OPINION: In much of northeastern B.C., Indigenous populations can no longer hunt and fish as their ancestors did, because their land and water are too polluted and disturbed by infrastructure.
As physicians, we are deeply distressed to see force being used to disrupt a legitimate protest by the Wet’suwet’en people. They are simply trying to protect the present and future health of their people. We need to be cognizant of the devastating effect that the Coastal GasLink pipeline will have on their way of life.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said on Friday that Canada and Mexico could help export U.S. coal to Asia to get around the blocking of shipments by West Coast states concerned about the impact of the fuel on climate change.
Using an ever-changing set of rules, RCMP in British Columbia arrested 11 opponents of the Coastal GasLink pipeline Saturday, the third day of raids on Wet’suwet’en Nation territory.
RCMP also continued to obstruct journalists on the remote forest road in northern B.C. where the conflict is playing out, drawing international criticism. A spokesperson for one of the nation’s five clans, Molly Wickham of Gidimt’en, said the police broke a promise not to make more arrests until after a meeting with the nation’s hereditary chiefs.
Feb 7, 2020 - AN UNSIGNED AGREEMENT between a Wet’suwet’en First Nation and Coastal GasLink along with financial documents obtained by Yellowhead Institute provide reinforcement to Yellowhead’s assessment of the ways these private contracts can dramatically undermine First Nation rights and jurisdiction.
[Priorities: Trudeau & Company have deep pockets for crap like this. But they can't find the much smaller amount needed give indigenous people in Canada clean drinking water.]
Feb 7, 2020
Figure includes $1.1B already spent on construction by previous owner of the project, Kinder Morgan
Trans Mountain CEO Ian Anderson announced Friday that the cost of building the pipeline expansion has soared from an initial estimate of $7.4 billion to $12.6 billion.
Under cover of darkness early Thursday, the RCMP began raiding Wet’suwet’en land defender camps in northeastern B.C. and arresting opponents of a planned natural gas pipeline.
The decision found Trudeau government met the minimum legal requirements. For Indigenous peoples, that’s not enough.
The Federal Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold federal government approval for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is devastating for the First Nations that launched the legal challenge.
