#RCMPofftheyintah

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Posted by Gidimt'en Checkpoint Facebook page May 24, 2023:

The devastation to our toh (water) and yintah (land) is immeasurable. This is toh we drink. This is where the salmon start their lives. This is our sacred headwaters that feed EVERYONE downstream all the way to the west coast.

We knew this would happen. CGL tries to blame the climate crisis and being surprised/unprepared but the fact is they knew what they were getting into and simply don’t care.

CGL has a stop work order (ref: 20230027_OR001) from the EAO in the Gosnell Creek section EXCEPT for the work to cross Gosnell Creek!

This has to stop. These are the people within colonial government that can do something about it and are choosing not to. They clearly won’t listen to us so maybe they will listen to you. Be loud. Be persistent. We all live downstream.

Honourable George Heyman

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy

Email: ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca

Honourable Josie Osborne

Honourable Josie Osborne

Email: EMLI.minister@gov.bc.ca

Compliance and Enforcement for Environmental Assessment

Christie Lombardi Compliance and Enforcement Officer

Email: Christie.Lombardi@gov.bc.ca

#AllOutForWedzinKwa

[allthecanadianpolitics]

"We've expanded the war on terror so broadly that Indigenous rights activists are being scrutinized as potential terrorists," he said.

"It's really a symptom of the war on terror stretching out so far and developing all these resources that they have to be used."

Monaghan fears ITAC is disseminating "spurious" claims through the federal security bureaucracy that discredit First Nations-led activism politically, painting it as the work of would-be terrorists, violent extremists or interloping agitators.

He said the tendency to ascribe direct action tactics by First Nations to subversive outsiders is part of CSIS's institutional culture going back years. In 1990, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Georges Erasmus denounced this narrative as "implicitly racist."

Monaghan called the documents' use of extremist framing "troublesome" because ITAC reports circulate internally to other agencies, and said they offer "pre-emptive" intelligence police can use to justify heavy-handedness.

"It just raises so many questions of why they would be so quick to try and de-legitimize Indigenous-led protests by trying to, basically, say it's antifa," said Monaghan.

"Their willingness to just almost skate over the actual political grievance, the actual political movement, and all of a sudden latch on to these de-legitimizing tropes really paints a picture internally of the policing-intelligence culture that does not take Indigenous affairs seriously."

[...]

The service declined to address Monaghan's contention that CSIS should not be monitoring non-violent, unarmed First Nations activism under the category of potential terrorist threats, even if these actions are allegedly unlawful.

CSIS media relations officer Eric Balsam said the service is investing in trust-building activities and exploring opportunities for engagement with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities. When asked which communities the service has engaged, Balsam said that information is classified.

The article links the appropriate complaint form at the end should anyone feel like the government that CSIS sucks

[allthecanadianpolitics]

https://vancouversun.com/business/energy/coastal-gaslink-in-hot-water-over-pipeline-environmental-violations?r

No indication which areas are included in the October 14th stop work order. Drilling under the headwaters of the Wedzin Kwa, the source of drinking for the Wet'suwet'en territories, started in recent months. TC Energy is claiming this is happening without prior notice or explanation.

TC Energy signed a compliance agreement with the Environmental Assessment Office July 13, amid multiple ongoing compliance violations. A day later the company publicly acknowledged this agreement. The EAO has issued dozens of warnings, 16 orders and two fines against TC Energy's Coastal GasLink and its contractors. There was a warning letter issued Sept 27 by the EAO for non compliance that was at risk of a fine.

"without prior notice or explanation" indeed. Fuck TC Energy.

Solidarity with Wet'suwet'en and all water protectors. May we all live to see an end to colonial violence.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Taken from the Facebook page for Gidimt'en Checkpoint May 13, 2022:

“Do they have fucking face paint on too?” one asks. “They’re not orcs?” he adds, seemingly referencing The Lord of the Rings.

