Wet'suwet'en Stand Strong Against Pipeline
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 Being frank since 2009 VOL. 11, NO. 4 Art: Christi Belcourt WET’SUWET’EN STAND STRONG AGAINST PIPELINE POLICING AND CRIMINALIZATION OF A TIMELINE OF OTTAWA INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE CONTINUES POLICE VIOLENCE “Why do we need to take you against indigenous people so Andy Crosby to court? This is our land, that their unceded homelands A series of protests were these are our rights, these are can be exploited for profit.” held in Ottawa and throughout our traditions, this is our cul- The call to action invoked Canada in January in solidarity ture. We just want respect like Article 10 of the UN Declara- with the Wet’suwet’en peoples every single other person on tion on the Rights of Indig- and their hereditary chiefs, this planet.” enous Peoples (UNDRIP), who are currently facing police After over an hour, the large which states that “Indigenous suppression in B.C. for block- group left without incident. peoples shall not be forcibly ing construction of a pipeline. Activists responded to a removed from their land or On Jan. 8 in Ottawa, doz- call from the Wet’suwet’en for territories.” ens of Indigenous peoples “rolling actions” with another “We are now preparing for FAKE BUT and their supporters pushed rally on Jan. 15, which began a protracted struggle,” the call A HOLISTIC VIEW OF through lines of security and at Confederation Park before concluded. “The hereditary FRIENDLY police personnel to enter the taking to the streets. chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en and THE MIGRANT CARAVAN ACCESSIBILITY John G. Diefenbaker Building A benefit concert is sched- the land defenders holding on Sussex Drive, disrupting uled for Jan. 26 at Barry- the front lines have no inten- a planned speech by Prime more’s, with more actions and tion of allowing Wet’suwet’en Minister Justin Trudeau at the events to come. sovereignty to be violated.” “NOTHING Canada-Modern Treaty and Self-Governing First Nations RCMP INVASION AN CANADIAN SECURITY MORE THAN A Forum. “ACT OF WAR” APPARATUS TARGETS PAGE 3 Earlier on Parliament Hill, UNIST’OT’EN JUSTICE FOR Ashley Courchene, a Car- The numerous actions in RED HERRING” leton graduate student from support of the Wet’suwet’en Indigenous land defend- STUDENTS, ACTIVISTS, AND ABDI TRIAL Sagkeeng First Nation in Man- were prompted after a large ers and water protectors have LABOUR TAKE AIM AT FORD’S itoba, called the RCMP action force of RCMP officers – some come under increased and in- POSTSECONDARY PLANS Photo: Ian McCrae PAGE 4 against the Wet’suwet’en an dressed in camouflage with tensified scrutiny from the Ca- and interest accumulation. Rick Telfer & Andy Crosby invasion. heavy weapons – moved in nadian security establishment “The proposed cuts to HERONGATE RENT “The RCMP are engaged on the Gidimt’en checkpoint for asserting their sovereign Students, activists, and la- OSAP will harm those stu- in a media campaign to con- on Jan. 7 and arrested 14 land title to the land. These asser- bour movement leaders are dents most in need,” the CFS INCREASE vince the average Canadian protectors. tions have been interpreted as sounding the alarm about stated. “Moreover, without an that they are the ones who are All five clans of the Wet’su- a direct challenge to the au- the devastating impact the increase to operating funds for rational and peaceful while wet’en nation have unani- thority of the Canadian state Ford government’s plans for institutions, this tuition fee re- PAGE 5 painting Indigenous peoples mously opposed all pipeline and economy – and so they post-secondary education will duction will most likely come RETHINKING as criminals on their own proposals, and the Gidimt’en are framed as a threat to na- have on the system’s accessibil- at the hands of cuts to campus homelands,” said Courchene. recently established a tional security. ity and democracy. workers and services. Students POLICING “What the RCMP are do- checkpoint to support the In particular, Indigenous On Jan. 17, the Ford govern- were not consulted in this pro- ing right now in B.C. are not Unist’ot’en camp. activists have challenged Can- ment announced it was – osten- cess. The Ford government is upholding the rule of law,” For the past decade, the ada’s energy superpower am- sibly – taking three major steps looking to dismantle public PAGE 7 he continued. “They are en- Unist’ot’en Clan’s camp has bitions, which centre on the towards ensuring affordability post-secondary education and LES SANS- gaging in state-sponsored sat at the intersection of a tar sands and efforts to pipe of post-secondary education. It is attempting to eliminate the terrorism against Indigenous number of proposed pipe- oil and gas over unceded In- will lower tuition fees by 10 per opposition to do it.” CULOTTES