CGL drilling under Wedzin Kwa begins, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs to hold rally and media conference in Victoria

On September 24, Gidimt’en Checkpoint tweeted: “Uphold your responsibility to stop the destruction of the last pristine water ways on earth. This is not over. You can hear her crying.” In the video with that tweet, you can hear the sound of the Coastal GasLink drill beginning to bore under the Wedzin Kwa river.

Yintah Access Instagram post.

Now, CTV also reports: “Hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and their supporters are planning a rally at the B.C. legislature on Tuesday [September 27] to ‘make an important announcement’ about their efforts to stop a natural gas pipeline under construction on their territory.”

That article adds: “’The Hereditary chiefs will issue formal public comment about a recent incident of being denied access to ancestral lands by Coastal GasLink,’ reads a news release issued Friday to announce the gathering.”

For more on that, please see Brandi Morin’s article ‘Gut-wrenching:’ Drilling starts under Wet’suwet’en river.

Photo by Sidney Coles.

The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, the governance body for the 22,000 square kilometres of Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia, have not given their free, prior and informed consent for this pipeline to be built.

Since January 2019, more than 74 land defenders, legal observers and members of the media have been arrested in three militarized Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) actions on the territory. 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.

This Gidimt’en video released on September 21 notes further arrests.

Gidimt’en Checkpoint has affirmed: “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.”

Call to defund CGL

Decolonial Solidarity has highlighted: “The RCMP’s militarized backup of corporate destruction puts profit for a few ahead of Indigenous self-determination… This violence is funded by the Royal Bank of Canada: the lead financier of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.”

It adds: “Will you call the executives of RBC and urge the company to defund CGL?”

To make that call, click here.

The rally at the BC Legislature in Victoria is scheduled to begin at 3 pm Tuesday September 27, with the news conference scheduled for 4 pm PT.