NDP BC invades sovereign Wet'suwet'en territory, RCMP arrest defenders 2

..informative 22 min podcast

How Indigenous people are reclaiming jurisdiction over the land

The Yellowhead Institute has produced what it calls a Red Paper about reclaiming Indigenous jurisdiction and breathing life into rights and responsibilities. Land Back talks about how Canada dispossesses Indigenous peoples from the land and what communities are doing to get it back. We talk with Hayden King, co-author with Shiri Pasternak, of Land Back and executive director of the Yellowhead Institute at Ryerson University.

How far is #Canada willing to go to protect the billionaires who run the oil and gas industry? #wouldyoushootmetoo is a campaign by @canada_strike to show solidarity with Wet'suwet'en land defenders who are fighting all of us.

Here is a good article, with a first hand account of the RCMP's armed invasion of a peaceful nation. If people have not seen the footage they came with snipers and attack helicopters to remove four unarmed people from their own territory. They spent more on this operation in a single week than they have spent in years on the Highway of Tears investigation to figure out why so many women go missing from the nearest highway. This is what a police state looks like, for those of you with enough privilege that you can't imagine the RCMP doing this to you. It is part of our shared reality no matter how deep someone wants to bury their head in the tar sands.

“Eve’s talking to them and then we all start talking to them because they start repeating themselves over a megaphone for us to leave or we’d be arrested,” he said. “They were flying these black helicopters over us, these two black choppers, and these choppers kept going into the back and dropping off all of these scouts and snipers.”

“They raided us — remember a few years ago when the navy seals raided Osama Bin Laden’s compound? Thats what they did to us. There was four of us unarmed. The amount of surveillance and money that they used when the way they came in at us was like they were gonna kill us. I really think they were gonna to kill us. If there weren’t the two media people we had there, I swear to god they were going to kill us. The look in their eyes, the vibe in the air, I’m not even lying,” he said.

Now, Hill said that because of what they seen and experienced, he and Saint still have trouble sleeping. After being surrounded, enduring the thought that they might be gun downed, land defenders were treated as though they had weapons.

“They said they heard we had rifles. But they didn’t find nothing because there was nothing to find,” he said.

While pointing her eagle feather at the RCMP while she spoke, Hill warned Saint to hold her feather high so that the RCMP wouldn’t shoot her out of believing that she had a weapon. He further mentioned that the territory is also in the middle of the highway of tears, so the history with the RCMP for the people in the area is already considered unsafe. Even though the RCMP said they wanted to talk, Hill asked “how do you talk to someone when they’re pointing a gun at you?”

https://tworowtimes.com/news/local/shilo-hill-one-of-the-four-arrested-i...

 

With this pandemic it would seem to be a health hazard to start bringing in hundreds of workers to a camp and the surrounding communities. BC citizens are told to not congregate more than 250 people at a time and that cruise ships should be avoided. The camps replicate the cruise ship breeding grounds and the workers are not under quarantine. COVID might affect hockey and all the bar and restaurant jobs that go with them but I'll but it will not affect the construction that the global oil oligarchy is pushing through..

Release order bars woman from voicing support for Wet’suwet’en online

Trish Mills didn’t want to agree to the conditions of the release order — but after about 30 hours in custody she also didn’t want to be remanded and risk being kept behind bars for weeks more.

So she signed the agreement, which severely restricts what she can say and do on social media, despite feeling it was effectively a “state-sanctioned gag order.”

“I’ve juggled a lot of hard feelings around whether abiding by the condition means I’ve lost my integrity,” she says.

Mills was arrested last month in Hamilton, Ontario, for alleged involvement in a railway blockade — one of many that have appeared across the country in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs in the ongoing Coastal GasLink pipeline conflict. She has a court date next week.

One of the conditions of her release stipulates that she cannot use social media to express solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en.

“You shall not post or otherwise engage with the Facebook Group ‘Wet’Suwet’en Strong: Hamilton in Solidarity’ or any other social media platform which engages for the same purpose or objective,” it states.....

kropotkin1951 wrote:

With this pandemic it would seem to be a health hazard to start bringing in hundreds of workers to a camp and the surrounding communities. BC citizens are told to not congregate more than 250 people at a time and that cruise ships should be avoided. The camps replicate the cruise ship breeding grounds and the workers are not under quarantine. COVID might affect hockey and all the bar and restaurant jobs that go with them but I'll but it will not affect the construction that the global oil oligarchy is pushing through..

Good point. Also, there is little demand or rush even if one supported these.

NDPP wrote:

"Coastal GasLink's plan to manage COVID-19 is to continue construction. Urban offices will be closed. Man camps will stay open. Everything cancelled but CGL..."

https://twitter.com/M_Tol/status/1240132570874077184

 The first workers sent in will be from various First Nations and after they have spent enough time together to spread any possible contagion, they will get weekends off to go visit their families, in communities many of which are without a proper water supply. I think this is a recurring Made in Canada horror show.

