Wet’suwet’en Pipeline Protests Preserve Law, Land, and Air

Canada is well known for its clean air. So well-known that some recent start-up companies have made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling cans of Rocky Mountain oxygen for personal use. And that’s only one reason why the Wet’suwet’en protests are crucial. 

The demonstrations challenge three proposed pipelines by Chevron, TransCanada, and Enbridge, all of which have been supported by the governments of British Columbia and Canada. Methods of protest have been primarily a camp and blockade built by the Unist’o’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en territory, railroad blockades, and solidarity protests across Canada. 

The Wet’suwet’en people and their supporters say the planned pipelines are not only hazardous to the environment but also that they breach their land rights—and they are not wrong. While most Canadian provinces were at one point confederated under treaties and settlements between the federal government and Indigenous communities, British Columbia is unique in that much of the province was never actually ceded. In other words, no legal process ever took place to take away the rights of the Wet’suwet’en in controlling their land. 

Signed land treaties across Canada: https://native-land.ca/ 

Location of Wet’suwet’en territory: https://aptnnews.ca/2020/01/13/pipeline-6/ 

In reality, Canada’s presence in the region was the result of a much more straightforward process. In 1858, the Fraser Valley Gold Rush prompted thousands of Americans and Canadian-Britons to settle in the area and profit off of the newly discovered resource. Interest in the region prompted Britain to create a colony in the area, now British Columbia, which later joined the Dominion of Canada. 

These legal issues are an integral part of the conflicts between those who support and oppose the pipeline. The private interests pursuing oil extraction have been defended by the RCMP, making the Canadian government complicit in the breach of Wet’suwet’en land rights. Dozens of arrests have been made in British Columbia over solidarity protests in Vancouver and at the Unist’o’en Camp, while demonstrators occupying Wet’suwet’en have been confronted by violent raids by RCMP officers armed with automatic rifles. 

According to some officials, another legal obstacle in challenging the pipeline construction is the very notion of a protest. In response to Wet’suwet’en solidarity protests, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer stated that citizens “have the right to demonstrate peacefully and to express themselves freely,” but do not have the “right to paralyze [Canada’s] rail network and…ports,” as he stressed the need for the RCMP to “enforce the law.” Scheer’s statement demonstrates the Conservative Party’s feeling that protests are a right, so long as they have no ability to enact change—a view that that is both surprising and somewhat fascistic. However, it demonstrates a larger issue within Canadians’ basic liberties. 

Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees:  

(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; 

(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and 

(d) freedom of association. 

However, recent arrests demonstrate that these liberties are not guaranteed. As noted by Roberta Lexier of Mount Royal University, when an injunction is granted, the RCMP is legally permitted to arrest protestors. This poses a threat to the Wet’suwet’en protests and is revealing of the feeble pillars on which Canadians’ democratic rights stand. 

Unlike Scheer, Prime Minister Trudeau has displayed a softer view on the protests, stating that the RCMP have the right to enforce the law as they please, and that Canada is “not the kind of country where politicians get to tell the police what to do in operational matters.” While this is a far more democratic view of demonstrators’ clash with police, Trudeau’s disinterest in the matter is concerning. 

Meanwhile, British Columbia’s NDP Premier John Horgan has openly stated his support for the construction of the pipeline, a view that is disappointing in at least two ways. First, it runs counter to Horgan’s past rhetoric, which has expressed the need for reconciliation between the federal government and Indigenous communities. Second, it means that none of Canada’s three major parties believe in the land rights guaranteed to the Wet’suwet’en or the environmental threats posed by the proposed pipelines. 

Though carbon emissions are demonstrably damaging to the environment, oil spills are common and particularly affect Indigenous communities. There were 12 major oil spills in Canada between 2008 and 2018, each leaking millions of litres each. This does not include the many other “minor” spills that took place, such as the 10 different spills that happened in Alberta alone since 2011. Additionally, a recent report by the Council of Canadians showed that 73% “of First Nations' water systems are at high or medium risk of contamination.” 

Canadian officials’ response to concerns over the proposed pipeline are deeply troubling, as they demonstrate a blatant disregard for the environment, the rights of Indigenous people, the rule of law, and Canadians’ constitutionally assured democratic freedoms. 

If you would like to support the Wet’suwet’en protests, you may donate here and here, or attend a solidarity demonstration near you.