people, which is funded by oil lines. digenous territories to tide cent at every publicly-funded CFS estimates that colleges companies, and it’s time that On Dec. 14, TransCanada water for export. college and university in Ontar- and universities will face com- we face up to this truth.” Corporation obtained an in- Over the past decade, nu- io, give students “more choice” bined funding cuts of up to PAGE 11 Inside the Diefenbaker junction from a B.C. court to merous internal documents over the fees they pay, and “re- $440 million annually, which COURAGE IN Building, Trudeau refused remove Indigenous obstacles obtained through Access to store financial sustainability” is expected to result in larger to come out and address the so that construction could Information requests have re- to OSAP, the Ontario Student class sizes, fewer course op- POLITICS crowd of over 100 Indigenous commence on its Coastal Gas- vealed extensive scrutiny and Assistance Program. tions, and downward pressure peoples and their settler allies. Link pipeline. surveillance by security agen- But the Ontario branch of on workers’ wages and benefits. This crowd held the space by The Wet’suwet’en and oth- cies monitoring and reporting the Canadian Federation of The Ford government is also PAGE 12 chanting, making noise, and er Indigenous nations along on Indigenous resistance. Students (CFS) called the tu- changing the definition of ‘de- IMMIGRATION delivering a variety of speech- the pipeline routes have never In particular, security ition fee reduction “nothing pendent’ from being four years es over a megaphone in open- surrendered title to their ter- agencies have fixated on the more than a red herring” in a out of high school to six. This DETENTION mic fashion. ritories, which the Supreme Unist’ot’en Clan and their statement posted to its Face- means higher education will Among the dozens Court of Canada recognized “blockade camp” as being book page on Jan. 17. Then, in become less accessible for ma- of speakers was a seven- in the 1997 Delgamuukw case. “the ideological and physical a Jan. 18 press release, the CFS ture students, since students’ PAGE 15 teen-year-old Mi’kmaw girl An international call to ac- focal point of Aboriginal re- further denounced the changes parents’ income will be part of named Sophia, who ad- tion for Jan. 8 was issued to sistance to resource projects.” as “reckless” and “severe.” the OSAP assessment for loans DRAMA DRAMA dressed Trudeau directly from support those defending the Canadian security offi- According to CFS, the govern- and grants even if those stu- DRAMA outside the meeting room. Gidimt’en checkpoint. cials anticipated using force ment’s announcement includes dents are living independently. “Justin Trudeau, I know This call to action, which against the Unist’ot’en as a guaranteed four per cent cut Graduate students and stu- you are listening, and this circulated among media and early as 2015, drafting a “se- to institutional funding, a reduc- dents in professional programs (RCMP raid) cannot happen activist groups, said that “De- cret” risk assessment of the tion to needs-based grants, an like medicine and law will be ever again.” spite the lip service given to “blockade of TransCanada increase in student loans, and denied grants and forced to rely “Decriminalize us!” So- ‘Truth and Reconciliation’, proposed pipeline” after the the elimination of the six-month entirely on loans. phia demanded. Canada is now attempting to company signaled it would grace period for loan repayment CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 “We want to be sovereign do what it has always done – seek an injunction to remove nations,” she continued. criminalize and use violence CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 EDITORIAL might not invite you to plac- asking whenever the ‘free es where we can here you speech’ card gets played. NEWS again. We might use our free We’re not saying bad peo- speech to tell other people – ple should never say bad WET’SUWET’EN such as “splinter group” and set to expire on Jan. 31, the who don’t have to listen to things. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “faction” are tactics to dele- deadline where the named us – that they shouldn’t lis- Nothing’s absolute. Even the Wet’suwet’en from their gitimize, marginalize, and defendants – Warner Naziel POLICE OFFICER CHARGED IN ABDI’S ten to you. free speech. Even you think it land. Public Safety Canada’s undermine Indigenous land (Smogelgem), Freda Huson, Because free speech has its limits. Government Operations Cen- defenders and demands for and Jane and John Doe – can DEATH TO FACE COURT NEXT MONTH doesn’t free you from conse- We’ve noticed that self-determination. file a response with the B.C. Su- civil lawsuit against the Otta- tre (GOC) assessed the risk to Salma Mahgoub nected with, and it’s brought a quences.