Another laughs, “The Uruk-Hai, yeah, they burst from the earth” and makes a guttural growling sound as the first officer giggles. “Hand of Sauron.”

(audio link in article)

These are the same racist CIRG officers that repeatedly trespass and harass our people at our Gidimt’en village site multiple times a day.

And for those that might have forgotten or missed the memo, these are intentional tactics presumably hatched after industry urged the government to take action one day after the landmark Delgamuukw decision in 1997, “The decision makes the need for certainty through surrender all the more clear. We see no other alternative.”

(Feb 2020 article “Industry, government pushed to abolish Aboriginal title at issue in Wet’suwet’en stand-off, docs reveal” by The Narwhal)

Read the full article and then call your politicians.

#RCMPofftheYintah #AllOutForWedzinKwa

[allthecanadianpolitics]

From the Gidimt'en Checkpoint Facebook page, November 23, 2021:

ARRESTED LAND DEFENDERS APPEAR IN COURT TODAY;

GIDIMT’EN CONDEMNS UNREASONABLE AND PUNITIVE CONDITIONS OF RELEASE

For immediate release: NOVEMBER 22, 2021

WET’SUWET’EN TERRITORY, SMITHERS, BC: Twenty people who were arrested in a two-day violent raid on Wet’suwet’en territory are appearing at BC Supreme Court in Prince George today at 11 am. Those arrested include Gidimt’en Checkpoint spokesperson Sleydo’ and Dinï ze’ Woos’s daughter Jocelyn Alec, as well as two journalists.

Those arrested are all facing charges of civil contempt for breaching the terms of a BC Supreme Court injunction granted to Coastal GasLink (CGL). CGL is seeking a number of conditions of release, including denying many arrestees access to a vast area of Wet’suwet’en territories. The proposed ‘exclusion zone’ is the whole Morice West Forest Service Road or any other areas accessed by the Morice Forest Service Road. Wet'suwet'en people (as determined by CGL) may be exempt from the exclusion zone for "cultural activities" (as defined by the RCMP), while being subjected to 'culture-free zones' around CGL work sites.

CGL is also asking Sleydo’ to provide documentation to “prove” she is Wet’suwet’en, and is seeking conditions that would bar her from returning to her home on Wet’suwet’en Yintah where her, her husband Cody Merriman (Haida nation, who was also arrested), and her three children live. CGL is also challenging Chief Woos’s daughter Jocelyn Alec’s status as a Wet’suwet’en person because she has Indian Act status with her mother’s First Nation. The Indian Act is patriarchal and does not determine identity or belonging to a community.

According to Jen Wickham, media coordinator of Gidimt’en Checkpoint: “Coastal GasLink’s proposed conditions of release are punitive, unreasonable and, in targeting Sleydo’ and Jocelyn, completely racist and sexist. Allowing a private corporation to determine two Indigenous womens’ identities and allowing this corporation to deny our inherent rights to be Wet’suwet’en on our territory is a very dangerous precedent. This is the colonial gendered violence that is the root of the crisis of MMIWG2S. Even though Coastal GasLink is trying to intimidate us through the colonial court system, we are Wet’suwet’en Strong. Under the governance of our Hereditary Chiefs, there will be no pipeline on our Yintah.”

In granting an injunction to Coastal GasLink, Justice Church recognized that the Wet’suwet’en are “posing significant constitutional questions” but said that “this is not the venue for that analysis.” However, the 1997 Supreme Court of Canada Delgamuukw-Gisdaywa ruling clearly affirmed that Aboriginal title - the right to exclusively use and occupy land - has never been extinguished across 55,000 square kilometers of Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan territories.

States Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs:

“Industry’s reliance on the racist and oppressive legal weapon of injunctions is a way to maintain the continued dispossession and criminalization of Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples should not have to comply with industry and government decisions that deny our Indigenous rights. By dragging us through court and using injunctions against us, our Indigenous rights are being violated and are given less consideration than climate-destroying corporations. We are calling for the release of all Wet’suwet’en land defenders, and for BC and Canada to uphold Indigenous Title and Rights and institute a moratorium on fossil fuel expansion in the wake of clear and present climate catastrophe - including LNG which is not clean energy and is a non-renewable fossil fuel.”

For more information and developing story, please visit yintahaccess.com

Take Action:

🔥 Host a solidarity rally or action in your area.

🔥 Issue a solidarity statement from your organization or group. Email to: yintahaccess@gmail.com

🔥 Pressure the government, banks, and investors. http://yintahaccess.com/take-action-1

🔥 Donate. http://go.rallyup.com/wetsuwetenstrong

🔥 Come to Camp. yintahaccess.com/

🔥 Spread the word.

#FreeSleydo #ShutDownCanada #WetsuwetenStrong #AllOutForWedzinKwa #KILLINIT

More information and developing stories:

Website: Yintahaccess.com

IG: @yintah_access

Twitter: @Gidimten

Facebook: @wetsuwetenstrong

Youtube: Gidimten Access Point

TikTok: GidimtenCheckpoint

https://www.yintahaccess.com/news/court%20date

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A rally is taking place in #HamOnt in solidarity with #AllOutForWedzinKwa. 55 Bay Street North at 12 PM in front of the federal building. https://fb.me/e/8nTl4Qqom

For more context on the issue:

IG: @yintah_access

Twitter: @Gidimten

TikTok: gidimtencheckpoint

[allthecanadianpolitics]

From the Facebook page Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gidimt'en Territory January 7, 2021:

January 7th, 2019—raid day at Gidimt’en checkpoint

The headlines said “14 people were arrested” that day. But we aren’t just numbers. We are mothers, grandmothers, brothers, sisters, Indigenous people and white settlers—standing side by side in defense of the yintah. It was more than just raid day—our people had seen it before and we saw it again a little more than a year later.

It was the start of something. It was the start of truth telling, like how RCMP show up with the intention to shoot us. It was a rude awakening for our elders and community who were horrified at what played out that day. It was an awakening for many Indigenous people who’d ever felt powerless within the colonial system and stood up to militarized police because it was the right thing to do and we all knew it. It was the right thing to do because our law requires land defense and thousands of people from coast to coast stood up with us, outraged at the injustice.

It was a test of bravery—not that you weren’t scared, because you had to have been, but because people stood there anyway, in the face of the state…down the barrels of guns. Guns that would never be pointed at ‘white protesters’ but always brought to Indigenous conflict zones.

It wasn’t a day about Coastal GasLink and the fact that they don’t care about Wet’suwet’en governance or destroying Wedzin Kwa. It was about Wet’suwet’en governance and how our people always went to war when someone tried to invade our lands. Some people forgot about that---that we are a warring people. But the ones coming up behind us have not forgotten and the people there that day, with ancestors surrounding us, remembered. They stood bravely for freedom, even though it cost them theirs. Many people joined us in recognition that this isn’t just a Wet’suwet’en struggle, this is a struggle for all sovereign Indigenous nations and for all life—the water, the non-human relatives, the land, and the air.

It was just the beginning of two years of conflict and more raids and a resistance that has grown from coast to coast and around the world. The movement is built upon sacrifice. Some people made their sacrifice and moved on. Some people never left. Two years later, we’ve reoccupied more land, supported other front lines, built alliances with other strong nations and moved our struggle for liberation and freedom forward so that our children and grandchildren will know their yintah as intimately as we do.

Snecalyegh to all those who sacrificed, who still do, and who remember January 7th and remain empowered by it.

Love, Sleydo’

#WetsuwetenStrong

#CGLoffTheYintah

#RCMPofftheYintah

#NoTrespass

#Wedzinkwa

#CoasttoCoast

#RespectIndigenousSovereignty