Photo: A Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief explains the significance of the Delgamuukw decision to the RCMP on Gidimt’en territory in British Columbia, Canada.

Gidimt’en land defenders and allies are currently blocking Coastal GasLink (CGL) from drilling under the Wedzin Kwa river for their fracked gas pipeline.

Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs are at the site in solidarity with the land defenders stopping the heavy equipment from being used at the river.

In this 10-minute video posted on Instagram, an RCMP officer at the drill site notes a civil court injunction that prevents land defenders from obstructing CGL.

One of the hereditary chiefs responds: “The injunction completely ignores the Delgamuukw case. …If you want to follow the law, follow the law. Don’t follow the lower court’s decision, you go to the highest court every time.”

He adds: “We are the Hereditary Chiefs. We have authority here.”

Injunction vs Supreme Court ruling

Justice Marguerite Church of the British Columbia Supreme Court issued an interim injunction in December 2018 and an interlocutory injunction in December 2019.

Significantly, Briarpatch has noted: “Injunctions are meant to be temporary, lasting only until a trial can decide the issue in question.”

No date has been set for that trial, nor is it in the interests of CGL to have a trial given they have access to the RCMP to enforce the injunction despite its temporary nature and the passage of almost two years since it was issued.

Highlighting the Delgamuukw decision, Kate Gunn of First Peoples Law has stated: “What it did say was the province [of British Columbia], acting on its own, doesn’t have authority to extinguish Aboriginal title, that it continues to exist and that the Wet’suwet’en never ceded or otherwise gave up their title.”

Gunn and Bruce McIvor further explain: “The Supreme Court recognized that the Province’s authority to issue permits for Indigenous lands, including the type of permits issued for the Coastal GasLink pipeline, is not based on established legal authority.”

Gunn and McIvor add: “It is based on the fact that the Province has proceeded, for over 150 years, to make unilateral decisions about Indigenous lands. The fact that the Province has acted since the 1860s as though it has full authority to decide how Indigenous peoples’ lands are used does not make doing so legal or just.”

For updates, please see Gidimt’en Checkpoint on Twitter, the Gidimt’en Checkpoint Facebook page, the Gidimt’en Yintah Access website, and yintah_access on Instagram.

A short distance from where the hereditary chiefs were gathered, land defenders protect the Wedzin Kwa river from CGL’s heavy equipment.

Still from Gidimt’en video.

On September 26, Gidimt’en Checkpoint tweeted: “Chief Sleydo’, Shay Sampson (Gitxsan Nation), & supporters locked down to heavy equipment.”

The heavy equipment is situated beside Wedzin Kwa, the river that Coastal GasLink (CGL) intends to drill under to lay pipe for their fracked gas pipeline that lacks the free, prior and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en clans, including the Gidimt’en.

The following day, the Gidimt’en tweeted: “Our relatives and supporters continue to hold the space, with our Hereditary Chiefs and community members support we will continue to protect Wedzin Kwa for our future generations!”

And now in the early hours of September 28, they have posted this video of Sleydo’ and Shay speaking about the importance of defending Wedzin Kwa.

In the 5-minute long video, Sleydo’ says: “People should know when Indigenous people are defending their land that we’re criminalized, that guns are drawn, that excessive force and violence is used against us.”

She adds: “They don’t want Indigenous people to rise up. They don’t want Indigenous people to defend their land. They see us as a huge threat to industry, to capitalism, to land theft. They believe that they control and own our territories and have the right to destroy them.”

And she highlights: “It’s our responsibility as Indigenous people to protect what we have, to protect the sacred, to protect our sacred headwaters. It’s everybody’s responsibility to protect what we have left, which is very little, for all the future generations.”

The Gidimt’en are a clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation whose unceded territory is situated within the province of British Columbia in Canada.

On December 13, 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on the State party (Canada) to “immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent.”

It further urged the “State party to guarantee that no force will be used against Wet’suwet’en peoples and that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and associated security and policing services will be withdrawn from their traditional lands.”

The Committee has also noted that Canada’s periodic report on its compliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is due on November 15, about six weeks from now.

For updates, please see Gidimt’en Checkpoint on Twitter, the Gidimt’en Checkpoint Facebook page, the Gidimt’en Yintah Access website, and yintah_access on Instagram.

More stills from the Gidimt’en video.

The Canadian government is in the process of establishing a dedicated refugee stream for human rights defenders.

This past June (on World Refugee Day), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced: “This year, we will launch a dedicated refugee stream for human rights defenders at risk, which will enable Canada to become one of the first countries to offer dedicated protection spaces to this population of refugees.”

And CTV has reported: “The stream – the first of its kind in the world, according to the UN refugee agency – will accommodate 250 people a year, plus their families, and focus on people at heightened risk, such as women, journalists and LGBTQ2 rights advocates.”

The July 2021 statement about this from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada can be read here. A 4-minute video of federal Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino speaking about the launch of this program can also be seen here. In that interview, the Minister is asked if there is flexibility with the annual cap of 250 defenders.

