Unist'ot'en camp

..short video update

Link

Police have blocked the road at km 27. RCMP arrived at Gidumt'en Access Point about half an hour ago. The Hereditary Chiefs are on their way to the territory.

We can all learn from Wet’suwet’en laws

quote:

In a brilliant response to the injunction, the neighbouring Gitdimt’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en people set up a new checkpoint camp days after the ruling, preventing Coastal GasLink from proceeding to Unist’ot’en that day. The company then sought, and received, an expanded injunction, but the spirit of the land still speaks loud and clear through Gitdimt’en: no trespass on Wet’suwet’en lands.

This principled exercise of Indigenous sovereignty was breached by the violent trespass of Royal Canadian Mounted Police onto Wet’suwet’en lands yesterday, with 14 land protectors arrested so far.

When I visit Wet’suwet’en territories - lands recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada’s Delgamuukw decision as unceded - I am moved by how the people's bonds with the land are renewed by hunting, foraging, medicine-gathering and much more. For instance, just after I arrived, a newly hunted moose had given itself to help sustain the Gitdumt’en camp in the midst of winter, and the people in turn are protecting the habitat of the moose and so much more life.

quote:

As Dr. Karla Tait and Anne Spice point out, the injunction pushing for pipeline industry access to Wet’suwet’en land “shows blatant disregard for Anuk Nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law) which pre-dates Canadian and provincial law, for the feast system of governance that upholds Anuk Nu’at’en, and for Aboriginal title."

"Its enforcement would be illegal under both Canadian law and Anuk Nu’at’en," they add. "The dispute over the pipeline is, at heart, a struggle over the meaning of Aboriginal title and the rights of Indigenous peoples to determine the use of their unceded, unsurrendered ancestral territories.”

Having guided people for millennia on this land, traditional Indigenous laws like Anuk Nu’at’en provide more long-term wisdom than colonial laws because embedded within them is a respect for nature. They are ecologically intelligent in a way that western-imposed law is not because they recognize and respect physical limits, teaching us to only “take what we need, and leave the rest”. As such, I see the Wet’suwet’en exercise of their traditional laws and responsibilities as something that everyone needs to learn from in a time of climate emergency.

The Delgamuukw decision in 1997 affirmed the power of Aboriginal title within Canadian law. In particular, it pointed out how central their relationship to land is to Indigenous peoples’ cultures:

The content of aboriginal title contains an inherent limit in that lands so held cannot be used in a manner that is irreconcilable with the nature of the claimants’ attachment to those lands. This inherent limit arises because the relationship of an aboriginal community with its land should not be prevented from continuing into the future. Occupancy is determined by reference to the activities that have taken place on the land and the uses to which the land has been put by the particular group. If lands are so occupied, there will exist a special bond between the group and the land in question such that the land will be part of the definition of the group’s distinctive culture. Land held by virtue of aboriginal title may not be alienated because the land has an inherent and unique value in itself, which is enjoyed by the community with aboriginal title to it. The community cannot put the land to uses which would destroy that value.

(Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, Judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada)

..video of police coming over the barricade.

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Prince George courthouse this morning.

MP visits Wet’suwet’en blockade to support peaceful resolution

Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen is travelling to the Gitdumden checkpoint today, calling on the federal government to demonstrate its commitment to reconciliation by engaging with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.

“Following conversations with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary leadership, I intended today to travel to the Gidimt’en checkpoint to show my support for a peaceful resolution and contained dialogue between the RCMP and Wet’suwet’en,” Cullen said in a press release this afternoon.

“Together we were able to secure the passage of a number of Wet’suwet’en chiefs through the RCMP blockade to the Gidimt’en camp. I have been in contact with TransCanada, the BC and Canadian government as well as the RCMP to ask that all sides continue dialogue.”

ndpp

..no one is suggesting that in a nation to nation relationship that the courts are the agreed upon arbitrator. but this is a tool that can be used. as in the case of halting the trans mountain pipeline, as in the case of halting northern gateway, as in the case of halting line 3..as in the delgamuukw which addresses the issue of band vs hereditary consent. i support this wet’suwet’en / unist'ot'en position. this is not a just hoax and people are just being fooled. ubcic has cited delgamuukw.

..txs for that ndpp. i am not a lawyer so can't really argue against that. sadly unlike trans mountain and northern gateway  unist'ot'en camp doesn't seem have the kind of money raising ability needed to take this far..but we'll see how things unfold.   

NDPP wrote:

The worst thing that could happen is that their assertion of Indigenous sovereignty and the exclusive jurisdiction of their traditional leadership against Canada, its politicians, police and corporations is somehow exploited into a fund-raising campaign led by the Canadian/BC lawyers mafia, for another sovereignty-killing court case precedent like Delgamuukw. 

Incidentally, as a matter of actually existing and binding constitutional and international law, not to mention Gitxsan-Wetsuweten law, NDP MP Cullen has no lawful constituency on their unceded territories 'beyond the treaty frontier' either...

 

..indigenous folk will decide their own path. which allies to choose and when. which tools to use and when. this is the way of autonomy.

..trans mountain & northern gateway was funding raised by indigenous folk for the court cases. raised using indiginous infastructure. unist'ot'en camp funding comes from community group fund raisers. many the lefty radical types. the large environmental groups left long ago when the camp refused to change it's policy of no pipelines. so yes things have come a long way from when thing were different. now it's indigenous folk leading this pipeline/tarsands/climate struggle and raising their own funds. that's not to say enviro groups aren't involved. they are as one of many. and funding and physical support, i assume, of the camp is already rising from this recent attack from transcanada. this is necessary.

Support for Wet’suwet’en drives Trudeau to delay speech, change venues

Anger at Canada’s support for fossil fuel expansion boiled over Tuesday, driving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to physically change venues before giving a speech to Indigenous leaders in Ottawa — where he failed to mention a blockade in British Columbia that had spurred a nationwide solidarity movement.

Trudeau was originally scheduled to give opening remarks at 2:30 p.m. at a government building at 111 Sussex Drive in Ottawa, near his official residence, where an annual forum was being held concerning treaties between First Nations and the Crown.

But he wouldn’t be able to speak until after 4 p.m. He was rerouted at the last minute to another venue across downtown, at 180 Wellington Street opposite Parliament Hill, after a long column of demonstrators charged into the venue.

quote:

He took no questions from media before reporters were ushered out of the room, on a day that saw dozens of demonstrators march past heavy RCMP presence to express their frustration in chants, signs and cries of passion at the building on Sussex.

They are against a proposed 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink Pipeline in B.C. The TransCanada subsidiary wants to carry natural gas from the Dawson Creek area to Kitimat on the west coast.

Many had become furious at the government, after the RCMP arrested over a dozen people for blocking access to the pipeline project, at the Gitdumt'en checkpoint on Morice West Forest Service Road in northern B.C.

Die-in at 111 Sussex

A large crowd of demonstrators holding a red banner reading "RCMP off Wet’suwet’en Land" marches down Wellington Street in Ottawa near Parliament Hill on Jan. 8. Photo by Andrew Meade