Ottawa-based activists from two major movements protested against the Trans Mountain pipeline following an RCMP action against the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in B.C. on Jan. 15.
The protest saw demonstrators from the Ottawa chapters of the Indigenous Peoples’ Solidarity and Earth Strike movements gather at Confederation Park outside Parliament Hill—holding banners and chanting loudly as they halted traffic at intersections down Laurier Avenue. It was the second protest in Ottawa this month.
Members of the movements said the protest was a show of support for the 14 people arrested in Smithers, B.C. last week, where Wet’suwet’en members put up a checkpoint to protect their traditionally-claimed territory.
Arif Jinha, one of the event organizers, told the Charlatan that these two movements needed to converge in order for people to understand that this issue goes beyond something that just affects Indigenous peoples.
“Wake up, and take a look around you,” he said. “There’s mass extinctions taking place, there’s rabid disconnection with the natural ecosystem, and Indigenous people are suffering the most.”
Jinha said the RCMP action in Smithers goes against the proposed recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commision (TRC).
“Reconcilliation, as Trudeau puts it, has been fucked up,” he said. “It’s not an honest reconciliation when it’s dividing Indigenous communities and enforcing laws that work against them.”
K, an electro-mechanical engineering student at Algonquin College and one of the leaders of the Ottawa chapter for Earth Strike, said he agreed with Jinha.
“I definitely think the concerns that come from an environmental perspective are rooted in those shared by the Indigenous peoples of the Wet’suwet’en Nation,” he said. “Our movements both denounce the idea that a pipeline is necessary for the people of Canada when it affects so many people negatively.”
“But, more than the environment, what’s more is that they didn’t even get the consent of the Wet’suwet’en people to begin with. So, how do they build something on land that’s not theirs to take?” he added.
At the protest, Jocelyn Wabano-Iahtail who identifies as a Cree woman, said this protest is a way for people to “reclaim their authentic selves.”
“Canon law and common law and all the laws that the RCMP enforced to descend onto unceded Gitdumt’en territories of the Wet’suwet’en nation are all British imperial and colonial laws,” she said. “I reject them.”
Alex Harris, a third-year political science student at the University of Ottawa, said he came to the protest because he thinks “this is a basic human rights issue.”
“Indigenous peoples need clean water to provide for their families,” Harris said. “This is like us going backwards in the stone ages and looking at fossil fuels when we should be looking at other renewable resources.”
Another demonstrator, Pat Taylor, said she agreed, adding climate change and Indigenous peoples’ concerns about the Trans Mountain pipeline are co-aligned.
“I think it’s really important to make the people taking these actions against the Indigenous folks feel uncomfortable, even if it’s just for a little bit,” she said. “You have to put shoes on the other foot for a little bit to see if you can make these people scramble and panic the way they did to the Wet’suwet’en.”
The interim court injunction which led to the RCMP action in Smithers, will be in place until the defendants—including residents and supporters of the Wet’suwet’en camps—file a response in court on Jan. 31.
Photo by Temur Durrani
