January 9, 2019

Mohawk Nation News 'We Are Nature'

Read article at Mohawk Nation News
http://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2019/01/09/we-are-nature/

Wet'suwet'en Camp Stormed by Mounted Police

'Shameful Day for Canada': First Nations Encampment Violently Raided, Land Protectors Arrested

"Is this a normal way to respond to Indigenous people who are peacefully protecting their drinking water from fracking pipelines?"

Jessica Corbett, staff writer

Common Dreams

21 Comments

Reacting to footage of the "invasion" by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Monday, author and activist Naomi Klein said it was "a shameful day for Canada, which has marketed itself as a progressive leader on climate and Indigenous rights." (Photo: Michael Toledano/@M_Tol)

More than 50 protests have been planned for across the globe on Tuesday in solidarity with a First Nations group fighting against the construction of TransCanada's Coastal GasLink through unceded Wet'suwet'en territory, with the number of protests rising overnight after Canadian police broke down a checkpoint gate erected by Indigenous land protectors and arrested more than a dozen people.

Reacting to footage of the "invasion" by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), author and activist Naomi Klein said it was "a shameful day for Canada, which has marketed itself as a progressive leader on climate and Indigenous rights."
Klein condemned the government's raid on unceded Wet'suwet'en territory and the arrest of First Nations land defenders, "all for a gas pipeline that is entirely incompatible with a safe climate."

People at the Gidimt'en camp have been anticipating the arrival of the RCMP, who are enforcing a B.C. Supreme Court injunction that came last month in response to another camp on the territory formed by another Wet'suwet'en clan, the Unist'ot'en, in opposition to the fossil fuel company's proposed route for the fracked gas pipeline.

"This is Canada's response to unarmed Indigenous defenders asserting their own rights on their own territory."
—Mike Hudema, Greenpeace

"Camp members faced both uniformed RCMP and camouflage-wearing Emergency Response Team tactical unit officers through the barbed wire," according to the Toronto Star. "Police climbed a ladder over the top of the gate, circumventing a secondary blockade formed by the bodies of the camp members themselves. Then they began to arrest people."
The Mounties established a "temporary exclusion zone," and said in a statement that "there are both privacy and safety concerns in keeping the public and the media at the perimeter, which should be as small as possible and as brief as possible in the circumstances, based on security and safety needs." The statement noted that "during the arrests, the RCMP observed a number of fires being lit along the roadway by unknown persons, and large trees felled across the roadway."

Journalists and supporters of the land defenders posted updates from the scene to social media and called out Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the clear contrast between his claims that he wants to build a legacy of "reconciliation" with First Nations and how his government has responded to objections from the Wet'suwet'en people over the pipeline.

As Common Dreams reported Monday, although TransCanada claims it has signed agreements with First Nations leaders along the pipeline routes, Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs were not consulted, and say that those who signed off on the pipeline, which is set to cut through traditional lands, were not authorized to do so under Indigenous laws.

January 8, 2019

MOHAWK NATION NEWS 'CANADA'S CRIME AGAINST NATURE'

Read article at Mohawk Nation News

http://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2019/01/07/canadas-crime-against-nature/

January 7, 2019

Arrests at Gidumt'en Checkpoint

Arrests at Gidumt'en Checkpoint, RCMP Raid Anticipated at Unist'ot'en Camp

January 7, 2019, at approximately 2:51pm, RCMP and military forcefully breached a peaceful checkpoint on unceded Wet'suwet'en territory. Indigenous people were ripped from their homes by militarized police. There were at least 12 confirmed arrests, including an elder, and Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs were blocked from their own territories. Gidumt'en Clan spokesperson Molly Wickham was arrested on her land. She, along with other arrestees, will not be released. They are being brought to Prince George to stand before a Justice of the Peace. ***Arrest count according to eye witness accounts… exact numbers of arrests are still being confirmed***

The creation of the Gidumt'en Checkpoint was announced in the Wet'suwet'en feast hall, with the support of all chiefs present. Under 'Anuc niwh'it'en (Wet'suwet'en law) all five clans of the Wet'suwet'en have unanimously opposed all pipeline proposals.

Article 10 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples clearly states "Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their land or territories." Any removal of Wet'suwet'en peoples by the RCMP, or any other authoritarian forces, has directly violated UNDRIP and the Trudeau government's promise to implement UNDRIP.

The RCMP have now installed a roadblock on the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River) Road, through Gidumt'en territory and the only access road to Unist'ot'en Camp, effectively cutting off communications, media, and supplies to those living there, including clients of the Healing Center.

Unist'ot'en Dark House member, Freda Huson said, "I am here in my home, on my land. I am not a criminal for protecting my most critical infrastructure which is my berries, my medicine, my water, my right to teach future Unist'ot'en generations how to live in right relationship with the land. Without water, no human will survive and these projects like TransCanada's Coastal Gaslink threatens the water. We are the land, the land is us."

At the time of this publication, the Unist'ot'en Camp is on high alert for a similar violent invasion of their checkpoint. The world is watching.

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Photos by Micheal Toledano