Solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en continues across the country : in the news this week

Details: Published on Friday, 18 January 2019 09:30; Written by editor

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First Nations leaders rallied in Smithers, B.C., this week to demonstrate support for the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, and demand the federal government respect Indigenous sovereignty.

Solidarity with the embattled Wet'suwet'en continues to pour out across the country after police raided two blockades set up by land defenders last week and arrested 14 demonstrators. The Council of Canadians is just one of many groups to issue strong statements of support.

At this week’s rally, Wayne Christian, a chief from the Secwepemc Nation, told the crowd: "reconciliation cannot be done at the end of a gun.” Beyond the Wet'suwet'en’s resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline, a natural gas pipeline that would run through Wet’suwet’en territory to an export facility in Kitimat, B.C., the struggle is a sign of deeper troubles.

This week, David Suzuki writes that the blockade shines a light on deeper fractures in our systems of governance and economics.

While the hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en unconditionally oppose all pipeline projects on their unceded and unsurrendered territory, elected councils for the Wet'suwet'en and other Indigenous bands have signed lucrative "impact benefit agreements" with TC Energy, builder of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

The federal government and provincial government of B.C. claim that these band council agreements constitute consent, despite Supreme Court cases that recognize traditional governance forms, including the hereditary chief and clan system, on traditional territories.

“Just as the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs and land defenders are bringing much-needed awareness to the issues we all face with environmental degradation, short-term economic policies and climate disruption, our governments must commit to protecting all peoples' interests, not just those at large fossil fuel corporations,” Suzuki writes.

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Trudeau is ever bold on pipeline investment, ever timid on energy alternatives, writes Linda McQuaig. Our prime minister has no qualms about dropping billions of public dollars on a leaky old pipeline, but has shown no interest in using taxpayer money to create a Canadian-owned automaker that could involve us in the future challenge of combining transportation and clean technology -- a challenge that seemingly holds the best hope for tackling climate change.

Maxime Bernier’s choice for his People’s Party candidate in the Burnaby South byelection, coming up on February 25, risks giving hate a national platform. Alex Cosh writes that Bernier’s choice of an anti-LGBTQ activist to run against NDP leader Jagmeet Singh in the riding, alongside Liberal party’s Karen Wang (who has since pulled out of the race) and the Conservative party’s Jay Shin, threatens a significant shift of the public conversation -- to the far right.

The push to protect a vast expanse of wilderness in Alberta by declaring it a provincial park has gotten political, thanks to all-terrain-vehicle (ATV) enthusiasts opposed to restrictions on their motorized activity. With town halls and public consultations scheduled, the squabble between environmentalists, ATV users and the province’s political parties shows no signs of de-escalating from what David Climenhaga describes as full-on hysteria.

In the Netherlands, a network of 11 municipalities called the “Shelter City Network” is offering safety to at-risk human rights defenders from around the world. According to a recent report, 321 defenders in 27 countries were targeted and killed in 2018 because of their activism. Political activist and writer Brent Patterson brings you an inside look at how the Shelter City Network is putting solidarity in action

News from our In Cahoots partners:

CUPE on how Doug Ford’s PC government has announced an unprecedented round of deep cuts to Ontario Universities, the conversion of student grants to loans, and an attack on student democracy on campuses. As the 2019 election year gears up, Fair Vote Canada encourages people to vote with proportional representation in mind.

And more! Here are the top five items of interest on rabble this week!

1. In the 1960s Montreal was a centre of black radicalism.

2. Recommitting to the eradication of racism on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

3. A social justice wish list for 2019, from KAIROS.

4. Saving Robert Schellenberg will be a daunting task for the Trudeau government.

5. Will 2019 be the year of white backlash in Canada?

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