In advance of the September 20 federal election, the Liberal Party also promised in their platform (on page 65):

“Establish Canada as a safe haven for those facing persecution by leading the world in providing safe resettlement to those fleeing political or security crises, especially human rights defenders, journalists, feminists, LGBTQ2 activists, members of religious or ethnic minorities at risk, and other persecuted groups who remain under threat.”

It adds: “We will expand the new immigration stream for human rights defenders and work with civil society groups to ensure safe passage and resettlement of people under threat, including from Afghanistan.”

It’s not clear if the promise to “expand” this new stream means an increase beyond the 250 human rights defenders each year.

In 2019, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada received 9,298 refugee claims from Mexico (5,634 claims), Colombia (3,197), Honduras (300) and Guatemala (167). A total of 1,699 of those applications (about 18%) were accepted. In 2020 alone, 125 land and environmental rights defenders were killed in just these four countries.

This past February, PBI-Canada asked: Could Canada implement a relocation program for human rights defenders as Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland have done?

Along with the permanent program now being promised, a temporary relocation program for 3-6 month stays would also be a welcome addition to the range of protection strategies for at-risk human rights defenders.

We have also supported the calls for mandatory due diligence legislation in Canada, stronger powers for the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, and a Binding Treaty on human rights and transnational corporations to help address the human rights violations by Canadian corporations and foreign policy priorities that contribute to the situations in which defenders need to flee from their home countries.

We will continue to follow and report on this new program.

The United Nations COP26 climate summit will start on October 31 in Glasgow, Scotland.

We will be working with PBI front line projects in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, the defenders we accompany there and allies to highlight that the Glasgow Pact must include mechanisms for the protection of defenders.

Since the Paris Agreement was reached at COP21 in December 2015, at least 1,000 land and environmental rights defenders have been killed. On average, that’s a staggering loss of four activists each week over a 5-year period.

You can help amplify our call to the Prime Minister to protect frontline climate defenders by retweeting this message to him.

Please also stay tuned for a webinar we are organizing on COP26 tentatively scheduled for Saturday November 6, which is also a global day of action.

Top posts this week:

1- COP26 must address gender-based violence against Indigenous women land defenders

2- PBI-Honduras accompanies Arcoiris at LGBTQI+ rights march in San Pedro Sula

3- PBI supports recommendation of moratorium on extractive projects that affect territories of Indigenous peoples

4- Gidimt’en land defenders occupy drill site, bulldoze road to protect Wedzin Kwah river from construction of fracked gas pipeline

5- PBI highlights at the UN Human Rights Council the criminalization of land and territory defenders in Guatemala

Please also note that we are planning a webinar on Sunday October 24 at 2 pm ET with PBI front line volunteers to share what a day in their life accompanying at-risk human rights defenders is like. We hope this will also be an opportunity to outreach to people who might be considering doing this accompaniment work in the future.

All of this is made possible with your support. Please consider making an online donation of any amount to help keep us going.

In solidarity, Brent

On September 27, The Guardian reported: “Vital United Nations climate talks, billed as one of the last chances to stave off climate breakdown, will not produce the breakthrough needed to fulfil the aspiration of the Paris agreement, key players in the talks have conceded.”

“The UN, the UK hosts and other major figures involved in the talks have privately admitted that the original aim of the Cop26 summit will be missed, as the pledges on greenhouse gas emissions cuts from major economies will fall short of the halving of global emissions this decade needed to limit global heating to 1.5C.”

The article continues that the UN, UK and US however insisted that the goal of “keeping 1.5C alive” was still possible through a “Glasgow pact” that would allow for future updates to emissions pledges in the next few years.

While securing pledges to reduce carbon emissions by 45 per cent is not expected to be attained, a UK official expects progress in other areas including phasing out coal, providing climate finance to poor countries, and improving the protection of forests.

Global Witness has noted: “Land and environmental defenders play a vital role in protecting climate-critical forests and ecosystems. When they take a stand against the theft of their land, or the destruction of forests, they are increasingly being killed.”

It has also highlighted that on average four land and environmental defenders have been killed every week since the Paris Agreement in December 2015.

Earlier this month, its ‘Last Line of Defence’ report found that 227 land and environmental defenders had been killed in 2020 for peacefully standing against the destruction of nature. 125 of them, slightly more than half the global total, were killed in Colombia (65), Mexico (30), Honduras (17) and Guatemala (13).

That report warns: “The violence against land and environmental defenders and the climate crisis are intimately connected, and we will not solve one without the other.”

Cognizant of this longstanding issue, the UN Human Rights Council passed this resolution in 2019 that says defenders “must be ensured a safe and enabling environment to undertake their work free from hindrance and insecurity, in recognition of their important role in supporting States to fulfil their obligations under the Paris Agreement.”

Most recently, at the opening of the 48^th session of the Human Rights Council on September 13, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet said that in many regions environmental human rights defenders were threatened, harassed and killed often with complete impunity and that her office would push for more ambitious, rights-based commitments at the COP26 summit.

Peace Brigades International-Canada is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to acknowledge the dangers faced by land and environmental defenders, both around the world and on Indigenous territories in Canada, and to advocate that their critical role be reflected in the statements and commitments made at the COP26 summit.

