[IPSMO] Urgent Action: Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Jan 8, Noon!

[IPSMO]

(PRESS RELEASE FOLLOWS)

International Day of Action in Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en, Ottawa
Tuesday Jan. 8th – noon, Parliament Hill

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Today, RCMP stormed land protectors on Wet'suwet'en territory, arresting
at least twelve people peacefully guarding their ancestral territories.
This land invasion was done at the behest of pipeline company
TransCanada, backed by an interim injunction granted by a colonial
court. 

“We call on all people of conscience to act in solidarity through an
international day of action on Tuesday, January 8th, 2019.”- Gidimt'em
Access Point

Join us on Tuesday January 8 at 12 noon at the front gate of Parliament
Hill in Ottawa (on unceded unsurrendered Algonquin territory). Look for
a 10-foot banner that reads "RCMP out of Wet’suwet’en territory"! 

Please bring your banners and noisemakers. The rally will move into a
march as we go. 

This is a solidarity action taken in response to the ACTION ALERT –
International Call to Action for Gidimt’en Access Checkpoint --
https://unistoten.camp/action-alert-international-call-to-action-for-gidimten-access-checkpoint/


Please also consider supporting the Wet’suwet’en by offering physical
support to the camps, monetary or material donation. See the Go Fund Me
campaign here: https://www.gofundme.com/gitdumt039en-access-point

For updates on the Ottawa event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/324002048453236/


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Media Inquiries:

Molly Wickham: 778-210-1610

Jen Wickham: 778-210-0067

Delee Nikal: 250-961-9642

Carla Lewis: 778-669-1316

Karla Tait: 250-640-1094

 
RALLIES PLANNED INTERNATIONALLY IN SUPPORT OF WET’SUWET’EN FACING COURT
INJUNCTION AND RCMP ENFORCEMENT ON THEIR UNCEDED TERRITORY



January 7, 2019 – As militarized RCMP are descending onto unceded
Wet’suwet’en to enforce a colonial court injunction, rallies in 30
cities expressing solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en will take place on
Tuesday January 8, 2019 across Canada and internationally. The
Wet’suwet’en are defending their unceded lands in Northern B.C. from
unwanted fracked gas development.

 

Rallies across Canada are being held in Calgary, Chilliwack, Cortes
Island, Edmonton, Halifax, Hamilton, Lillooet, Kitchener Waterloo,
Mi'kma'ki, Montreal, Nelson, North Bay, Ottawa, Prince George, Regina,
Rexton, Saskatoon, Six Nations, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Vancouver,
Victoria, Winnipeg, and White Horse. Rallies will take place
internationally in Bellingham, Flagstaff, Milan, San Francisco, and
Seattle.

 

Details for the rallies can be found at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2225649537692362/ and on Tuesday January
8, 2019 photos and video will be available through #wetsuwetenstrong
#notrespass #thetimeisnow.  

 

According to rally organizers, “We oppose the use of legal injunctions,
police forces, and criminalizing state tactics against the Wet’suwet’en
asserting their own laws on their own lands. This is a historic moment
when the federal and provincial governments can choose to follow their
stated principles of reconciliation, or respond by perpetuating colonial
theft and violence in Canada.”



Coastal GasLink, a project of TransCanada Corporation, has been
constructing a 670-kilometer fracked gas pipeline that will carry
fracked gas from Dawson Creek, B.C. to the coastal town of Kitimat,
where LNG Canada’s processing plant would be located. LNG Canada is the
single largest private sector investment in Canadian history, with
support from the Federal Liberal government and tax breaks from the NDP
B.C. provincial government.

 

Under ‘Anuc niwh’it’en (Wet’suwet’en law) all five clans of the
Wet’suwet’en have unanimously opposed all pipeline proposals and have
not provided free, prior, and informed consent to Coastal
Gaslink/TransCanada to do work on Wet’suwet’en lands. The 22,000 square
km of Wet’suwet’en Territory is divided into 5 clans and 13 house
groups. Each clan within the Wet’suwet’en Nation has full jurisdiction
under their law to control access to their territory.

 

According to the Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gitdumden territory, who
issued the call for international solidarity, “All Wet'suwet'en Clans
have rejected the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline because this is
our home. Our medicines, our berries, our food, the animals, our water,
our culture are all here since time immemorial. We are obligated to
protect our ways of life for our babies unborn.”

 

The Unist’ot’en Camp is a permanent Indigenous re-occupation of
Wet’suwet’en land that sits on Gilsteyu Dark House Territory. The
Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gitdumden territory was announced in the
Wet’suwet’en feast hall in December 2018 with the support of all chiefs
present to affirm that the Unist’ot’en Clan are not alone.

 

On December 2018, the B.C. Supreme Court issued a court injunction that
authorizes the RCMP to forcibly clear a path through the Wet'suwet'en
Access Point on Gitdumden territory and the Unist’ot’en homestead on
Unist’ot’en territory. This is despite the fact that the Supreme Court
of Canada ruled in the landmark 1997 Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa case that the
Wet’suwet’en, as represented by their hereditary leaders, had not given
up rights and title to their 22,000 square kilometers of land. Members
of the RCMP met with Hereditary Chiefs in January 2019 and indicated
that specially trained tactical forces will soon be deployed.

 

“Canada knows that its own actions are illegal,” states the Wet'suwet'en
Access Point on Gitdumden territory. “The Wet’suwet’en chiefs have
maintained their use and occupancy of their lands and hereditary
governance system to this date despite generations of legislative
policies that aim to remove us from this land, assimilate our people,
and ban our governing system. The hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en
and the land defenders holding the front lines have no intention of
allowing Wet’suwet’en sovereignty to be violated.”

 

Support has been growing for the Wet'suwet'en with statements issued by
national and international organizations such as 350 dot org, Heiltsuk
Nation, Idle No More, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canadian
Union of Postal Workers, Civil Liberties Defense Center, Dogwood BC,
Greenpeace Canada, Namgis First Nation, Secwepemc Women’s Warrior
Society, and Union of B.C Indian Chiefs.

 

The rally organizers further state, “We demand that the provincial and
federal government uphold their responsibilities to the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by revoking the permits
for this fracked gas pipeline that does not have consent from any
Wet’suwet’en Clan. The federal government, provincial government,
Coastal GasLink/TransCanada, and the RCMP do not have jurisdiction on
Wet'suwet'en land.”

- 30 -


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Love and Solidarity,
IPSMO - Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement - Ottawa
On stolen Algonquin land
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