Defenders of the Land, Truth Campaign, Idle No More: Statement of Support For Wet’suwet’en

Defenders of the Land, Truth Campaign, Idle No More Networks

Statement of Support For

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans January 21, 2020

Introduction:

In December 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada issued the Delgamuukw-Gisday’way decision, which recognized the authority of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs over Wet’suwet’en Territory.

Despite the 1997 SCC court decision the federal and B.C. governments proceeded with approving the Coastal Gaslink pipeline, a 670 km pipeline from Dawson Creek to the LNG Canada export terminal near Kitimat. It is a project of TC Energy based in Calgary.

Coastal GasLink (CGL) has never obtained consent from the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs to enter or work on their territories. Since obtaining the initial interim injunction order, CGL has bulldozed through their territories and destroyed their archaeological sites, while private security firms and RCMP have interfered with the constitutionally protected rights of Wet’suwet’en people to access their lands for hunting, trapping, and ceremony. CGL has violated the conditions of their permits with impunity, facing no consequences from Canadian regulatory authorities.

On January 4 2020, the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs representing all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation rejected the BC Supreme Court decision to extend Coastal GasLink’s injunction order, which has criminalized the practice of Anuk ‘nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law) and inflicted violence against Wet’suwet’en people on their own unceded lands.

An interim injunction, which was granted by Justice Church in December of 2018, six months before the Wet’suwet’en were able to present any legal defense, has already done irreparable harm to their territories, people, and the practice of their laws. The decision ignored the legal efforts of their ancestors, who spent more than a decade in court with the Delgamuukw-Gisday’way v. Queen case to have the Supreme Court of Canada recognize that Aboriginal title had never been extinguished across 22,000 km2 of Wet’suwet’en yin’tah (traditional territory).

At a time when the Province of British Columbia is celebrated for adopting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the Wet’suwet’en people are actively denied the protections of UNDRIP on their own lands. When they enforced their own laws and required that industry seek Free, Prior, and Informed Consent for development on their lands, they faced a brutal display of militaristic police violence and an ongoing police occupation of their territories. We have all learned, through the reporting of The Guardian, that RCMP are prepared to kill unarmed Wet’suwet’en people if they continue to uphold their laws.

On January 13, 2020, The RCMP have now established an exclusion zone at 27-km mark on a road in Wet’suwet’en Territory.

Camp spokesperson Molly Wickham said the police exclusion zone located on the Morice River West Forest Access Road is “presenting a huge hassle” for supporters to access the camps. “I don’t believe for a second that it’s for public safety,” she said. “I think it’s more to control and do surveillance on our people.”

In addition to the establishment of the RCMP exclusion zone, on January 13, 2020, the media reported that B.C. Premier John Horgan stated at a press conference:

“The rule of law applies in British Columbia, all the permits are in place for the [CGL] project and the [CGL] project will be proceeding…Our document, our legislation, our declaration is forward looking, it’s not retrospective.”

Also, on January 13, 2020, the media reported that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated:

“[the CGL Project] is well being taken care of by the provincial government, but obviously we all have a role to play and the path forward on reconciliation, “I think right now it is a provincial government engagement with them that is happening as it is appropriate. It’s a provincial project and provincial processes. But of course, the federal government will continue to engage…when you have an elected band council that has signed agreements with various entities, corporations and governments, that has a certain weight to it, but there needs to be a reflection on who speaks entirely, or who speaks in part, for different parts of the community. And that’s part of the process that we are working out together as must be but with them leading on this.”

Both statements of the B.C. Premier and Canada Prime Minister completely ignore the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD): Prevention of Racial Discrimination, Including Early Warning, Urgent Action Procedure issued in December 2019, which calls upon Canada to:

":immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult;"

The UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is a binding International Convention, which Canada ratified in 1970. The December 2019 CERD Procedure to Prevent Racial Discrimination is to ensure the Indigenous right of Free, Prior Informed Consent (FPIC), of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans, is respected by the governments of Canada and British Columbia.

We see the governments of Canada, B.C. and the corporate media publicly promoting the illegitimate notion that the Impact Benefit Agreements that Coastal Gaslink signed with Indian Act Chiefs & Councils have more weight than the Aboriginal Title, Inherent Jurisdiction and Authority, which the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans hold.

Even within Canadian law the Prime Minister and the B.C. Premier know that “bands” and “band councils” operate through the Indian Act, a colonial law that has been imposed by the Canadian State since 1876. The government of Canada even has a website on “Self-Government”, which states:

"Unless they have negotiated self-government, most First Nations are currently governed by the Indian Act. They elect chiefs and councils to make decisions on their behalf and pass by-laws in a limited number of areas…First Nations have been living under the Indian Act for over 140 years. The Indian Act establishes a limited form of local administration.”

