RCMP = Royal Canadian Mounted Police (royal no more).
Comment to a citizen in BC:
Oh wow,….this letter by the 4 Women below is so compelling – it brings tears to my eyes. Would that these 4 women could write our country’s constitution.
****UPDATE: This solidarity statement was originally sent around and signed in February 2019. But in February 2020 it started circulating again and is gaining many more new signatories in response to the RCMP raid on Wet’suwet’en territory which has happened in the past weeks. Hundreds more academics are signing daily.****
WE ARE WRITING TO EXPRESS DEEP GRATITUDE TO THE WET’SUWET’EN PEOPLE who have been acting with formidable vision and strength to defend their people and territories from pipeline development, and have been facing violent incursions from RCMP and industry for doing so. They have been holding this line for years and caring for the lands and waters for countless generations. For us and for many others, the Unist´ot´en camp represents resurgence, reconnection, creativity, and relationship to the land. The long-term struggle of the Wet´suwet´en is a legitimate, legally sanctioned struggle for rights, autonomy and sovereignty on their unceded territories. These efforts benefit all Canadians. We send our deepest thanks.
WE ARE ALSO WRITING TO DENOUNCE THE ACTIONS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, THE BC GOVERNMENT AND THE RCMP. We ask that the illegal work on Unist’ot’en territory by Coastal Gas Link be immediately stopped. We request that the federal and provincial governments respect Indigenous rights as outlined in our constitution, in countless court rulings, as well as the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous people (UNDRIP) and ‘Anuc niwh’it’en (Wet’suwet’en law). We ask that Canadian leaders and politicians stop militarization, stop communicating false or biased information, and stop dividing communities. We reject the current campaign of disinformation, particularly statements that claim that all communities have signed on to the pipeline, which disregard the very important question of disputes over jurisdiction of territories between band councils and hereditary governance. In the Delgamuukw trial, the hereditary chiefs of the Wet´suwet´en were recognized as the rightful title holders, and their underlying sovereignty over the territory was established by Canada´s highest court. We urge both federal and provincial governments to understand the crucial distinction between consultation and consent, and to act accordingly.
We firmly oppose the Trans-Canada pipeline project and other extreme energy projects being developed that are threatening Indigenous lands. According to the latest scientific evidence there is still some possibility that catastrophic climate change can be slowed or arrested, but this goal requires an immediate phase-out of fossil fuel infrastructure (Millar et al., 2017, Smith et al., 2019). And we request the Governments heed the call of scientists who have made it clear that new fossil fuel infrastructure present the source of the world’s most threatening emissions, and would carry us toward dramatic increases in global temperature (Davis et al., 2010).
This applies to natural gas production and transport, because it also locks in fossil fuel use. The world needs to move straight to renewable energy sources, and as quickly as possible. Natural gas must not be seen as a transition fuel that will “bridge the gap” between high and low-carbon energy systems (Stephenson et al. 2012). Shale gas development and its related infrastructure will have very serious impacts not only on the territories of the Indigenous peoples that inhabit the province of British Columbia, but on areas of extraction in the northeast, along the territories and watersheds the pipeline will cross, and particularly on coastal communities, salmon habitat in rivers, and the remaining marine life in the Salish Sea and K̲andaliig̲wii (the Hecate Straight), that all will be impacted by increased tanker traffic.
Current governance processes have failed to adequately protect environment and treaty rights (Garvie & Shaw, 2016). To meet Canada’s climate targets and Canada’s commitments to reconciliation, the Canadian government needs to stop forcing gas pipelines violently through Indigenous lands.
WE ARE ALSO WRITING TO ENCOURAGE ALL CANADIANS TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT THE WET’SUWET’EN PEOPLE as they continue to demonstrate their commitment to protect their lands and waters. The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report has warned that we have only 12 years to meet the challenge of limiting increasing temperatures to 1.5 degrees (IPCC, 2018). Even at this historic juncture, we see no sign that our existing governments are capable of dealing with the current challenges all Canadians face. The twin crises of climate chaos and rising inequality are getting worse, not better. Research shows that substantial and swift transformation of our societies will be necessary in order to meet our climate and reconciliation goals (Scoones et al., 2015); however, our current economic and political systems are failing to heed these calls and move us towards a sustainable and just future. This is because these very economic and political systems facilitate the accumulation of wealth through the continued seizure of Indigenous land and the pillaging of the natural world. We cannot leave it to these failing systems to guide us.
What is needed is inspired visions and new systems that are able to guide us towards a much more just and sustainable future. The Wet’suwet’en people, and other communities defending their lands and waters across the world, are showing us better systems of decision making, along with better ways of living together and with the land. Our best hope for justice and sustainability in Canada lies with communities like the Wet’suwet’en nation, who take their relationship and responsibilities to their lands and waters so seriously that they will risk all they have to defend it. Our hope also lies with the many Canadians respecting and actively supporting the rights of these Indigenous communities to take care of their territories.
