Wet’suwet’en man denied access to ancestral territory by RCMP as CGL drills under Wedzin Kwa
On October 6, Yintah Access posted on Instagram: “Wedzin kwa and everything that depends on her is under attack. We all have a responsibility to protect her.”
They reposted this video – taken on September 29 – that shows Travis Pete (@honeycomb_25) being blocked from accessing a smokehouse on his land.
Git’luuhl’um’hetxwit Media explains:
“We are sharing a video from our dear friend @honeycomb_25, who was confronted on his ancestral clan territory by foreign industry goons. This took place on the opposite side of the river from where Coastal GasLink is currently attempting to drill underneath very active spring salmon spawning grounds. These salmon have likely been spawning in this river since it was first formed. Salmon runs have been struggling for years on this river, and now the ground water flow, spawning gravel, and water temperature are all being influenced by the vast clear-cuts of the right of way, rock blasting, fuel spills, in-filled ravines, drilling, and then eventually the pipeline itself. The smokehouse, the salmon, and our way of life is something that can never be replaced with money. This is a national crime in progress, and the impunity of the colonial-Industrial mentality is something that needs to be challenged and overcome.”
The drilling by Coastal GasLink is happening despite the lack of free, prior and informed consent from the Wet’suwet’en peoples and three letters from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination calling on Canada to halt this project.
On September 28, Peace Brigades International echoed these concerns during the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland during the Interactive Dialogue with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
We stated: “The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on Canada to halt construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory. Canada ratified this International Convention in 1970 and said in 2016 it supports the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, yet the building of this pipeline without consent continues as does the criminalization of land defenders.”
PBI-Canada visited the territory in November 2021.
We continue to follow this situation.
1 Comment
Dr. Frances Scully · October 8, 2022 at 11:51 pm
I thank Travis Pete and all who do all they can to protect spawning salmon and all that is wild and beautiful. As an immigrant to Canada, I find all who value destructive gas lines more than
life on our beautiful planet to be truly depressing. Watching this breaks my heart. Wild salmon are such brave and intelligent fish and such a vital part of their ecosystems. Given that we know that Indigenous peoples have suffered horribly for centuries for working to protect bio-diversity and have for their life-affirming efforts been denigrated as being ” primitive” ! Also, research shows that salmon have equivalent levels l of consciousness and intelligence as my beloved dogs mean that
I find watching the way live spawning salmon are mutilated by staff salmon hatcheries very upsetting.