Ontario Provincial Police officers make an arrest at a rail blockade in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, near Belleville, Ont., on Monday Feb. 24, 2020, as they protest in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Nation hereditary chiefs attempting to halt construction of a natural gas pipeline on their traditional territories. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Unist’ot’en Solidarity Brigade
Over the weekend people took to the streets and politicians offices and new blockades went up in both Canada and the US. This movement is powerful and spreading and has shaken the powers that be.
Many upcoming actions are organized and are more important than ever as Trudeau appears to be gearing up to use force against indigenous people rather than meet the just and lawful demands of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs.
Tyendinaga Mohawk Leader, Kanenhariyo with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Woos in Tyendinaga
Wet’suwet’en land was never ceded or surrendered and as such Canada’s actions amount to an illegal occupation in Wet’suwet’en territory.
Contrary to the announcement by the British Columbian Royal Canadian Mounted Police (BC RCMP) on February 20, 2020 that they are withdrawing from Wet’suwet’en territory, the BC RCMP and CIRG have in fact made illegal arrests, and have increased harassment, surveillance, and monitoring of Wet’suwet’en people and their invited guests.
The aerial footage of the Community Industry Safety Office (CISO) detachment at 29km on the Morice West Forest Service Road taken on February 21st, 2020, shows that RCMP are not taking any action to dismantle the camp. All of their infrastructure is still in place and they can easily return to illegally reoccupy our unceded land.
Moreover, they are actively continuing illegal patrols and traffic stops on Wet’suwet’en territory. A total of eight RCMP “patrols” happened yesterday throughout the Yintah. They patrol our territory at all hours. Two different supporter vehicles were pulled over and harassed two days ago, another vehicle was pulled over three days ago and an arrest was made four days prior. Two days ago two supporters were also nearly run off the road by an RCMP vehicle who the supporters did not hear calling their kilometers. While the supporters were still in the snow bank the RCMP vehicle drove away.
As I write this post, there is still an RCMP vehicle parked in Unist’ot’en Territory.
This video shows multiple instances of the RCMP’s constant campaign to surveil, harass and intimate Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders and our supporters. We are not safe when RCMP are in our unceded territory. Unjustified traffic stops is one of the strategies that RCMP uses for their surveillance, harassment, and intimidation campaign.
In the last RCMP incident captured in this video, at approximately 4:23 PM PST on February 21, 2020, two supporters were driving up the Morice West Forest service road and pulled over by RCMP. The RCMP officer, J. Taylor, turned on his light for the supporter vehicle to pull over, before they had even passed them. The RCMP asked for license and registration. He asked where the supporters were going, checked the driver’s information and then tried to escort them up the road for “safety” because the vehicle did not have a radio. The supporters declined.
The RCMP’s unlawful presence on Wet’suwet’en land is as strong as it has been since the raids began on February 6th, 2020. They have not withdrawn.
OUR DEMANDS:
-We demand that the remote detachment (Community Industry Safety Office) established by the RCMP on Wet’suwet’en territory without our consent be immediately removed and that the RCMP are completely removed from our territory and cease patrols from our lands. Out means out.
-We demand that all CGL activities cease within Wet’suwet’en territory while nation-to-nation talks are ongoing as pursuant to the eviction notice that was delivered to them on January 4th, 2020.
-We commit to entering into nation to nation discussions with Canada and BC once the above two demands are met.
The Mohawk people of Tyendinaga are standing in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people until our demands are met.
Prime Minister is foregoing today’s planned trip to Barbados
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Incident Response Group will talk about how to handle the protests against a natural gas pipeline that crosses Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia. (Thomas Kienzle/AFP via Getty Images)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is meeting with an emergency group Monday to discuss anti-pipeline blockades that have shut down swaths of the country’s train system.
Trudeau says the Incident Response Group will talk about how to handle the protests against a natural gas pipeline that crosses Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia.
Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs are opposed to the project.
The group was described upon its inception in 2018 as a “dedicated, emergency committee that will convene in the event of a national crisis or during incidents elsewhere that have major implications for Canada.”
Doug Ford asks for ‘immediate action’
Trudeau is foregoing today’s planned trip to Barbados, where he was slated to meet with Caribbean leaders to campaign for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council.
He faced criticism last week over his presence in Africa and Europe as the protests were beginning, so Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne will represent Canada in Trudeau’s place.
