[rad-green] Peace Brigades International: Land defend er Sleydo’ of the Wet’suwet’en Nation o n resource extraction and territorial rights

*https://pbicanada.org/2019/12/23/land-defender-sleydo-of-the-wetsuweten-nation-on-resource-extraction-and-territorial-rights/
<https://pbicanada.org/2019/12/23/land-defender-sleydo-of-the-wetsuweten-nation-on-resource-extraction-and-territorial-rights/>*

*Peace Brigades International           December 23, 2019*

*Land defender Sleydo’ of the Wet’suwet’en Nation on resource extraction
and territorial rights*

by *Brent Patterson <https://pbicanada.org/author/brent/>*

The Wet’suwet’en Nation is opposed to a fracked gas pipeline crossing their
territory in British Columbia without their free, prior and informed
consent.

To assert their sovereignty over their territory and stop surveying and
construction activities related to the pipeline, the Unist’ot’en and
Gidimt’en clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation established two checkpoints on
key roadways on their lands.

On January 7 of this year, heavily armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) officers raided the Gidimt’en checkpoint. By January 10, the
Hereditary Chiefs said they would open the Unist’ot’en checkpoint to avoid
further police violence.

Now, almost a year later, The Guardian reports, “Canadian police were
prepared to shoot Indigenous land defenders blockading construction of a
natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia… The RCMP commanders also
instructed officers to ‘use as much violence toward the gate as you want’…”

Following this news, Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham), who helped establish the
Gidimt’en checkpoint,  commented
<https://www.straight.com/news/1339641/gidimten-spokesperson-sleydo-aka-molly-wickham-accuses-rcmp-acting-mercenaries-industry>,
“The state has always removed our people from our lands to ensure control
over the resources. The RCMP are occupying our territory for the sole
purpose of protecting industry and ensuring extractive projects proceed
unhindered.”

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Arlen Dumas has also stated
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/24/indigenous-people-outraged-at-canada-polices-possible-use-of-lethal-force>,
“This form of state violence is happening to Indigenous peoples around the
world. It is disheartening to know that, even in Canada, this same type of
planned violence is still being considered against First Nations.”

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz has previously stated, “Disregard of indigenous
rights of traditional lands ownership breeds tensions, subsequent violence
and criminalization, as indigenous peoples become trespassers or illegal
occupants of their own lands.”

UN Special Rapporteurs Leo Heller and Michel Forst have also previously
expressed concern about the risks faced by land and environmental rights
defenders (LERDs) opposed to mega-projects on their territory.

Just days after the RCMP raid, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous
Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), which is accompanied by the Peace
Brigades International-Honduras Project, posted on Facebook:

“Solidarity with the worthy struggle of Indigenous peoples in Canada! NO to
the plunder of the Indigenous territories of the Wet’suwet’en People!”

Those assembled in the photograph, which includes the daughter of slain
human rights defender Berta Cáceres, are holding signs that read: “No to
the dispossession of Indigenous peoples!” and “Solidarity with the
Wet’suwet’en people in Canada.”

Tauli-Corpuz highlights, “Protecting indigenous land rights defenders is
not only a human rights imperative – but also urgent to mitigating the
climate crisis.”

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