The recent blockades of railway lines across Canada by the Wet’suwet’en, a First Nations group, have attracted the world’s attention whilst shining the spotlight on Indigenous peoples’ self-determination and land rights, climate change and the oil and gas industries.
The Wet’suwet’en leadership have refused to bow to the corporate might of Coastal GasLink and its plans to build a (CAN) $6.6 billion natural gas pipeline, in northern British Columbia (BC), where 200 km of the projected 670 km will pass through their territory. The Wet’suwet’en chiefs initiated peaceful protests after the granting of an injunction by the BC Supreme Court preventing the interference of construction of the pipeline, one of three in the territory, a fact that has been mostly overlooked in the saturated media coverage drawn by the protests.
The Wet’suwet’en have lived in northern BC for millennia. Their system of governance is matrilineal, headed by hereditary chiefs who bear the responsibility of governing their ancestral lands, unlike the elected band councils, who under the Indian Act have no jurisdiction over lands outside their reserve boundaries. In 1997, the Wet’suwet’en won a historic case in the Supreme Court of Canada recognizing Aboriginal title to their territory, whilst engaged in battle with the logging industry.
With their fisheries decimated by development, the Wet’sumet’en, who have never signed away the rights to their land or entered into any treaty with the Canadian government, are now engaged in a ten-year battle to protect their territory from environmental fallout, as Coastal Gaslink have rejected all the proposals for alternate routes.
The final blow was struck when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were dispatched to enforce the injunction. In many quarters the RCMP were perceived as acting on behalf of the state and as the personal security force for Coastal Gaslink, as they removed and detained journalists in an attempt to discourage any media coverage. The RCMP’s actions, and the subsequent photos and videos put the incumbent Liberal Government, who purchased the Trans Mountain Pipeline in 2018 in an embarrassing position.
The Liberals, who had promised to provide clean drinking water and much needed housing to First Nations communities, and to address longstanding land claim issues, chose instead to invest in the pipeline to the tune of (CAN)$4.5 billion, a cost which has since escalated to $12 billion.
The United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Canada to stand down and put a freeze on all on major projects without Indigenous consent. The Wet’suwet’en peaceful blockades drew support all across the country and sparked rallies, marches and occupations of highways, railways, ports and ministers’ offices, as the nationwide flow of commerce slowed.
After the RCMP withdrew from Wet’sumet’en territory, the Chiefs sat down with provincial and federal ministers for three intense days and nights of negotiations and hammered out a ‘milestone’ agreement. The tentative resolution, however, falls short of addressing concerns of the controversial pipeline project.
Here, in Guyana, we have now arrived at the tipping point where the two political parties which have dominated our relatively short history of nationhood need to take a page from the recent Wet’sumet’en protests and accept the simple fact that the present state of affairs spurned by the recent elections can no longer continue to persist. The Wet’suwet’en protests and our present state of confusion bear the same common thread of origin, the lingering aftermath of colonization.
The time to sit down at the negotiating table is now. While the squabbles escalate, our people are not benefiting from our resources. This nightmare must cease now. The opportunity to install the proper framework for the effective management of our projected oil wealth will not present itself again.