There’s mounting political pressure for Trudeau to put an end to the blockades.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke with Trudeau late Sunday and issued a statement urging the federal government to take action.
“Premier Ford asked the prime minister to take immediate action and provide detail on a clear plan to ensure an end to this national issue,” the statement read.
Scheer wants end to ‘illegal blockades’
Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said last week that Trudeau should tell Public Safety Minister Bill Blair to use his authority under the RCMP Act to end what he called the “illegal blockades.”
But Trudeau shot back, arguing that Canada is not a country “where politicians get to tell the police what to do in operational matters.”
A protester stands between Mohawk Warrior Society flags at a rail blockade in Tyendinaga, near Belleville, Ont., on Sunday. The protest is in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs opposed to the LNG pipeline in northern British Columbia. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)
Thus far, the public-facing part of Trudeau’s plan appears to centre on discussions and negotiations, rather than police action.
Carolyn Bennett, the minister for Crown-Indigenous relations, is due to meet today with her British Columbia counterpart, Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser. Bennett is also ready to meet with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, should they give the go-ahead.
‘Did we learn from Ipperwash?’
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller met with Mohawk Nation representatives for hours on Saturday and said they made “modest progress.” The focus of their talks, he said, was on the pipeline in northern B.C. rather than the blockade on Tyendinaga territory near Belleville, Ont., which was at that point in its 10th day.
In an appearance on CTV’s political show Question Period, Miller pointed to the Oka and Ipperwash crises as reasons why dialogue is preferable to police intervention.
A police officer died during a police raid in 1990 when Mohawks at the Kahnawake reserve south of Montreal blocked the Mercier Bridge, which became the Oka crisis. Five years later at Ipperwash, Ont., one man was killed during a standoff over a land claim by Chippewa protesters outside a provincial park.
“Thirty years ago, police moved in in Kanesatake and someone died,” Miller said. “And did we learn from that? Did we learn from Ipperwash?”
But while Ontario Provincial Police have so far declined to enforce injunctions and remove protesters from that blockade, RCMP in B.C. have made more than two dozen arrests while enforcing similar injunctions near worksites for the pipeline at the centre of the dispute. SOURCE
Demonstrators from the Tyendinaga Mohawk speak with Ontario Provincial Police officers on the train tracks that have been shut down since Thursday. ( Rozenn Nicolle/Radio-
TORONTO — Via Rail is cancelling all train service from Toronto-Montreal and Toronto-Ottawa due to the ongoing blockade just east of Belleville, Ont.
In a travel advisory issued late Tuesday, Via Rail stated all routes Toronto and Montreal and all routes between Toronto and Ottawa would be cancelled until the end of day Thursday. The trains that do not pass through Belleville will be unaffected, the company added.
Passengers will be issued a full refund, the company said, but it could take up to 10 days to process.
Protesters have disrupted travel across much of the country for several days in a show of solidarity for the Wet’suwet’en Nation, whose hereditary chiefs oppose the construction of a 670-kilometre natural gas pipeline through northern British Columbia.
Supporters of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have set up blockades and protests across the country.
The demonstration near Belleville led to the cancellation of 34 VIA Rail trains between Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto on Tuesday and also brought freight traffic to a halt.
Earlier Tuesday, CN Rail said it would shut down a “significant parts of its Canadian network” unless the blockades are removed.
NDP leader Andrea Horwath and Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliot speak to the legislature on Oct. 3, 2018. Photos by Carlos Osorio
An Ontario government request for an Ontario Provincial Police investigation into a leak of its secret plans for healthcare has prompted fresh concerns about what will happen if a friend of Premier Doug Ford gets to lead the provincial police force.
The Ford government called the OPP to launch a probe after an internal investigation concluded that an unnamed Ontario government employee was responsible for a massive leak of documents to the official Opposition NDP about the creation of a “super agency” to overhaul healthcare in the province. The employee has been fired.
“This is exhibit A of why Ron Taverner cannot be OPP commissioner,” said Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter.
The province’s integrity commissioner is reviewing the nomination of Taverner, a close family friend of the premier, to the position of police commissioner. The nomination was announced after the government had modified the job description to ensure that he would qualify, iPolitics reported last fall. MORE
ANALYSIS: According to new files released by the NDP, the government has already taken steps to prepare for major structural changes to the health-care system. But they raise questions about much more than just privatization, writes John Michael McGrath
County Sustainability Group 