Wet’suwet’en arrests – this is Canada? Not in our name!

AWARE News Network

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An AWARE Simcoe member has sent the following email to the parties responsible in the arrests of indigenous people defending their land in British Columbia. You too can let them know how you feel!

PM Justin Trudeau, justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
MP Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations carolyn.bennett@parl.gc.ca
David Eby, BC Attorney General AG.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Andrew Weaver andrew.weaver.mla@leg.bc.ca
Premier John Horgan premier@gov.bc.ca

As I write this, members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation are being attacked and arrested for defending their home territory. Once again we are witnessing colonialism in action. The Wet’suwet’sen territory is unceded. What gives Canada the right to enter that territory for the purpose of destroying the environment? Politicians would argue that this is for the “national good,” yet the building of yet another pipeline will add tons of carbon to the atmosphere, destroy water sources and raze wildlife habitat. In this modern version of a classic colonial scenario, the real goal is profit for a fossil fuel corporation. Little of that profit will “trickle down” to the people who build and maintain the pipeline, but we will all experience the devastation it will cause.

Thanks to Facebook, I watched live video of the RCMP throwing to the ground, handcuffing and arresting a group of protestors who were singing and talking, trying to engage with their attackers. This is Reconciliation in 2019? In recent years, the current government of Canada seemed to be making real attempts to address historic injustices to indigenous people in Canada and it would be devastating to lose that impetus. Yet what has really changed? The Wet’suwet’en live on territory that will create short-term profits, so we’re helping ourselves over the protests of the community. This is injustice and it’s still happening in Canada.

I ask you, as representatives of the Canadian people, to change history and recognize the rights of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation to protect their homeland.