Braided Warriors blockade rail line in solidarity with resistance to Line 3 in Minnesota

On March 12, Siiam Hamilton tweeted: “Indigenous youth collective @BraidedWarriors have shut down the railway tracks beside Renfrew Skytrain in Vancouver, BC to show solidarity with @GiniwCollective battle against Line 3 pipeline!”

Later that evening, Global News reported: “Two people were arrested Friday, as police and protesters clashed in East Vancouver after a group of demonstrators blockaded a rail line next to the Renfrew Skytrain Station.”

The Line 3 pipeline, approved by the Trudeau government in 2016, is now being built by Calgary-based Enbridge on Indigenous lands in Minnesota.

On March 2-3, the Braided Warriors also blockaded a major intersection for 24 hours to protest a 90-day jail sentence imposed on Indigenous Elder Stacy Gallagher for smudging within a pipeline construction site on unceded territories in violation of a court order.

Four people were arrested at that intersection blockade.

On February 7, the Braided Warriors were at the gate to the mansion of Dave Lede, CEO of the Ledcor Group of Companies. The Kiewit Ledcor Trans Mountain Partnership (KLTP) is constructing the Lower Mainland portion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, including 35 kilometres of the pipeline from Langley to Burnaby, the Burnaby Terminal, Burnaby Mountain Tunnel, Westridge Marine Terminal and Sumas Terminal in Abbotsford.

The Braided Warriors have also been drawing attention to the corporations that are insuring the Trans Mountain pipeline being built on unceded territories.

They drummed in the lobbies of Liberty Mutual Group on February 17 and the Chubb Insurance Co. of Canada on February 18.

They were then violently attacked by Vancouver police while in ceremony in the lobby of the Vancouver branch of AIG Canada on February 19.

On March 1, the Braided Warriors returned a space near AIG Canada to film this testimonial of their experiences of police violence on February 19 that they will submit to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

That UN Committee has previously called for construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline to stop until it secures free, prior and informed consent.

You can follow the Braided Warriors on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Secwepemc land defender tweeted this video of the Vancouver police arrests of the two Braided Warriors. There is also this still from a Global News video.