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory are writing to register our solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in the face of assaults by armed RCMP officers on the Unist’ot’en Camp, and urge you to make a public statement opposing these tactics and supporting the rights of the people of the Wet’suwet’en nation.

As we are sure you know, heavily-armed RCMP officers, in some cases wearing tactical camouflage fatigues, raided the peaceful, non-violent Gidimt’en checkpoint on January 7 and arrested 14 members of the Gidimt’en clan.

The Wet’suwet’en have called on all people of conscience to act in solidarity. We believe that the University of British Columbia’s commitment to the truth and reconciliation process commits it further to speaking out against such dangerous violations of the sovereignty of the Wet’suwet’en nation and their rights to safeguard their land and culture.

Our department like many others in the University, has Indigenous faculty, staff and students who along with many of their colleagues, are deeply distressed about such repressive measures undertaken by the Canadian state. This is in violation both of its stated position on reconciliation and its commitments under international law, namely the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, of which it is a signatory.

The University of British Columbia has a moral obligation to take a stand in support of the rights and sovereignty of the Wet’suwet’en nation. We call on you to speak out and send a strong signal that these sovereign rights are recognized and supported by the University.

Sincerely,
The undersigned

Statement on the situation in Wet’suwet’en First Nation

We as Indigenous and non-Indigenous Anglicans are writing to express our concern and distress about disturbing events in Wet’suwet’en land this past week. Specifically, we are concerned about the arrests at the Gitdimt’en checkpoint on Monday, January 7th, 2019. Our concern is threefold: 1) This action willfully ignores the right of the Wet’suwet’en People to free, prior, and informed consent as is their inherent right and as delineated throughout the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2) This action willfully ignores the authority of the traditional hereditary leadership of the Wet’suwet’en People, and 3) The use of this type of unnecessary and violent force to dismantle the checkpoint and arrest and incarcerate land defenders demonstrates a dedicated disregard for the fundamental principles of Indigenous Rights.....

The Most Rev. Fred Hiltz

Primate, Anglican Church of Canada

The Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald
National Anglican Indigenous Bishop, Anglican Church of Canada

The Rt. Rev. Barbara Andrews
Bishop of the Territory of the People, Anglican Church of Canada

The Rt. Rev. David Lehmann
Bishop of Caledonia, Anglican Church of Canada

The Most Rev. Melissa Skelton
Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of BC and Yukon, Anglican Church of Canada

Unist'ot'en Solidarity in Langford [Action Blocking Highway 14, RCMP and John Horgan Office]…

Indigenous and settler supporters of the Unist'ot'en Camp blocked Highway 14, the Westshore RCMP building, and John Horgan's Constituency Office in Langford. (Esquimalt and Songees Territories, January 16)

We stand with the hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en who have said NO to pipeline developments in their territories. We stand in solidarity as they assert their indigenous laws and resist repression from RCMP, BC NDP and Federal Government. Solidarity with Unist'ot'en Camp and Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gidumt'en Territory

Press release for this action:
https://drive.google.com/open…

When Indigenous Assert Rights, Canada Sends Militarized Police

The use of heavily armed RCMP to enforce a court injunction and tear down an Indigenous blockade against TransCanada’s Coastal GasLink pipeline in northwestern British Columbia last week was part of a familiar pattern, say criminologists.

“It seems like Canada uses a show of force and police repression whenever it wants to contain First Nations exercising their aboriginal rights and title,” said Shiri Pasternak, a criminologist at Ryerson University and director of the Yellowhead Institute, a research centre focused on First Nations land and governance issues.

“Canada is creating the problem by refusing to recognize what its own courts are saying about aboriginal rights and title,” added Pasternak.

Over the last decade rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada and lower courts have established that Canadian governments have a duty to consult and accommodate Indigenous people before resources are extracted from their land, and that in many cases their land and title rights have not been extinguished.

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Jeffrey Monaghan, a criminology professor at Carleton University who co-authored Policing Indigenous Movements: Dissent and the Security State with Andrew Crosby said the dismantling of the Wet’suwet’en blockade was intended to send a national message.

“It was very carefully choreographed to communicate to the national audience that any protests against oil and gas pipelines are going to be cracked down upon. I think it was highly symbolic. Police action doesn’t stop with the Wet’suwet’en,” said Monaghan.

He added that the Canadian government has expanded its security apparatus and normalized the police surveillance of social movements in recent years, including First Nations defending their land and title rights.

And the use of the RCMP to enforce court injunctions has become a routine practice.

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Governments and companies first deny the existence of Aboriginal rights and title, she said.

When that fails, they recognize the rights but engage in negotiations to contain them. And if that doesn’t end the protests, the state will employ police force for pacification, she said.

