Canadian Media Advocate Continued Domination of Indigenous Peoples
MARCH 25, 2020
GREGORY SHUPAK
Canadas Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) began raids on the territory of the Wetsuweten Indigenous nation on February 6arresting as many as 80 Indigenous land defenders in the first days of the incursionto dismantle camps that the Wetsuweten had established on their land to prevent construction of a $6.6 billion liquid natural gas pipeline being built by Coastal GasLink, which is owned by TC Energy.
The police were enforcing an injunction from the British Columbia (BC) Supreme Court, though the Wetsuweten have never ceded control of their land to Canada. Under Wetsuweten law (Canadian Observer, 2/7/20), hereditary chiefs have authority over their territory. They opposed the pipeline, though it has support from the elected Wetsuweten band councils that were created under the Indian Act, which Canada unilaterally imposed on Indigenous peoples in 1876.
Coast-to-coast solidarity actions by Indigenous peoples and their supporters began in response to the RCMP raids, most notably in the form of road, highway and rail blockades, including a shut-down of the countrys principle east-west rail link. Blockades led to significant service halts by VIA Rail, Canadas main rail passenger rail service, and disruptions in the operations of CN Rail, a major freight railway and the countrys only transcontinental railway.
A pickup truck with a Confederate flag on its dashboard drove through a highway blockade in BC (Global, 2/11/20). In Saskatchewan, a man drove into people blocking a highway (Global, 2/12/20). Indigenous peoples faced a deluge of racism (Al-Jazeera, 3/2/20), including death threats (Al-Jazeera, 3/1/20)
More:
https://fair.org/home/canadian-media-advocate-continued-domination-of-indigenous-peoples/