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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