Coronavirus forces Wet’suwet’en to explore online talks on rights and title agreement

An all-clans meeting to discuss Wet’suwet’en rights and title could be moved online as the COVID-19 crisis upends plans for in-person talks, according to a spokesperson for the Gidimt’en.

“We’re looking at possibly doing something online,” Jennifer Wickham told The Narwhal, saying discussions were also delayed by a death, unrelated to the novel coronavirus, in one of the communities. “I’m not sure what that’s going to look like but there’s definitely multiple things delaying the process.”

Wickham said an all-clans meeting has already been held, but a few clans wanted to meet again before moving forward with decision-making on a draft agreement reached last month between Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders, the province and the federal government to expedite the nation’s rights and title process.

“I have no idea when we’re going to reschedule those meetings. Hopefully sometime this week, it could be next week, but it would probably not even be,” she told The Narwhal over the phone.

quote:

Wet’suwet’en supporters launched an online campaign this week to raise awareness around the ongoing construction of the pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory amid the pandemic.

A tweet from Gidmit’en Checkpoint on Tuesday expressed concern over COVID-19 and industrial activity associated with Coastal GasLink, saying “we do not need any more stress on our local health systems and people.”

$40B LNG project cuts hundreds of workers to prevent COVID-19 spread in B.C. work camps

The biggest private investment infrastructure project in Canadian history is slashing staff as it tries to prevent COVID-19 infections from getting a foothold in workers' camps in northwestern B.C. 

LNG Canada says it's sending home half of its work force from the company's $40-billion export facility project in Kitimat, B.C.

The company's move to lay off about 750 people and fly them home across the country is being done out of an "abundance of caution," said Susannah Pierce, the company's director of corporate affairs.

It's just one of several mega-projects in the province trying to manage the safety of up to more than a thousand industrial workers living in close quarters far from home. 

Pierce added there could be further work force reductions, reducing staff to "critical levels" with only essential workers staying on to conduct site security and do environmental monitoring.....

..the webinar from last week

We are Unfrackable - Episode 1

With Hereditary Chief Adam Gagnon and Mike Sawyer, COGC

travissmith wrote:

Will the COVID crisis help the protestors?

The Wet'suet'in are not protestors. Coast Gas is continuing to build the pipeline without consent while everyone else is limited to only essential travel.

Paladin1 wrote:

epaulo13 wrote:

Gidimt’en Checkpoint

$15 billion for oil and gas $350m for First Nations Access to loans for small business Priorities are obvious as usual.

 

First Nations should be the ones getting $15 billion for small loans and $350 million for gas and oil?

no, the $15 billion should be grants.

kropotkin1951 wrote:

travissmith wrote:

Will the COVID crisis help the protestors?

The Wet'suet'in are not protestors. Coast Gas is continuing to build the pipeline without consent while everyone else is limited to only essential travel.

That's what I meant, so the protestors have been shut down while the pipeline continues.
Disgusting but not unexpected.

Paladin1 wrote:

eastnoireast wrote:

again, no.

the $350 billion would be more like a first reparation payment...

What we really should do is give FN people $1,000,000,000,000.

1 million for every FN person. And a million every year there after for the rest of their life.

No wait, also 1 million for every year beforehand , paid retroactively.  30 years old? Here's 30 million.

Tax free.

You clearly have no understanding about the nature of indigenous peoples' sui generis rights. They are communal and tied to the land. The Wet'suet'tin want their fucking land to be left alone what don't you get about that? They do not want to be paid out by a foreign conglomerate so that all future generations are deprived of their birthright.

Stop with the millions of guilt money, give them land and wish them luck.

..this is a certain political talking point from a certain perspective, a ruse..not a real political position. meant to be used for debate only. meant to deflect from reality. the real point is to talk about cutting off funding. eliminating state responsibilities.

..this is not going to happen in the real world. nor should it because that political point of view isn't serious. for starters no one can give them land because indigenous nation already hold title. so from the get go it doesn't respect title. it's a ruse. 

..2nd it includes vancouver, toronto and other major centres. who's going to concede that land and wish them well? no one so again a ruse. 

..there is a way forward where we can live together..indigenous folk have been proposing it for a very very long time. many settler folk understand this. and in poll after poll canadians want the powers that be to reach an respectful arrangement on a nation to nation bases. and not through force and genocide.      

Sean in Ottawa wrote:

No way would we be willing or able to give them enough land to cover what we owe. Apart from how this makes no sense from an economic or humanitarian point of view, they need and deserve no less support than any other Canadians Just becuase we live on land stolen from their ancestors and have abused them horribly in living memory does not mean we should run out on what we owe.

