Secwepemc land defender Kanahus Manuel calls for a national inquiry into the Ts’Peten/ Gustafsen Lake standoff

Secwepemc land defender Kanahus Manuel has posted on Facebook: “Before Wolverine passed away he called on the government to have a national inquiry into the Gustafsen Lake standoff in Unceded Secwepemc Territory 1995 and the use of police and military against Indigenous Land Defenders.”

She adds: “In the courts it was exposed the amount of live rounds (77,000 rounds fired) used against Indigenous land defenders including Wolverine. I stand with Wolverine in his call for a federal inquiry into Gustafsen Lake Standoff!”

The CBC has previously explained: “The standoff began in 1995 when about 20 First Nations occupied a piece of ranch land near 100-Mile House that they said was sacred and part of a larger tract of unceded territory.”

The town of 100-Mile House is located about 190 kilometres north-west of Kamloops, British Columbia.

That article adds: “In response the RCMP brought in 400 armed officers, backed by helicopters and armoured personnel carriers, blew up a supply pick-up truck with buried explosives, and fired thousands of rounds of ammunition.”

APTN has also noted: “The RCMP used an IED [improvised explosive device] against the warriors during the standoff and Bison armoured personnel carriers provided and driven by the Canadian Forces.”

That article adds: “One of Wolverine’s last acts [before he passed away in March 2016] was to issue a call for a public inquiry into the actions of the RCMP and Canadian military during the Gustafsen Lake standoff.”

That letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated: “The core issues that so forcefully clashed against each other remain at the forefront of the hearts and minds of Indigenous people. That is our right to self-determination, autonomy and protection from the dispossession of our lands and territories.”

Wolverine’s letter to the Prime Minister also stated: “An inquiry into the Ts’Peten standoff would [help ensure] that threats, intimidation, defamation and force are never again used against Indigenous people in Canada.”

The APTN report notes: “The standoff gave Wolverine a global platform that saw him travel to places like the United Nations and to Zapatista territory in Chiapas, Mexico. Kanahus Manuel, who was there at the time of his death, said Wolverine’s name is known from the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota reservation down to Mapuche territory in Chile.”

Wolverine passed away on March 22, 2016. Almost 5 years later, his call for a public inquiry remains unfulfilled by the Canadian government.

For more, please see Gord Hill’s video Gustafsen Lake Standoff in five minutes.

These stills from RCMP surveillance footage show a truck being driven by land defenders on a dirt road at Gustafsen Lake and the aftermath of the IED explosion.