The threat of gender-based violence against women land defenders on Wet’suwet’en territory and around the world

“A red dress worn by the mountain weather & dust from an industry road in Wet’suwet’en territories. A symbol of the genocide of Indigenous females who are targeted for violence & murder. CGL pipeline guarded by RCMP is being constructed without hereditary leaders consent nearby.” – Photo by Brandi Morin.

In her latest dispatch from Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia, journalist Brandi Morin writes: “Gaylene Morris of the Likhsamasyu Clan, says she was threatened with rape over a CB radio on April 18.”

Morin adds: “Morris, who visits her ancestral territory regularly, says it happened after she stopped to check on Hereditary Chief Gisday’wa’s hunting cabin at around 8:30 p.m. …After returning to [her] vehicle, she heard a ‘creepy, eerie’ voice address her on the radio. She had seen a Coastal GasLink work truck ahead of her just before she had stopped.”

And Morin notes: “[Morris is] used to being followed closely by marked Coastal GasLink vehicles and RCMP, sometimes while her young children are with her. The verbal rape threat confirmed the dangers she faces in her homelands.”

Morris reported the threat to the RCMP.

Morris’ aunt, elder Janet Williams, has told the RCMP: “I’d appreciate it if you’d try to look it up and to investigate one of our girls who was assaulted on the radio with a threat of rape. We don’t trust the CGL here.”

But Williams says: “The RCMP aren’t protecting us — they’re protecting CGL. They’re working for CGL.” 

The article continues: “Coastal GasLink spokesperson Natasha Westover told Ricochet in an email that the company has not received any complaints and has not been informed by the RCMP of any reports of the threat.”

“When asked about the status of the investigation of the rape threat reported by Morris, RCMP spokesperson Manseau advised Ricochet to direct Morris to the Houston RCMP. Morris then told Ricochet she has not yet heard back from them.”

The full article by Morin can be read at Wet’suwet’en report round-the-clock surveillance and harassment by RCMP and pipeline security.

Other incidents

Mohawk land defender Layla Staats has also spoken about the “humiliation and degradation” that she felt when an RCMP officer winked at her as she was handcuffed in the back of his police cruiser after she was arrested on Wet’suwet’en territory for peacefully resisting the CGL pipeline on November 18, 2021.

In this interview with Morin, Gidimt’en land defender Sleydo’ describes how police forcibly cut a cedar bracelet and medicine bag from her at an RCMP detachment the following day. Sleydo’ says four or five RCMP officers physically restrained her and cut the medicine bag off her body as about ten officers watched.

Just a few weeks earlier, Wet’suwet’en land defender Delee Nikal highlighted: “Femicide is directly linked to the ecocide … there needs to be more awareness that these extractive industries, all that is affecting our climate and destroying our territories, is intertwined with violence against our women and girls.”

A global threat

The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) has reported: “Common experiences of WHRDs [women human rights defenders] across regions reflect global trends of repression and gender-specific violence [GBV] perpetrated by corporate, state and non-state actors: corporations and private companies, state and local authorities, military and police forces, [and] private security services.”

AWID adds: “States are obliged by national, regional and international human rights standards to respect, protect and fulfill the rights of women human rights defenders and their communities, and provide an enabling environment for the peaceful defense of their lands and territories. If violations occur, states have an obligation to provide victims with access to effective judicial remedies and reparation.”

In January 2020, The Guardian also reported on a study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and noted: “There have been numerous examples of gender-based violence directed against environmental defenders and activists, who try to stop the destruction or degradation of their land, natural resources and communities. Sexual violence is used to suppress them, undermine their status within the community and discourage others from coming forward.”

The IUCN report says: “The violence and intimidation employed to exert control over individuals’ and local communities’ territories and natural resources can also instigate, magnify and reinforce incidences of GBV.”

The report also notes: “The GBV experienced by WEHRDs [women environmental human rights defenders] can often be exacerbated when it intersects with racial and ethnic discrimination. In Guatemala, indigenous communities, which make up 60 per cent of the national population, often find themselves in defence of their territories against extractive interests. The country has also experienced a startling rise in GBV, particularly against indigenous women.”

Video: “By being women in the public space, and as guardians of our Indigenous and local communities and resources, we face marginalization, discrimination and racism, patriarchy and gender-based violence.” – Sara Mux, Ixpop Collective (Guatemala)