First Nations groups in B.C. demand halt to pipelines
Several First Nations groups are calling on the federal government to halt pipeline construction in B.C. after a United Nations committee again condemned Canada for its treatment of Indigenous Peoples.
In an April 29 letter to the Canadian government, the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination says the provincial and federal governments have allowed the increase of force and criminalization by the RCMP against Indigenous “land defenders and peaceful protesters.”
The letter, which is the third one sent to the government, also says despite repeated calls to Canada to cease forced evictions of Indigenous Peoples, the efforts to remove and incarcerate have only increased.
The committee says it has received information that alleges the governments of B.C. and Canada “have not taken measures to engage in consultations with Secwepemc and Wet'suwet'en peoples regarding the Trans Mountain Pipeline and the Coastal GasLink Pipeline.”
Members of the Wet'suwet'en, Tsleil-Waututh and Secwepemc Nations held a joint news conference Wednesday morning to call on Ottawa to suspend construction of the Coastal GasLink and Trans Mountain pipelines, withdraw RCMP from their lands and stop alleged police repression of their members.
Sleydo Molly Wickham, a Gidimt'en Clan member and mother, said she has been arrested twice and was terrified as she “stared down the barrel of a gun.”
“This problem will never go away until the governments of this country recognize our inherent sovereignty,” said Wickham at the news conference.
“The first step is to stop the construction of this project and pull out of our territories immediately. Anything less feeds the normalization of racism in this country and is in direct violation of the convention.”
Indigenous activist Kanahus Manuel, a member of the group Tiny House Warriors, said their people are facing “constant harassment” from the RCMP and wants the world to understand that their human rights are being violated with violent arrests.
“We're not as scared or fearful to go international. That's the only way that we're going to get our rights and our title recognized,” said Manuel.
Chief Judy Wilson, secretary treasurer of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, said Canada must stop these pipeline projects because of the climate crisis.
“Canada cannot base decisions on just industry,” said Wilson at the news conference. “They need to base the decisions on the future, which the land defenders and water protectors are saying that they're doing,”
In a news release, the Wet'suwet'en, Secwepemc and Tsleil-Waututh say the letter signals “growing international alarm about Canada's human rights record and continuing human and Indigenous rights violations against land defenders.”
In November, members of the Gidimt'en clan ordered all Coastal GasLink employees to leave the Wet'suwet'en territory in the B.C. Interior. However, Coastal GasLink said a B.C. Supreme Court injunction allows the company to have “continued safe access” to the area.
The 20 elected First Nations councils along the pipeline's path approved the project, but Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs from all five clans of the nation claimed the project had no authority without consent through their traditional system of governance.
The B.C. and federal governments have yet to respond to the call to halt pipeline construction.
In response to protests and police enforcement of the injunction related to the pipeline project, the government engaged former president of the Haida Nation Miles Richardson as an interlocutor to encourage dialogue among the parties. Those talks were not successful.