The Unist’ot’en camp houses a healing center, envisioned as a space to heal from the trauma suffered by so many First Nations in Canada due to colonial and extractivist violence. Projects such as the Trans-Canada pipeline perpetuate this violence. To invade this camp, to disrupt this space of healing, is particularly unconscionable. Canadians have pledged to work towards reconciliation to try to heal the injustices borne by Indigenous peoples; and this healing must also include the lands which we all inhabit. To begin to heal these relationships, the kind of violence seen recently in BC must end.
This statement was written by Dr. Jen Gobby, Dr. Leah Temper, Holly Dressel, and Dr. Julia Freeman. Contact: email hidden; JavaScript is required
SOURCES
Davis, S. J., Caldeira, K., & Matthews, H. D. (2010). Future CO2 emissions and climate change from existing energy infrastructure. Science, 329(5997), 1330-1333.
Garvie, K.H. and Shaw, K., 2016. Shale gas development and community response: perspectives from Treaty 8 territory, British Columbia. Local Environment, 21(8), pp.1009-1028.
Millar, R.J., Fuglestvedt, J.S., Friedlingstein, P., Rogelj, J., Grubb, M.J., Matthews, H.D., Skeie, R.B., Forster, P.M., Frame, D.J. and Allen, M.R. (2017) Emission budgets and pathways consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 C. Nature Geoscience, 10(10), p.741.
Scoones, I., Leach, M., & Newell, P. (Eds.). (2015). The politics of green transformations. Routledge.
Smith, C.J., Forster, P.M., Allen, M., Fuglestvedt, J., Millar, R.J., Rogelj, J. and Zickfeld, K., (2019). Current fossil fuel infrastructure does not yet commit us to 1.5° C warming. Nature Communications, 10(1), p.101
Stephenson, E., Doukas, A. and Shaw, K., (2012). Greenwashing gas: Might a ‘transition fuel’ label legitimize carbon-intensive natural gas development?. Energy Policy, 46, pp.452-459.
****
Wet’suwet’en, BCCLA, and UBCIC Release Explosive Letter Revealing BC Solicitor General Authorizing RCMP Deployment, Contradicting Public Statements Press Release by BC Civil Liberties Association and Union of BC Indian Chiefs, March 6, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
VANCOUVER/ (Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaʔɬ/sel̓ílwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) territories, March 6, 2020 – Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, BC Civil Liberties Association and Union of BC Indian Chiefs are releasing a letter dated January 27, 2020 from BC Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth to RCMP Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Strachan.
In the letter, Farnworth declared a “provincial emergency” under the Provincial Police Service Agreement and explicitly authorized the “internal redeployment of resources within the Provincial Police Service.” Article 9 of the Provincial Police Service Agreement stipulates that, if in the opinion of the Provincial Minister an Emergency in an area of provincial responsibility exists, then the Provincial Police Service will be redeployed at the written request of the Provincial Minister and the Province will pay the costs of the redeployment.
This explosive revelation of the BC Solicitor General authorizing additional RCMP resources and redeployment comes on the heels of repeated statements by the provincial government that they lacked jurisdiction or authority over RCMP actions in Wet’suwet’en territories. On January 20, Premier John Horgan was reported as saying “Our government has no authority to vary that injunction, nor to direct the RCMP in the fulfillment of its responsibilities.”
On February 10, Horgan again stated, “Governments do not direct the courts, nor do we direct the RCMP.”
Interlude
Of course gov’ts direct the courts and RCMP! They pay them!
And the federal gov’t appoints all judges to the higher courts, and provincial gov’ts appoint all judges to the lower courts. Gov’ts appoint the flavour they want on the courts to pimp their agendas and control Canadians. If they want white supremacy to rule, politicians appoint racist lawyers (plenty to choose from) to become judges.
If they want sexism, misogyny and rape to rule, politicians pick lawyers that believe men are superior, hate women and or support rape and abuse of women (also plenty to choose from). If policicans want or need to protect powerful pedophiles like catholic priests, or believe men have the God-given right to rape children, they pick lawyers that condone or are sympathetic to raping children, or are pedophiles themselves.
If politicians want women back in the cave as slaves to patriarchy, pregnant and cooking, with no rights to abortion or equal pay, they appoint skewed religious thugs opposed to women having rights, etc etc etc. The galling racist bullshit currently being pooped out by too many benchers on the Law Society of Ontario Board shows an excellent example of how the church gets its way putting its preferred lawyers into positions of power in the legal industry, just like oil companies putting their people into positions of power at our regulators and in our gov’ts. I expect being a pedophile is prerequisite to being hired as a lawyer representing the catholic church.
Above from Signe Wilkinson’s Editorial Cartoons, Comics and cartoons about Catholic church pedophilia.
The power structure of Canada’s legal industry is quite simple with few lawyers if any, daring to rupture their careers or paychecks to point out the obvious. As much as the authorities try to hide it, Canada is a rape & pillage country. Corporations help their preferred politicians get into power to deregulate, write bad laws to enable corporate crimes, and appoint judges and regulator chiefs that will go easy on law-violating polluting corporations and instead, punish harmed citizens who dare to speak out. All one needs to see this is the ability to read with independent critical thinking while not being on a paycheck that enables the abuses, especially not in the legal/justice industry.
