Pipeline protest felt across Canada
Upswell of support for Wet’suwet’en blockade seen in several cities
VANCOUVER— Judy Wilson started the chant from the steps of Vancouver City Hall on Sunday.
“Shame!” yelled Wilson, a member of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.
“...On Canada!” a couple of hundred people in the crowd nearby shouted back. The demonstration was among scenes from across the country in recent days aimed at shaming RCMP officers — and the federal government — over the arrest of pipeline protesters at the Indigenous-led blockade near Houston, B.C.
There’s been an upswell of support for the Wet’suwet’en blockade, one a spokesperson said Sunday has been a long time coming, but whether the protests can sway broad public opinion remains to be seen.
Hereditary chiefs have said they will do everything they can to stop Coastal GasLink from building a gas pipeline through Wet’suwet’en territory, even if that means breaking a B.C. court injunction.
In Toronto, more than 100 protesters blocked a rail line on Saturday, stopping at least 68 trains between Toronto and Montreal as well as Toronto and Ottawa. The blockade affected more than 14,000 customers, according to Via.
In Regina, a driver plowed through a group of protesters who had formed a blockade on Albert Street Bridge on Saturday. Chants of “RCMP stand down” and “shame” can be heard in footage of the incident posted to social media as a driver in a blue car forces their way through a group of people holding protest signs.
In Vancouver, protesters continued to block workers from entering the Port of Vancouver and Deltaport. Indigenous youth camped out on the steps of the Victoria legislature and vowed to stay until the B.C. government started recognizing the authority of Wet’suwet’en’s hereditary chiefs.
Meanwhile, about 50 people are camped out at a RCMP-designated access point on Morice West Forest Service Road in Wet’suwet’en territory, according to Smogelgem, head chief of the Sun house — one of the houses in the Likhts’amisyu clan. RCMP officers had forced them out of their original blockade location, about 23 kilometres up the road, on Saturday.
Mounties have arrested 21 protesters in Wet’suwet’en territory in recent days, according to B.C. RCMP.
Smogelgem said he is not surprised people across the country are showing their support for the Indigenous-led blockade.
“It’s something that has been brewing under the social fabric of Canada for a long time. And not just Indigenous people, but non-Indigenous people, too, who are aware of what colonialism is and they understand what colonial violence is,” he told the Star. “I think everybody has reached that boiling point.”
Coastal GasLink has maintained it has the support of every elected body on its proposed pipeline route, which is meant to supply natural gas to the B.C. coast, where it would be converted to liquefied natural gas for export.
But within Wet’suwet’en territory, hereditary chiefs and other members oppose the project, saying they want to protect their traditional hunting, trapping and fishing territory for future generations.
The B.C. government passed Bill 41 last fall, making a commitment to uphold the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. That legislation recognizes both band councils as well as other forms of Indigenous governance.
Then on Dec. 31, B.C Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church granted Coastal GasLink an injunction against the protesters in Wet’suwet’en territory.
Smogelgem said the countrywide protests in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en present an opportunity for the governments of B.C. and Canada to show they consider the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as “more than just a catch phrase.”