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INDIGENOUS YOUTH AND ALLIES PEACEFULLY OCCUPY OFFICE OF MINISTER OF NORTHERN AFFAIRS DAN VANDAL TO DEMAND WET’SUWET’EN RIGHTS BE UPHELD
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Press Contact
Josiah Neufeld
Phone: (204) 218-4358
Email: jpaulneufeld@gmail.com
February 4, 2020 (WINNIPEG, MB) —Local Indigenous youth and allies have occupied the office of Minister of Northern Affairs Dan Vandal for the last 24 hours demanding immediate federal action in support of Wet'suwet'en land defenders in their resistance to the RCMP blocking access to Wet'suwet'en territory and threatening mass arrests and removals. The RCMP has created an exclusion zone at 27 km around Gidimt’en checkpoint, blocking media, food and medical supplies, and restricting movement of Wet’suwet’en people and their guests on their own territory.
Today, the youth issued a letter with a list of demands for Vandal to take action on the issue. Approximately 20 of the youth now peacefully occupy the office, using drums, songs, speeches, and art to unite in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary leadership and land defenders. The group demands that Minister Vandal take immediate action in support of Wet'suwet'en land defenders, including ordering the RCMP to dismantle the exclusion zone and halt their facilitation of CGL’s pipeline work.
Kakeka Thundersky, a youth organizer with Indigenous Youth for Wet'suwet'en, shared: “As Minister of Northern Affairs, Minister Vandal has a responsibility to respond to this crisis, to respect Wet’suwet’en law and demand that the RCMP stand down immediately.”
This action comes one month after the BC Supreme Court's injunction order against Wet'suwet'en land defenders, which disregarded Anuk Nu'at'en (Wet'suwet'en law), and set the stage for police invasion to force through the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline. Last January, armed RCMP raided Unist'ot'en Camp, arrested 14 people and had an internal mandate to shoot and kill Indigenous land defenders. Wet’suwet’en land defenders in Northern BC continue to defend their unsurrendered territories, and resist the construction of several proposed hydraulically fractured gas and bitumen pipelines across their territory.
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) recently called upon Canada to remove the RCMP from Wet'suwet'en territory, considering continued infringements of Wet’suwet’en peoples rights. Though the RCMP said last week that they would “stand down” while the hereditary chiefs are in talks with the BC government this week, the Wet’suwet’en have reported they have “ramped up their harassment and surveillance and intimidation tactics.”
Over the past month, a series of occupations and actions led by Indigenous youth and climate justice organizers have taken place across the country – from Victoria to Toronto - in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and peoples.
Autumn Emily Amos, one of the youth leading the action, described the demands of the group: “Today, we call on Minister Vandal to use his role and authority to take three clear steps. First, to publicly state that he will do everything in his power to ensure the demands of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs are met. Second, in the context of discussion between the Hereditary Chiefs and the BC government, to publicly acknowledge that consultation is not consent. And Third, to ask Minister Bill Blaire to order the RCMP exclusion zone be immediately dismantled and RCMP leave the territory so that Wet'suwet'en peoples and their guests be allowed to move freely and safely in their homelands.”
At 4:30pm today, supporters will rally outside of Vandal’s office in alliance with the youth occupation and in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land protectors.
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Established in 1990, The Indigenous Environmental Network is an international environmental justice nonprofit that works with tribal grassroots organizations to build the capacity of Indigenous communities. IEN’s activities include empowering Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, the health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.
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