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Jan 8, 20

Marches, Office Occupations & Rail Sabotage Denounce Attacks on Wet’suwet’en as 72 Hour Notice Given

Pipeline employees and the so-called B.C. supreme court have told Native Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their supporters that they have 72 hours to leave the area of a “critical work site.” This move comes the same day that hundreds of protesters marched in Toronto against a possible police raid and train tracks going in and out of Hamilton, Ontario were sabotaged in solidarity.

In recent days, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have evicted Coast GasLink pipeline workers from the area. The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled however that the RCMP police have the power to remove “protesters,” in order to allow pipeline workers access to land. On Wednesday the Prince George Citizen reported that Wet’suwet’en leaders were calling for talks with federal officials.

These events are taking place a year after RCMP police raided Wet’suwet’en territory with guns; later documents showed that they were prepared to use lethal force in order to open the territory to resource extraction. This incursion on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory led to an explosion of #ShutDownCanada actions across the world.

According to Global News:

Indigenous opponents to a planned natural gas pipeline through northern B.C. have been given 72 hours to clear the way toward a critical work site. The order, which was delivered Tuesday and also posted online, calls on the opponents to remove any obstructions to Coastal GasLink workers erected on any bridges or roads, including cabins and gates. If those obstructions are not cleared by Friday, the court says the company is authorized to remove them. The RCMP have also been given authority to arrest and remove anyone found to be violating the order.

On Tuesday, hundreds converged in Toronto in the financial district to march against a possible RCMP raid. According to a report on Rabble:

This morning, approximately 30 activists occupied corporate offices in Toronto’s financial district to protest the companies involved in financing the Coastal GasLink pipeline project.

Protesters first went to the Royal Bank Plaza, where they occupied the space outside the office of RBC CEO David McKay for around fifteen minutes while activists from the group Artists for Climate and Migrant Justice and Indigenous Sovereignty put on a satirical play in the building’s lobby. After building security escorted activists from the building, the group occupied the nearby offices of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, or AIMCo.

“The actions today were to focus on how Toronto’s financial district is complacent with and fuelling the attacks on the Wet’suwet’en people, and the invasion of their unceded territory for the CGL pipeline,” Vanessa Gray, an Aamjiwnaang land defender who organizes with the Porcupine Warriors in Toronto, told rabble.ca.

Also on Tuesday, a communique was posted to North Shore Counter-Info, claiming responsibility for sabotage actions of train tracks in Hamilton:

A decade ago in a move that has inspired many, Wet’suwet’en people reoccupied their unceded territories as a way to begun healing and ensuring the land is protected in the ways she needs to sustain Wet’suwet’en people’s lives, practices, and continued existence in their traditional territories.

A year ago the RCMP violently invaded those territories to provide access for industry.

One week ago, the canadian state criminalized Anuk’ nu’at’en – Wet’suwet’en hereditary law – by granting an injunction which criminalizes Indigenous people and their allies should they protect the Yintah from the destructive forces of industry.

We honour these anniversaries with a giant fuck you to the state.

Early this morning settlers responded to calls of action coming from multiple Wet’suwet’en house groups after they bravely evicted industry from their unceded territories, as well as a call to action for settlers by settlers.

As one small way of pushing back against the colonial violence being enacted by our government we simultaneously disrupted three natural CN and CP railway bottlenecks at strategic locations with the intention and impact of shutting down all rail traffic going in and out of so-called Hamilton.

CN rail has been and will continue to ship out pipe to storage yards in preparation of construction and have vast, isolated stretches of infrastructure. The first installations of rail had deep, lasting impacts on the colonization of Turtle Island and targeting it today  directly effects so-called canada’s economy.

While these actions will only serve as a temporary disruption, we hope it sends a strong message: Respecting Indigenous sovereignty – anywhere on Turtle Island – is not optional. We will not be passive.

We hope others throughout Turtle Island – especially settlers – will join us in ensuring this is only the beginning, and make the Coastal GasLink pipeline untenable to both industry and the state in every way they can.

According to reports on North Shore Counter-Info, graffiti and wheatpasted posters went up in other cities.

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In search of new forms of life. It's Going Down is a digital community center and media platform featuring news, opinion, podcasts, and reporting on autonomous social movements and revolt across so-called North America from an anarchist perspective.

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