The drilling for a fracked gas pipeline under Wedzin Kwa could start within days on Wet’suwet’en territory

Photo by Kris Statnyk.

On September 8, Defend Our River and Yintah Access posted:

“Did you know that the CGL Pipeline will be drilling under our river starting as early as next week? …Our beautiful river is in imminent danger. We must URGENTLY build a coalition of people to stop CGL from drilling under the headwaters of our river. If drilling happens, the river flowing through our communities will be forever damaged.”

They add: “We need to come together as a community that is prepared to protect our river by any means non-violently necessary.”

The Facebook event page for the march is here.

Earlier this year, the Terrace Standard reported: “The active tunneling work [under Wedzin Kwa] is expected to take two and half to three months.”

For further updates, please follow the Defend Our River and Yintah Access Instagram feeds as well as Gidimt’en Checkpoint on Twitter.

On September 9, Kris Statnyk also tweeted: “Yesterday Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs went to witness the ongoing destruction of their yintah at the Coastal Gaslink drill site. They were pulled over on the forestry road by RCMP with hands on their guns and threatened arrest if they didn’t show their BC drivers licenses.”

We recall that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has repeatedly called on Canada to stop the construction of the pipeline and “that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and associated security and policing services will be withdrawn from their traditional lands.”

It has been noted on YintahAccess.com that: “In three large-scale police actions in January 2019, February 2020, and November 2021, a total of 74 people have been arrested and detained, including legal observers and members of the media.”

Stand.earth has also highlighted: “RBC is among top commercial banks providing the CGL project with working capital, including CAD $275 million in project finance, a co-financed $6.5 billion loan, a $40 million corporate loan, and $200 million in co-financed working capital – while acting as financial advisor for the pipeline.”

For more on the ongoing campaign calling on RBC to defund Coastal GasLink, please see Decolonial Solidarity on Twitter.

We continue to follow this closely.