End Interlude
According to Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks, “The province bears responsibility for the heavy RCMP deployment and for the policing of our people on our own territories. In many of our discussions, the province was passing the buck for RCMP operations but this letter spells it out in black and white. The provincial government can no longer deny responsibility for the Indigenous rights and human rights violations happening on our territories. We have come to the table with respect and truth but the province is not demonstrating respectful or truthful conduct. We have always asserted our laws and presence peacefully, yet the province authorized the extra deployment of RCMP against us. Canada and BC must answer to this mistruth and absolutely must change its ways.”
“It is incredibly troubling and shocking that the provincial government would declare the peaceful assertion of Wet’suwet’en law and jurisdiction as a provincial policing emergency. The Wet’suwet’en people and the people of British Columbia have a right to know on what basis this unprecedented authorization was made. It is inconsistent for the provincial government to, on the one hand, legislate the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as well as state non-interference in policing operations and, on the other hand, authorize a RCMP deployment aimed at over-policing and criminalizing Indigenous peoples on their own territories,” says Harsha Walia, Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs stated, “This letter by Mike Farnworth reveals the blatant hypocrisy and lies of the provincial NDP government on the Wet’suwet’en crisis. Farnworth sat silently while Premier Horgan unabashedly lied that the Province did not direct RCMP actions. This is an act of government deceit not only against the Wet’suwet’en but of the public at-large. The province’s rhetoric about reconciliation rings even hollower. We call for the immediate resignation of Mike Farnworth for dishonourable conduct and for declaring the Wet’suwet’en people a policing emergency and a threat on their own territories.”
Media inquiries:
Chief Na’Moks: 250-643-0771
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of UBCIC: 250-490-5314
Harsha Walia, Executive Director, BCCLA: 778-885-0040
This begs my question to the RCMP in 2009 when they invaded my private property and terrorized me without a warrant a short time after I had served the defendants with legal papers.
Who ordered the RCMP to trespass and frighten me at my home?
AER?
The Alberta Gov’t?
King Pin Gwyn Morgan (who led Encana, now Ovintiv, when it illegally frac’d directly into my community’s drinking water supply) even though he was no longer CEO at the time?
From fracking to SNC-Lavalin: The truth about corporate kingpin Gwyn Morgan
… Lougheed gave AEC “some of the best natural gas and oil resources in the province,” writes energy journalist Andrew Nikiforuk.
As AEC flourished, Morgan worked his way up the chain of command. In 1993, a year before Morgan became CEO, Premier Ralph Klein decided to more or less give AEC to the private sector to cover Alberta’s deficit.
“Without so much as a public evaluation of the company’s true net value,” writes Nikiforuk, “Klein gave away the province’s remaining shares for less than $500-million … Just five years later the company was earning $2-billion a year and was worth more than $6-billion in the market place.”
In 2002, Morgan led the campaign to bring together AEC and other energy companies into one giant one — Encana. Then in 2004, Morgan got another huge gift, this time from the U.S. government. When the company bought a large U.S. gas firm, it was given $14-billion in tax relief by the oil-friendly Bush administration.
With the added bonuses of the Lougheed and Klein “gifts,” and the huge U.S. tax deduction, Morgan was able to “earn” a whopping $36.5-million between 2002 and 2006.
It seems that this “self-made man” wasn’t all self-made after all.
Encana’s billions in fracking profits has a downside for the public
It’s well known within the energy industry, but not by the general public, that Gwyn Morgan was a pioneer of fracking.
jvcdd
Exposing scumbags like this and not glorifying them would occur in 1st world nation. Canada has never been 1st at anything but, high level corruption. Forget Mexico! (Amiture hour).
Out There to jvcdd
And dirty tricks.
Law-violating, noise-maker, polluting aquifer frac’er Encana?
Then buddy of Ex Encana CEO Gwyn Morgan, cowardly repeat abuser of prorogation of Parliament, law-violating PM Steve Harper?
Nasty bully, Encana crime cover-up agent extraordinaire Peter Watson, then Deputy Minister Alberta Environment, now top dog at CER (name changed from NEB), who was pissed he was unable to scare me silent?
Israel?
An oil soaked judge?
I had not broken the law, have not been arrested, fingerprinted or charged with any crime but the AER violated my Charter rights, in 2005 judged me a criminal without due process and in 2012 legal filings changed that to me being a terrorist – without any evidence and also without any due process. Did the courts punish AER? No, they punished me.
Seven of the nine Supreme Court of Canada justices that heard and ruled on Ernst vs AER were appointed by Steve Harper. Canadians will suffer his judicial appointments for decades to come.
What the RCMP did was horrid misogynistic intimidation and bullying. The creep(s) that ordered and enabled it need to be sent to prison or at the very least, ordered to clean toilets at shelters for a year or two of community service.
Refer also to:
As the RCMP violate my rights and home, and the rights of other innocent citizens trying to protect water, lands and communities from oil industry polluters, they let the “rape Greta decal” creator and distributer, X-Site Energy (a frac’er), go unpunished:
And how many lies and smears must our Supreme Court render to keep the law-violating aquifer frac’ing raping oil patch rolling?