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14 arrested as RCMP break gate at Gidimt'en camp checkpoint set up to stop pipeline company access
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Photo Credit; Jesse Winter

"We are now preparing for a protracted struggle. 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. In plain language, the threat made by RCMP to invade Wet’suwet’en territories is a violation of human rights, a siege, and an extension of the genocide that Wet’suwet’en have survived since contact."

"Our message 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 totally unacceptable. Agents of the corporate state will face resistance if they continue to pursue resource colonialism during this climate emergency."

This situation has been brewing for some days now, at the end of the day it comes down to further abuses of first nations' territory (this time for the purpose of further environmental destruction by the oil and gas industry).

To summarize, the government has been pushing for a pipeline to be constructed from the Oil Sands in Alberta to the West Coast for export of Natural Gas. This would involve destruction and development of unceded Indigenous territory, and it was made without consultation of those who call the territories their home. They established roadblocks to peacefully protect themselves from violation of their rights and were met by armed and militarized police.

Because apparently my country hasn't learned much from the past 400 years...