Protect Wet’suwet’en land!
Protect Wet’suwet’en land!
New details have emerged about the militarized campaign of state and corporate persecution targeting land defenders of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in so-called Canada. The third annual Peace and Unity Summit was held August 15-16 in Gidimt'en Clan territory, home of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation.
Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks described the 2021 raids as, “a form of war, physical and psychological.” (ricochet.media, Aug. 17)
Police, abetted by private security guards, regularly harass land defenders, following them, conducting traffic stops, and searching their cabins — often in the middle of the night. One land defender reported receiving a rape threat via a CB radio from a Coastal GasLink employee, which police did nothing to investigate.
Such violence goes hand-in-hand with pipeline projects such as Coastal GasLink, which directly contribute to the ongoing epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). “Man camps” that house pipeline employees have become centers of human trafficking, sexual violence, and murder, where thousands of Indigenous women have disappeared or been killed. In Canada, the homicide rate for Indigenous women is at least six times higher than for non-Indigenous women. (tinyurl.com/yc7ehnnz)