Explainer: The Wet'suwet'en Land Defenders

Kedar Maddali explains the tensions between the Canadian Government and First Nations land defenders.

At 3am on February the 6th, a veritable army of Police officers accompanied by helicopters, snipers and drones from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) raided one of three small outdoor camps set up by members of Wet'suwet'en nation. The camp consisted of 43 unarmed land defenders, including nation elders and clan leaders. All land defenders were arrested and were forcibly removed from their own ancestral lands. This raid was the culmination of years of tension between the government and First Nations land defenders over the proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline which, when built, would stretch over 670km, right across ancestral Wet'suwet'en lands. With all this chaos surrounding the circumstances it is vital we examine the facts and for that Pulp is here to explain what has happened to date.

What is the Wet'suwet'en territory?

 The territory of the Wet'suwet'en is located in the south west of Canada in the province of British Columbia. It is inhabited by the Wet'suwet'en nation which, in total comprises of five clans: Gil_seyhu (Big Frog), Laksilyu (Small Frog), Gitdumden (Wolf/Bear), Laksamshu (Fireweed), and Tsayu (Beaver). A coalition of the clans organised by a system of hereditary leaders govern the territory which covers over 22000sq km. The sovereignty of these lands has never been ceded to colonisers, nor has the nation ever signed a treaty that has extinguished their ancestral right to manage, protect or govern these lands. The rights to their lands are ratified by both national and international declarations and treaties including Canada’s Constitution Act 1982, Indian Act of 1876 and international treaties such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Many laws have been made by federal and provincial lawmakers to interfere with said sovereignty, none of which directly revoke the land rights of the Wet'suwet'en nation. 

 The occupation by the Canadian state of Wet'suwet'en lands was entirely illegal. It reveals the farcical nature of Canada’s purported benevolence and shows the clear settler colonial regime of the Canadian state.

 The pipeline and the Wet'suwet'en Nation

 The entire crux of the conflict lies in the decision made by the Provincial Government of British Columbia to support the $6.6 billion gas pipeline that would be constructed over Wet'suwet'en lands. The project is managed by Coastal GasLink and is cited to be the largest private sector investment in Canadian history. The pipeline would transport 141.5 billion litres of liquid natural gas per day which, when burned, would amount to approximately 13% of Canada’s daily greenhouse emissions. Apart from the greenhouse emissions, experts adduce that the construction of the pipeline will greatly impact the surrounding environment. The most impacted will be the many rivers that are home to already endangered species such as the sockeye salmon which is already at a fraction of its former population size.

Initial drafts of the project appeared in 2012 where talks with Indigenous communities appeared to have taken place; the company claims that they have received permission from twenty Canadian First Nations band councils and are clear to move on with the project. The hereditary chiefs counter this claim and state that they have never consented to the pipeline. The band councils that they have received permission from only have jurisdiction in their respective territories and do not have a say over all of Wet'suwet'en territory. What is even more disappointing is the use of promises of community development for impoverished First Nations communities by the Coastal Gaslink project in order for the clans to consent to the project. Bruce McIvor, principal at First Peoples Law states “Unfortunately, this is ripe for companies and for [the] government to take advantage of”. 

The response from the Wet'suwet'en Nation

 Throughout this conflict the Wet'suwet'en nation has not sat idly; they have been on the front lines of the conflict not only keeping vigil over their lands but negotiating at all levels of government and corporate bodies. Since 2018 the tensions between the government and the Wet'suwet'en nation have been running high. In the October of the same year the British Columbia Provincial Government announced their full support for the project. Consequently, the land defenders immediately organised, setting up multiple checkpoints and blockades on major routes entering the territory. This prompted the RMCP to take action resulting in a court injunction which forced the land defenders to remove the blockade from their own lands.

The tensions once again flared in late 2019 when the Supreme Court of British Columbia granted Coastal Gaslink powers to remove anyone in the way of the project and granting them further access to the land. In response to this clear transgression against the Wet'suwet'en nation, the land defenders carried out strategic blockades which effectively shut down the entirety of the eastern network, which will stop all cross-country freight trains. This was what prompted the RMCP raid onto the First Nations camps and the violent arrests that followed, which went so far as to smash a window of a truck and drag out a naked First Nations woman who had locked herself in.  

The Future

 Currently the future is looking precarious for the Wet'suwet'en land defenders. In lieu of the current circumstances regarding COVID-19 all in-person meetings of the hereditary chiefs have been suspended and discussions have been moved online. Coastal Gaslink is still continuing the construction of the pipeline only suspending “non-essential workers”. Despite the setbacks the Wet'suwet'en nation has stated loud and clear, they will not back down till they stop the construction of the pipeline.