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.
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.
The world’s oil, gas, and coal companies would incur what the Financial Times (FT) recently described as “breathtaking” losses if they’re not allowed to extract and burn their enormous reserves.
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.
Locked arm-to-arm in front of the ceremonial entrance of the B.C. Parliament Buildings in downtown Victoria, dozens of Indigenous people and over 200 allies gathered around noon on Feb. 6 to show solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs against the Coastal Gaslink pipeline.
“We are shaming the Canadian government right now,” said Ta’Kaiya Blaney of Tla’amin First Nation to the crowd of supporters.
"We are in absolute outrage and a state of painful anguish as we witness the Wet'suwet'en people having their Title and Rights brutally trampled on and their right to self-determination denied."
Climate action campaigners and Indigenous leaders on Thursday condemned a violent pre-dawn raid by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at a camp set up by Wet'suwet'en land defenders in British Columbia.