In the process the protesters are often portrayed as “lawless Indigenous protesters, when it is really the state engaging in lawless behaviour,” said Pasternak.

She said the late aboriginal leader Arthur Manuel often described court injunctions as “legal Billy clubs.”

Unist’ot’en: Unceded. Undefeated.

FORCE IS NOT CONSENT.

January 17, 2019: Following a landmark press conference yesterday, with the support of leaders from all over “BC”, the Wet’suwet’en and Unist’ot’en remain steadfast in the determination that we will be successful in halting the toxic Coastal GasLink pipeline, and all that threaten the health and safety of unceded and unsurrended territories. Over 200 packed the Dze L K’ant Friendship Centre in Smithers for the press conference to hear from Chiefs, Unist’ot’en and Gitdumt’en members. A demonstration took place afterwards with large numbers in support. (Full video of the Press Conference here) There have also been tens of thousands of supporters demonstrating in solidarity actions around the world.

Some of you may be thinking we’ve lost. That we’ve made an agreement with industry. That we are bending, conceding, giving up. This is not true. We will never give up. There will be no pipelines on our Yin’tah. The Unist’ot’en have never been defeated. We will win this fight, and we will do it with integrity and honour, as we have always done.

Our hereditary chiefs witnessed the brutality of the RCMP at 44. The militarized police force. The snipers and automatic weapons. Canada came to our territories poised for battle. They came to invade us for industry.

Unist’ot’en yin’tah is a place of healing. It is home to Wet’suwet’en people seeking refuge from colonial trauma. People recovering from addiction. People reconnecting with the land. Our chiefs love our people and want them to thrive. We would not send our ill and healing people to war. We would not tell our people to fight on a day of mourning.

CGL and RCMP have twisted our words and misrepresented our intentions. They raided our land one day and showed up offering protection the next. We do not trust them. They are liars, and bullies, and colonizers, and thieves. But we are not like them. We know what we are doing is right.

We follow our laws and protocols. We respect each other. We are up against a heartless company and a faceless state. CGL dismantled the gate on a funeral day. RCMP blocked the road so we could not attend the funeral or feast. We gathered together, held each other up. This is what we do in the face of violence and oppression. We remember our teachings. This is why we are still here, still strong, still fighting. We learn from the land how to be resilient, how to grow. We turn to our story as Wet’suwet’en people, we turn to our culture and our laws. We know that is where our power lies.

We don’t need their guns or their money. We have the land and the water and the animals and all our relations. We don’t need their court orders and police enforcement. We have our Indigenous neighbours and relatives standing beside us. We don’t need their threats and intimidation. We have the strength of our ancestors within us. We don’t need their force and their violence. We have governed ourselves sustainably since time immemorial. We are still here. We are still fighting. This is not over.

We trust our hereditary chiefs. We trust our elders. We listen to them. We trust our systems of governance, which have lasted thousands of years and will last for thousands more. We respect the land.

Canada versus First Nations: Whose land is it anyway?

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The extinguishing of Indigenous rights

During a press conference on January 9 following the arrest of Unist'ot'en land protectors by the RCMP, BC Premier John Horgan offered that, “The challenge for governments, federal and provincial, is determining how we bring together the historic band council model [of governance] with... the emerging hereditary model that’s very much manifesting itself on Wet’suwet’en territory.”

Hayden King, executive director at the Yellowhead Institute at Ryerson University and a member of the Beausoleil First Nation, says statements like these erase thousands of years of history. He says the elected band council system that was imposed under the Indian Act and designed to mimic the Canadian system, ignores traditional First Nations governance models that were in place before.

“Those who say, ‘Hey, but what about the band council? They all approved this,’ are really using that as an alibi to justify this intervention.”

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Rethinking Canada's relationship to First Nations 

Jeff Corntassel, a faculty member of the Indigenous Studies Department at the University of Victoria and a member of the Cherokee Nation, says that what’s happening on Wet’suet’en territory is an act of Indigenous resurgence. 

“It’s a turning away from the state, but it’s also revitalizing and regenerating those connections to territory, language and community that need to happen in order for future generations to thrive,” he says. 

Corntassel says it’s important to step away from the legal aspects and remember that these are people exercising autonomy in the face of acute pressure. 

“These are real acts of resurgence going on and they will be long remembered. They will not be forgotten.”

For Tait, the hope is that what’s happening with the Wet’suet’en First Nation will force Canadians to rethink how they want their government’s relationship with Indigenous peoples to look.

“The path forward is some deference for the fact that our people have maintained and managed these territories for millennia and we’ve done so in a responsible way that ensured that they were here intact for the current generations,” Tait says. “That’s our charge for the future generations – it’s built into our Anuk Nu’at’en, our Wet’suet’en law."