Video still: Secwepemc-Ktunaxa land and water defender Kanahus Manuel speaks at protest near the Canada Investment Summit gala dinner.
CBC News reports: “More than 1,000 demonstrators gathered in downtown Toronto yesterday [September 14] to protest against the summit, arguing Canada’s economic future should not be put in the hands of CEOs.”
CBC News video of the massive police presence, including the mounted police unit, to counter that protest can be seen here.
About 100 large state and institutional investors were invited to the summit, including thirty-three investor groups from the United States, nine from the United Kingdom, eight from France, and one from Norway.
Secwepemc-Ktunaxa land and water defender Kanahus Manuel spoke to those assembled on the street blocked by police barricades from getting to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) where a gala dinner was taking place.
Manuel stated: “They’re the land rapers, they’re the thieves, they’re the ones that we’ll continue to fight back against. They’re our enemy, our enemy is there, just a short distance from us, and when they try to come through, we’re going to let them know, get the fuck out of Toronto and get the fuck off Native land.”
Pipeline proposed on Secwepemc territory
On July 2, 2026, the Government of Canada announced it would refer the West Coast pipeline project to the Major Projects Office. It notes: “This pipeline would transport one million barrels per day of oil toward global markets” and “largely follow the existing Trans Mountain corridor”.
The current Trans Mountain pipeline crosses about 518 kilometres of unceded Secwepemc territory in northern British Columbia.
That West Coast Oil Pipeline is listed on page 10 of the prospectus (or “pitch book”) circulated to the investors at the Canada Investment Summit.
In August 2026, CBC News reported: “A group that represents numerous First Nations across British Columbia is calling on Ottawa and Alberta’s government to halt efforts to advance the West Coast pipeline, saying expanding the oil industry will accelerate climate change and disasters.”
UN concerned about the RCMP on Secwepemc lands
In May 2022, CBC News reported: “In a letter dated April 29, [the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination] CERD said the governments of Canada and British Columbia ‘have escalated their use of force, surveillance, and criminalization of land defenders to intimidate, remove and forcibly evict Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en Nations from their traditional lands…’ The letter goes on to name the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) and private security forces as the perpetrators.”
Manuel has told Amnesty International Canada: “Violence is perpetuated not just by industry, but also by the Crown and the judicial system. These systems are not protecting Indigenous rights, human rights, or the earth. They are protecting industry by making money for the Government of Canada and bringing more investment into the country. When there are systems that do not care about Indigenous rights and human rights, they are going to try to get rid of us. They are trying to do this by criminalizing Indigenous peoples, by using disinformation and smear campaigns when Indigenous peoples are actually upholding Indigenous and human rights.”
The need for accompaniment
Manuel has previously commented: “I really like what Amnesty International and some of those international organizations do by providing security for Native land defenders in South America. They don’t have that here, but we need to be able to provide it for our own land defenders to be able to have security for women and people, Elders who do want to go out and defend the land, but they don’t have the security needed to do it because violence comes to us. We’re not asking for it, but it’s coming from the police, it’s coming from the Crown, it’s coming from the corporations, their workers, it’s also coming from just regular civilians that are just white supremacists who want to come with their hate.”
Peace Brigades International-Canada has made multiple trips to Wet’suwet’en, Gitxsan and Gitanyow territories in recent years and is now in the process of developing a Turtle Island accompaniment initiative.
For more on that: Annual review: PBI-Canada’s “transformative proposition” of extending PBI’s protective accompaniment into a “Northern” territory (October 29, 2025).
–Secwepemc land defender Kanahus Manuel highlights the need for security for land defenders (PBI-Canada, September 7, 2021)
–PBI-Canada attentive to participatory research consultancy to strengthen decolonial international protection in Colombia (PBI-Canada, September 1, 2026)
–PBI-Canada attentive to the risk of aggressions against Indigenous land and environmental defenders resisting major projects (PBI-Canada, November 28, 2025).