The “limited form of local administration” the Wet’suwet’en Indian Act “band councils” exercise is only on their Reserves not on the Wet’suwet’en Title Territory where the proposed corridor of the CGL Pipeline is located. The Indian Act “bands” have not yet negotiated “self-government” and even if they did, the federal so-called ‘Inherent Right’ policy only provides for municipal type ethnic “Indigenous government” and such “Self-Governing First Nations” only have delegated authority on what would become municipal-type lands (former Reserve lands).

Moreover, by the governments of B.C. and Canada promoting the notion that the Wet’suwet’en Indian Act Chiefs & Councils and the “First Nations LNG Alliance” should be given more weight or standing in the matter of the proposed Coastal Gaslink pipeline than the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans, is a breach of Article 18 on Self-Representation in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, now B.C. Bill 41, which provides as follows:

Article 18

Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous decision-making institutions. [emphasis added]

As already pointed out above “bands” and “band councils” are colonial imposed bodies, they are not “Indigenous decision-making institutions”, the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans are!

Statement of Support For Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans:

It is clear from both of the public statements from B.C. Premier Horgan and Prime Minister Trudeau, that the UN Declaration and B.C. Bill 41 simply mean business as usual, and the UN CERD Procedure to Prevent Racial Discrimination to ensure the Indigenous right of Free, Prior Informed Consent (FPIC), of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans is being ignored by both levels of government.

Added to the federal and B.C. governments’ duplicity is the complicit silence from the majority of Indian Act Chiefs across Canada, which sets the stage for another assault on the Wet’suwet’en Title Territory, where the RCMP have been given authority to use deadly force.

As a consequence, today the Unist’ot’en face the possibility that the full violence of the Canadian state will be brought to bear against them. In response, people across Turtle Island are holding rallies in solidarity with the Gitdumt’en and Unist’ot’en, and to protest Canada’s illegal encroachment on Wet’suwet’en land.

The message of the rally organizers is clear: 

“Indigenous law is the law of the land on unceded territories, and traditional title-holders have the right to refuse access to their lands. Disregarding this ancient law in order to further expand fossil fuel production during a time of extreme climate crisis is irresponsible and unacceptable. Agents of the corporate state will face resistance if they continue to pursue resource colonialism during this climate emergency”.

Many youth are rising up in North America and globally to demand action on the climate emergency facing all of us!

The Wet’suwet’en are not alone. There are also other Indigenous Nations who also hold collective Indigenous Title & Rights and who have traditional and customary systems of government outside of the colonial Indian Act Chief and Council system.

Like the Wet’suwet’en, we must also free ourselves from Ottawa’s National Termination Framework. To do this we must organize and take action through our own traditional and customary decision- making processes and institutions.

There are many ways to do something on this issue: 1) Go to Wet’suwet’en Territory to Support; 2) Hold a Fundraiser to help the Wet’suwet’en with their costs to defend and protect their Territory; 3) Educate people on the issue, show the movie INVASION, do a teach-in, share your comments to print media or social media; 4) Build solidarity, by forming a support group locally, send a solidarity statement; 5) Pressure the B.C. and federal governments, call the Ministers, call the local Member of Parliament.

Our Indigenous Activist Networks call on all Indigenous Peoples and Canadians of conscience to provide political, financial and material support to the Gitdumt’en and the Unist’ot’en, and to raise awareness in their communities. Further, we commit to an organized response in the event of police violence against the Gitdumt’en and the Unist’ot’en. Our Networks stand in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

E-Mail Communications Contact: info@IdleNoMore.ca 
Sylvia McAdam, Idle No More Organizer, Cell: (306) 281-8158
Kanahus Manuel, Defenders of the Land, Spokesperson, Cell: (250) 852-3924

Russ Diabo, Truth Campaign, Spokesperson, Cell: (613) 296-0110

1)  Defenders of the Land is a network of Indigenous communities and activists in land struggle across Canada, including Elders and youth, women and men, dedicated to building a fundamental movement for Indigenous rights, was founded at a historic meeting in Winnipeg from November 12-14, 2008. Idle No More was founded by four women (three of whom are Indigenous and one of whom is White) in November 2012 in response to several bills passed in Canada that undermine Indigenous rights and environmental protection. The movement grew quickly, and by January 2013 there were tens of thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people taking part in locally-based actions and mass mobilizations around the world. The Truth Campaign is a core team of people who worked on Russ Diabo’s 2018 campaign for the position of AFN National Chief and who are now working to get Crown governments and Canadian society to address “Truth Before Reconciliation” because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its Calls to Action are not sufficient to address the colonization that First Nations have historically experienced and which continues today particularly under the colonial policies and legislation passed under the Constitution Act 1867.

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