STANDING ROCK COMES TO NORTHERN B.C.

In northern B.C., yesterday, police climbed a barricade and arrested fourteen land and water protectors who oppose the proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline, which will run right through the Wet'suwet'sen peoples' traditional territories, fracking and destroying the land, and putting the source of their limited fresh water, (which is also a fishery route), at risk. A gas pipeline exploded in northern B.C. just last October.

The hereditary chiefs oppose the pipeline; they have jurisdiction over this unceded territory. The Band Council members gave permission for the company to proceed, but they have jurisdiction only over reserve land.

Our smiling Prime Minister says there is no relationship more important to government than that with First Nations. We are in the middle of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Not much reconciliation possible, from the look of it, with SWAT teams climbing barricades and arresting peaceful, unarmed protectors.

As always, "economic interests" are more important than peoples' and planetary survival.

The UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People states that indigenous people "will not be forcibly removed from their land." My blood runs cold when I watch this video.

Yesterday I was heartened to see protests happening across Canada in support of the protectors.

WHEN will we stop destroying the land? When will we listen to the wisdom-keepers, those who have lived sustainably on this land for thousands of years? My soul grows weary. I am thankful to each person who stands up to protect the natural world, which we are DESTROYING for the profit of corporations, who do not even pay their fair share of taxes, or clean up their own environmental disasters. Standing Rock has come to northern B.C. I stand with them. They are standing for all of us.