Exercise 4: Wet’suwet’en struggle to protect their unceded territory/Fairy Creek Blockade
September 3, 2024 By: Sam Al-Alimi
Exercise 4: Wet’suwet’en struggle to protect their unceded territory/Fairy Creek Blockade
The struggle of the Wet’suwet’en people in BC against the Coastal Gas link is a prime example of capitalism plundering the environment and Indigenous rights. While I am a champion of the use of gas as an alternative to coal and oil, in this specific case I am not. The Indigenous peoples have lost everything, and they should not be forced to give in what little they have left. The Wet’suwet’en people non-violent approach to the coastal gas link project was met by violence from the RCMP and the government. Civil disobedience in the Wet’suwet’en territories and protests that backed them in major Canadian cities is a sign that the environmental movement has not stopped. Unfortunately, neither the civil disobedience and blockade or the protests around Canada stopped the Coastal Gas Link project from progressing. In fact, the project is almost complete and what indigenous chiefs were afraid of happened, the contaminating of the land around the gas pipeline. Indigenous chiefs fly on a helicopter to see the damage and one thing is clear right away, sediments have contaminated the river, wetlands, and creeks. While it is unfortunate the project continued, the civil disobedience and environmental movements gained momentum and raised awareness to something happening hundreds of kilometers away.
Another example would ne the fairy creek logging protests in Vancouver Island. This civil disobedience act was one of the biggest in British Columbia in decades and shed light on logging practices in BC and its effects on the environment. It raised awareness of the effects of logging and the need for immediate acts to protect old growth trees. The act of civil disobedience and blockades have shed positive light onto practices such as logging and its disastrous impacts by raising awareness, holding blockades that can push local governments to review their environmental impact studies and laws. Non-violent civil disobedience has been the answer to the Wet’suwet’en opposition to the coastal gas link project and an answer for the fairy creek logging industry, a difference from the ELF in the United States which is not active anymore.
Immediate results of civil disobedience, protests and blockades of environmentalists will not be seen. This is a long struggle, battles will be won and lost but every step of the way; the movement will have gained more people, momentum, and awareness.
Wet’suwet’en Invasions | Investigates (youtube.com)
Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs return home after Canada-wide tour of First Nations | CBC News
RCMP video footage of raids on Wet’suwet’en pipeline blockade shown in court | CBC News