STANDING WITH THE WET'SUWET'EN PEOPLE

We stand in support
of the Wet'suwet'en people,
land defenders, protecting
the living waters
running through their
unceded traditional territory.

Water is life!

The peaceful protectors
will be taken away to jail;
the armed defenders
of corporate criminals
wield all the power
with the complicit government.

Water is life!
falls on their deaf ears.
Dollar signs shine
in their eyes.

The water, wild and pristine,
makes its winter passage,
caught between its protectors
and those whose god is money.

Water is life!
we cry.
A feather is held up:
we come in peace.

A peaceful warrior waits
for the moment
the barricade is breached
and armed men swarm
the people of the living waters.

Water is life!
Our duty - since time immemorial -
has been to protect it.

The world is upside down,
when the oil and gas of death
is more important than
the water we need for life,
when the money gods rule
and the only water around
is the land and its people
weeping in protest.


In Načiks  (Tofino) we are standing by for a solidarity response in support of the Wet'suwet'en people, should they be forcibly removed from their unceded traditional territories some time this week. Militarized police are being mobilized. Hereditary chiefs have been given notice to clear the road into their territory. The RCMP have set up an exclusion zone, an occupied blockade preventing media from access, also stopping supplies, food and medication from reaching the people.

In this strange age we live in, the protectors of the land are viewed as criminals, while the criminal corporations and complicit governments who are destroying our future hold the power. History - if we survive long enough to  have a history - will tell a different story.

Standing Rock has come to B.C. as Coastal GasLink is determined to push  a 670 km natural gas pipeline through the territory and across the fresh water sources of the Wet'suwet'en people. The proposed project will run across the province to the B.C. Coast, and then be tankered down the coastline. The hereditary chiefs are in opposition; they served the company with an eviction notice from their unceded traditional territories. Many B.C. residents oppose the pipeline, standing with the Wet'suwet'en people, in a time of climate crisis, when fossil fuels should be left in the ground, and clean energy systems developed. The threat of leaks and spills is not "if" but "when".

Premier John Horgan says "The project will go through." RCMP are authorized to use lethal force if necessary. The Chiefs are seeking help from the UN, which earlier in 2019 declared the rights of aboriginal people to their lands and territories.

Supportive Chief Judy Wilson of the Neskonlith people, commented, "We have to change, to ensure that our young people have a future. That's what the land defenders mean when they say we need to protect the land and the water. Globally, there has to be an awakening now."

B.C. Green Party leader Adam Olsen visited the hereditary chiefs this past weekend. He said change can't happen until federal and provincial decision-makers sit down with the hereditary chiefs. B.C. Premier John Horgan has declined to meet with them. "The rule of law will prevail," he said.

Prime Minister Trudeau (nicknamed Crudeau by the environmentally aware), by not recognizing UN-recognized rights of Aboriginal people to their lands and territories, is in violation of conventions he signed at the United Nations.

As always, when it comes to corporate money, all other rights and concerns are set aside. Yet government leaders continue to talk about Canada's important relationship with First Nations. The forked tongues of the LongKnives have not changed much; colonialism remains alive and strong in Canada.

Stay tuned.

for Brendan at Earthweal: Water