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VIDEO: Raid on Unist'ot'en Village @KM 66
Credit: Michael Toledano, Melissa Cox (Mutual Aid Media), Grace Burke
On December 31, 2019, BC Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church extended Coastal GasLink’s injunction order from an interim injunction to an interlocutory injunction. Members of the Wet’suwet’en nation have been stewarding and protecting their traditional territories from the destruction of multiple pipelines, including Coastal GasLink’s (CGL) liquified natural gas (LNG) pipeline.
Hereditary Chiefs of all five Wet’suwet’en clans rejected Church’s decision, which criminalizes Anuk ‘nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law), and issued and enforced an eviction of CGL’s workers from the territory January 4, 2020. [Watch the eviction video].
On February 6, 2020, heavily militarized raids by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were launched in Wet’suwet’en Territory. These miliarized operations deployed dozens of RCMP along with tactical teams armed with assault rifles, snipers, helicopters and canine units. As of February 14th, 4 violent raids have taken place in camps and villages where Wet’suwet’en people and their supporters have been monitoring and blocking traffic associated with the Coastal GasLink Pipeline (CGL). Among the raided camps was the Unist’ot’en Village, the longest standing Wet’suwet’en Village in the pipeline’s path. [Watch the Unist’ot’en Village raid video].
The forcible removal of Wet’suwet'en people and their supporters on behalf of the CGL project, part of the largest fracking project in Canadian history, has sparked nation-wide unrest leading to the closures of highways, railways, ports and government offices throughout the country. Twenty-eight people have been arrested in Wet’suwet’en Territory thus far, with dozens of arrests occurring elsewhere in the country. [Watch a recap video of 3 of the raids].
The Wet’suwet’en Nation has never signed a treaty or sold or surrendered their land to Canada and claims jurisdiction of 22,000 square kilometers, an area the size of New Jersey. The landmark 1997 Delgamuukw v British Columbia case affirmed Aboriginal title to unceded land. Wet’suwet'en people have been continuously policed for the past 13 months; the first 3 months of policing cost $3.6 million CAD.
This is not the first time the RCMP have violently raided camps on Wet’suwet’en territory. On January 7, 2019, militarized police who were deployed with authority to use “lethal overwatch” breached the gate at Gidimt’en Checkpoint and arrested 14 Land defenders including Molly Wickham, a Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief. [Watch the 2019 raid video].
VIDEO: Roundup of Raids on Gidimt’en Territory @KM 27, 39, and 44.
Credit: Jesse Freeston, Bunker Films/Mutual Aid Media, and MacKenzie Keir Knight
"Every morning I wake up expecting to hear the helicopters buzzing toward our territories carrying militarized RCMP with tactical weapons. The RCMP have not left Wet'suwet'en territory!!! They are continuing with their oppression despite having tactical teams out of sight. We are experiencing heavy surveillance and oppression.
I see the Indigenous youth in so called Victoria and Vancouver, the Gitxsan, the Haudenosaunee, and all the supporters from coast to coast. I SEE YOU! I see your struggle and love you! Keep going---we're close! We are closer than we ever have been!
#standupfightback
#reconciliationisdead
#shutdowncanada
#wetsuwetenstrong"
Lady Chainsaw, a Cree land defender, remains in jail for upholding Wet'suwet'en law and protecting Unist'ot'en territory. She will remain in police custody until a court appearance on February 21, 2020.
