Wet’suwet’en and Otomi land defenders to speak in Ottawa about their resistance to TC Energy pipelines

On Monday October 16, Wet’suwet’en and Otomi land defenders will come together to speak about their experiences resisting Calgary-based TC Energy building gas pipelines on their territories within the countries of Canada and Mexico.

To register for the in-person event in Ottawa, click here.

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks and land defender Eve Saint will speak about their opposition to the company’s Coastal GasLink pipeline now being constructed on their territory in northern British Columbia in Canada.

Otomi land defender Don Salvador Aparicio Olvera will speak about his opposition to the company’s Tula Pipeline Project (Tuxpan-Tula pipeline) that would extend from Tuxpan, Veracruz to the states of Puebla and Hidalgo in central Mexico.

Dr. Eliana Acosta Marquez of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the Workshop for the Defence of Territories will also be speaking. She contributed to the research, systemization and editing of the Territories of Water report (December 2021) that documented opposition to the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline.

The report links TC Energy and “a series of irregularities in Mexico against Otomi, Nahua and Totonac communities and in Canada against Wet’suwet’en communities.” When the Regional Council of Indigenous Peoples in Defense of the Territory of Puebla and Hidalgo received the report they indicated their desire to establish links with the Wet’suwet’en.

On January 15 and 16, 2022, PBI-Mexico accompanied the National Meeting of Struggles against Gas Pipelines and Death Projects. The Regional Council of Indigenous Peoples in Defence of the Territory of Puebla and Hidalgo was present at this meeting.

Algonquin Elder Claudette Commanda will be welcoming everyone to the event in Ottawa and University of Ottawa Professor Karine Vanthuyne will be moderating.

An analysis by The Globe and Mail newspaper found that Ottawa-based Export Development Canada (EDC), a Crown corporation wholly owned by the Government of Canada, has provided TransCanada Pipelines (now TC Energy) with a minimum of $1 billion in funding between 2001 and the end of 2020.

On April 28, 2020, EDC signed an agreement with TC Energy to lend between $250 million and $500 million for the Coastal GasLink pipeline. In July 2021, Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng visited the TC Energy office in Mexico City and tweeted about “the community-centered business approach of TC Energy, the largest Canadian investor in the country.” Ng is the cabinet minister responsible for EDC.

To hear more from Chief Na’Moks, Eve Saint, Don Chava and Eliana Acosta in Ottawa, click here.

EVENTS IN TORONTO

For more about the activities of this delegation in Toronto, click here.