This is not guilt debt. This is actual debt.

back rent, as it were.  $700 million a year for half a freakin' continent?  cheeeeep.

epaulo13 wrote:

..this is not going to happen in the real world. nor should it because that political point of view isn't serious. for starters no one can give them land because indigenous nation already hold title. so from the get go it doesn't respect title. it's a ruse. 

..2nd it includes vancouver, toronto and other major centres. who's going to concede that land and wish them well? no one so again a ruse. 

Who indeed? Toronto (GTA), Vancouver (GVA), Ottawas NCR, Edmonton and Calgary.  Easily 10-12 of our 37 million citizens living there. Giving land to anyone simply isn't an option. So that leaves the option of money. Do we pay designated chiefs money and trust them to merrit it out how they see fit? Or a system like I mentioned similar to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?  Free money for FN members.

 

Quote:

..there is a way forward where we can live together..indigenous folk have been proposing it for a very very long time. many settler folk understand this. and in poll after poll canadians want the powers that be to reach an respectful arrangement on a nation to nation bases. and not through force and genocide.

Canadians who live in rental property owned by someone else shouldn't have to pay rent if they feel they can't but Canadians living on land belonging to someone else hundreds of years ago should pay rent to their descendants.

 

epaulo13 wrote:

..in this thread what is being said relects what is being said by indigenous folk..no pipeline.

I'm afraid you're just wrong here. There's a ton of indigenous folk that support and want the pipeline. "We're" not listening to them. We're only listening to the ones that are (tentatively) saying no to the pipeline because that suits our narrative.

20+ bands supported, approved of and wanted the pipeline because of the jobs, security and oppertunity it would create for them.

epaulo13 wrote:

..when the governments were forced to talk to the wetʼsuwetʼen they talked to the rightful leaders. the  title holders to the land that the pipeline would pass through..the hereditary chiefs.

A handful of chiefs own all that land. Lucky them.

Titles being handed down are the opposite of democracy.

Quote:

Hereditary chiefs

Hereditary chiefs are a title passed down through families. They hold a position of influence in a community where the title has been handed down between generations.

Who it's passed down to can vary between nations, depending on their history. Some follow a patriarchal system while others follow a matriarchal one.

Adding a layer to that, some hereditary leaders run for an elected office meaning they represent both sides.

..independent jewish voices held a webinar re: the wetʼsuwetʼen camps. it began at 1 pm montreal time and ended a short while ago. i took some notes. these notes reflect only a small amount of the info provided. should a recording be provided i will it post here.

..i'd like to also add that the webinar was joined by a palestinian youth group. Link

..my raw notes:

• new man camp being built
• security escorts for workers / security is an arm of rcmp
• rcmp no social distancing / coming from all over / liaisons lying to chiefs / rcmp liaisons no show to agreeed upon meeting / disrespectful / lying is attempting to create divisions betwen chiefs and defenders
• angry drive-bys / demands / threats / drinking
• no one in or out of defender camps pandemic
• expanding camp @ 44 km / perma culture gardens with the objective of self sustaining
• pipeline investors have been losing profits / not a good time to invest / markets disappearing
• title discussions no impact on current projects
• clan member 1st vs being a band councillors / long standing division created by gov
• lots of energy from camps is goes to obtaining food sources 

..when a company wants to set up shop in canada there is a process. they reach out to the leadership. they don't go to paladin or pondering and ask what they want and then proceed if the answer is yes.

..there is also a process when it comes to wetʼsuwetʼen territory. title holders are the authority. the title holders say no pipeline. an offer for a different route was rejected. so it's back to no. this no has been supported by feasts or pot-latches..which are equalling to the voice of the people..since 2011.  

..that central issue has and is still being ignored. it doesn't matter what arguments you present in this thread if you ignore this. different viewpoints within the nation is an internal matter that gets exploited on a regular basis by govs, corps and others. 

On May 7th, people around the world are gathering virtually to rise up in solidarity for those fighting on the frontlines of the COVID and climate crises.

Join us for a coalition #ShutDownKKR virtual rally and communications blockade on May 7th. RSVP here for Thursday: Link 

Pondering wrote:

Paladin is correct that we are fighting against the indigenous people who want the pipeline. Worse we are delegitimizing them as indigenous people as we treat them as if they are sell-outs betraying their people rather than representing a part of their population that supports development.

Thanks Pondering.

I really don't have a dog in the fight as the saying goes. I think it's incredibly hypocritical how quickly FN opinions and views get disgarded as unimportant and meaningless by settlers when the FN's opinions don't jive with the settlers.

What they want the pipeline? Well tough shit, they're not hereditary chiefs and those are the only views that count- because the supreme court says so.