A solidarity rally in London, Ont., is planned this Friday in support of the Wet’suwet’en people who are fighting a natural gas pipeline project.
The rally, titled Allies in Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en, will take place at 6 p.m. Friday across from the Aeolian Hall at 765 Dundas St.
On Friday, Nov. 19, B.C. RCMP arrested 15 people, including two journalists, as they moved to enforce an injunction.
The RCMP was enforcing a B.C. Supreme Court-ordered injunction that stops opponents from impeding access to Coastal GasLink’s activities, permitted under Canadian law.
The day prior, RCMP said they were preparing to “rescue” more than 500 workers “trapped” by a blockade that aims to stop a pipeline’s construction on unceded First Nations land.
Several days prior, the Gidimt’en Checkpoint, which shares information about the blockade, tweeted that the Wet’suwet’en Nation had successfully enforced its “ancient trespass laws” and closed the territory.
“The Morice Forest Service Road has been destroyed and access to Coastal Gaslink is no longer possible,” it said.
The members of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and supporters have been fighting against the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline for several years, with RCMP responding to similar blockades being set up to block construction in January 2019 and 2020.
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“The Wet’suwet’en people, under the governance of their Hereditary Chiefs, are standing in the way of the largest fracking project in Canadian history. Our medicines, our berries, our food, the animals, our water, our culture, our homes are all here since time immemorial,” Sleydo Molly Wickham said in a statement.
Wickham was been the main spokesperson for the Gidimt’en checkpoint for several years and is also a member of the Gidimt’en Clan within the Wet’suwet’en Nation.
“We will never abandon our children to live in a world with no clean water. We uphold our ancestral responsibilities. There will be no pipelines on Wet’suwet’en territory.”
Among those arrested were also award-winning photojournalist Amber Bracken and documentary filmmaker Michael Toledano, who have both since been released.
The Wet’suwet’en are a northern B.C. First Nation who have never signed any treaty or given up the rights or title to their land.
In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa court case that the Wet’suwet’en had not given up the rights or title to their land.
According to a report from the BC Treaty Commission, the ruling means that the “aboriginal title does exist in British Columbia” and that “when dealing with Crown land, the government must consult with and may have to compensate First Nations.”
While several elected chiefs on reserves have signed onto the Coastal GasLink Project, the hereditary chiefs remain against It.
The Wet’suewet’en hereditary chiefs have long maintained that the elected band chiefs do not have the jurisdiction to speak on behalf of the nation and that the hereditary chiefs, an independent governing body that represents the clans within the Wet’suwet’en Nation, do.
— with files from Global News’ Elizabeth McSheffrey and The Candian Press
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