PBI-Canada to observe Global Climate Strike in Ottawa on September 23
Fridays for Future has posted:
“Join us [on Friday September 23] for the Global Climate Strike as we demand policymakers and world leaders to prioritize #PeopleNotProfit! We demand that our Governments listen to MAPA [Most Affected People and Areas] voices and immediately work to provide Loss & Damage Finance to the communities most affected by the climate crisis.”
This Fridays for Future Canada map illustrates that numerous protests will be happening across this country that day.
Decolonial Solidarity is highlighting solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en struggle against the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline. They have tweeted: “Join Decolonial Solidarity in cities across Turtle Island. Contingents in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Vancouver! We march for climate and for Wedzin Kwa.”
The National Observer reports: “As Coastal GasLink prepares to drill under the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River), Wet’suwet’en hereditary leadership and their allies are saying the fight is reaching a flashpoint — and supporters across the country are on notice.”
Gidimt’en Checkpoint has tweeted: “The drill they will use to destroy Wedzin Kwa is now in place. We will never stop defending our yintah the way our ancestors have done for thousands of years. We need all your support now to ensure it will never be functional.”
Despite the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination repeatedly calling for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to leave Wet’suwet’en territory, Gidimt’en Checkpoint has highlighted that RCMP harassment of land defenders has increased as the drilling under the river begins.
Since January 2019, more than 74 land defenders, legal observers and members of the media have been arrested in three militarized RCMP actions on the territory.
The RCMP raid Wet’suwet’en territory, November 2021.
And over the three-month period of March to May 2022, the RCMP have attended the Gidimt’en village near the drill pad site 269 times.
Gidimt’en Checkpoint video (posted September 21, 2022).
Wet’suwet’en land defender Molly Wickham (Sleydo’) also tells journalist Brandi Morin: “It’s not over by any stretch of the imagination.”
And Sarah Beuhler of Stand.earth says: “Drilling — especially under the Wedzin Kwa, which is still drinkable — is a flashpoint not just for local Indigenous community members, the hereditary leadership and their allies, but more broadly, this kind of flashpoint may drive the kind of attention we’ve seen in other Indigenous front-line fights.”
Beuhler adds: ”There’s a real possibility of clashing between security forces, Indigenous leadership, protesters, protectors and allies, not just on the yintah but across so-called Canada and North America as well.”
PBI-Canada will be observing the Climate Strike march from Confederation Park to Parliament Hill. The march starts with a rally at 12 pm in Confederation Park and concludes with a rally on Parliament Hill (from 2 pm to 3 pm).
For more on the Ottawa/Gatineau march, please see Decolonial Solidarity at the Climate Strike.
We also continue to follow the situation on the yintah.
The drill pad site near Wedzin Kwa.
0 Comments