Gidimt’en cabin destroyed by arson as land defenders continue to oppose megaproject on their territories

On August 15, a cabin belonging to Chief Gisday’wa was burned to the ground. The arson took place two days after a local newspaper ran a front-page story that falsely claimed that the cabin had been “left behind” with “no apparent recent use.”

Large convoys of fracked gas pipeline contractors and private security vehicles pass the cabin each day. The road is also patrolled multiple times daily by the police who continue to occupy a remote detachment 2.5 kilometres past the site of the arson.

Gidimt’en spokesperson Sleydo’ says: “It’s absolutely racist. I think it’s white supremacists in the local communities. [It’s] a well-known history and experience of Wet’suwet’en people to have been burned out of their homes and out of their cabins off the territory.”

Gidimt’en is one of five clans within the Wet’suwet’en nation in British Columbia, Canada.

The TC Energy-owned Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline megaproject would cross 190 kilometres of Wet’suwet’en territory without the free, prior and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en peoples and their hereditary chiefs.

Wet’suwet’en land defenders have been criminalized and arrested in large-scale militarized police raids on their territories in January 2019 and February 2020.

Next month, clearing and grading of the fracked gas pipeline route is expected to begin near the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre and an influx of workers is expected in the near future at Coastal GasLink’s 9A Lodge work camp (man camp) raising further concerns about the security situation for Wet’suwet’en women and girls.

The full statement on the arson attack from the Wet’suwet’en Access Point on Gidimt’en Territory can be read here.

For more, please see the Gidimt’en Yintah Access website, and follow the Gidimt’en Checkpoint Instagram page, the Wet’suwet’en Access Point on Gidimt’en Territory Facebook page, and Gidimt’en Checkpoint on Twitter.

“INVASIÓN es cortometraje sobre el Campamento Unist’ot’en, la bloqueada Gidimt’en y la Nación Wet’suwet’en, luchando en contra del gobierno Canadiense y la corporaciones que continúan la violencia colonial en contra de los pueblos Indígenas.”

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