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.

Ferney Salcedo, Yulivel Leal, Ninfa Cruz, Reymundo Vásquez will be speaking on our webinar on October 11. To register for this, click here.

PBI-Canada will be hosting a webinar on Tuesday October 11 at 2 pm ET (1 pm in Colombia) with social leaders from San Luis de Palenque and representatives of two PBI-Colombia accompanied organizations.

The webinar will have simultaneous translation in English and Spanish.

To register, click here.

The webinar panel will include social leaders Ferney Salcedo and Yulivel Leal; Ninfa Cruz of the Social Corporation for Community Advice and Training (COSPACC); and Reymundo Vásquez, a lawyer with the Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP).

The webinar will take place just days after Ferney, Yulivel and six other defenders are in court this coming October 3-6 on charges related to their protests against Toronto-based Frontera Energy.

Background

Frontera Energy operates the Cubiro oil block in the Llanos basin, which includes the community of San Luis de Palenque. Prior to June 2017, Frontera operated as Pacific Exploration & Production Corporation (and was also known as Pacific Rubiales).

The Cubiro block produced 2,410 barrels per day of light and medium crude oil in 2021.

In February 2018, Frontera temporarily closed Cubiro block operations. At that time, they said: “Unfortunately, the excessive demands on the part of a minority group of people from San Luis de Palenque — a group that does not represent the leaders or the community of the municipality — has led the company to make this decision.”

By November 16 and 19, 2018, Frontera had signed two protection agreements with the Ministry of Defence for USD $1.34 million to secure army protection.

Just days after those contracts were signed, a police and military operation on November 27 arrested Ferney, Yulivel and the six others.

Video: A Black Hawk helicopter was used in the arrest of the social leaders.

A still from this video of the social leaders being taken into custody after their arrest.

Yulivel under house arrest with a monitoring bracelet on her ankle.

On September 16, 2019, the CSPP and COSPACC raised this situation with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva.

Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, also raised concerns about the criminalization of these leaders in his February-March 2020 report to the UN Human Rights Council. 

Forst highlighted “the apparent connection between Frontera Energy, the army’s 16th brigade and the Attorney General’s Support Office in this criminalization.”

It was not until August-September 2020, that a judge ordered the release of the leaders from prison and house arrest. The release decision was appealed by the Prosecutor’s Office and by Frontera Energy’s lawyers.

PBI-Canada and PBI-Canada met with Ferney, Yulivel, Ninfa and Reymundo in San Luis de Palenque this past July 1.

To register for the webinar on October 11, click here.

Decolonial Solidarity image.

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.