With news of the “Glasgow pact”, we believe significant protections for defenders should be included in that document as well.

COP26 is scheduled to take place from October 31 to November 12.

Still from video.

On September 27, Gidimt’en Checkpoint posted: “Early in the morning on September 25th a supporter was tazered and arrested on the road to the drill pad site where CGL [Coastal GasLink] plans to drill under Wedzin Kwa [river], where they would destroy precious salmon habitat and make the pristine water undrinkable.”

The 1-minute video of the arrest that carries a “police violence” warning can be seen here.

The supporter appears to be the operator of the heavy machinery that was used to impede the access road so that CGL could not access the site where it plans to drill under the river.

A Taser is a hand-held energy weapon used by the police. It can deliver up to 50,000 volts of energy, but the company says its Taser X26 delivers an average of 1,200 volts to a person (a typical electrical outlet in Canada delivers 120 volts of electricity).

The Gidimt’en continue: “We will not accept any violence against our guests! Supporters that come to stand with us against capitalist greed and destruction do so with the invitation, full support and protection of Dinï ze’ Woos [the Hereditary Chief of the Gidimt’en clan].”

The Gidimt’en are a clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation whose unceded territory is situated within the province of British Columbia in Canada.

On December 13, 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on the State party (Canada) to “immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent.”

It further urged the “State party to guarantee that no force will be used against Wet’suwet’en peoples and that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and associated security and policing services will be withdrawn from their traditional lands.”

This 4-minute video featuring Gidimt’en Checkpoint spokesperson Sleydo provides the context of this land defence struggle and makes a call for people to come to the land in solidarity with the Gidimt’en against the pipeline that lacks their free, prior and informed consent.

For updates, please see Gidimt’en Checkpoint on Twitter, the Gidimt’en Checkpoint Facebook page, the Gidimt’en Yintah Access website, and yintah_access on Instagram.

Still from video posted by Smogelgem.

On Saturday September 25, Smogelgem, the Hereditary Chief of the Fireweed Clan of the Wet’suwet’en People, tweeted:

“The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs walked on to an occupied proposed drill site for CGL [Coastal GasLink]. The RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] & CGL attempted to enforce a provincial court order against plaintiffs from a 1997 Supreme Court of Canada case. One violent arrest happened. More violent arrests were thwarted.”

That same day at 1:08 pm, Gidimt’en Checkpoint tweeted: “Early this morning Cas Yikh [Grizzly Bear House] and supporters gained control of access to the site where they plan to drill underneath Wedzin Kwah [river]!”

The video with that tweet features Dini’ze Woos, Chief of Cas Yikh, Gidimt’en Clan, Wet’suwet’en Nation, who says: “They’re going to dig under the Wedzin Kwah. …It’s going to be bad. They won’t listen to us.”

Then at 1:18 pm, Smogelgem  tweeted: “Strategy suggested that we just exercise our SCC [Supreme Court of Canada] Delgamuukw Decision. And, we did that!” The TikTok video with that tweet states: “CGL pipeline workers were not allowing access for the Wetsuweten Hereditary Chiefs to go through to check on the safety of our people.”

At 5:47 pm, Gidimt’en Checkpoint tweeted: “RCMP on site. One confirmed arrest and blocking out chiefs from accessing the site!”

Then at 6:53 pm, Gidimt’en Checkpoint tweeted: “Since this video footage [of a bulldozer severing a road] was taken this morning Wet’suwet’en chiefs were denied access, one arrest confirmed, heavy machinery and heavy RCMP presence. Our relatives are standing strong and so far no more arrests have been confirmed and they are holding the line.”

The text in the video says: “Early this morning the access road to Costal GasLink’s drill site at the Wedzin Kwa river was destroyed.”

It adds: “A series of blockades was put in place and the site was occupied.” The video suggests that includes a school bus parked across the access road.

At 6:54 pm, following that tweet, Gidimt’en Checkpoint tweeted: “We need boots on the ground! Come to the yintah [land] even if just for the day locally. Snecalyegh [you have honoured us greatly] to all those sacrificing for Wedzin Kwa and our future generations.”

Then at 7:14 pm, Gidimt’en Checkpoint tweeted: “They are currently reading the injunction to the Hereditary Chiefs!”

This 4-minute video featuring Gidimt’en Checkpoint Spokesperson Sleydo also provides the context of the situation and makes a call for people to come to the land in solidarity with this struggle against the pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory.

In the video, Sleydo says: “The genocide will no longer happen on Indigenous lands.”

For updates, please see Gidimt’en Checkpoint on Twitter, the Gidimt’en Checkpoint Facebook page, the Gidimt’en Yintah Access website, and yintah_access on Instagram.

The Wet’suwet’en peoples have already been subjected to the state violence of two militarized raids by the RCMP – on January 7, 2019, and February 6-10, 2020 – that resulted in the arrests of 36 land defenders.

On December 13, 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on the State party (Canada) to “immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent.” 

Still from video of bulldozer disabling access road to Coastal GasLink drill site.