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href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/05/wetsuweten-water-protectors-evade-rcmp-as-police-mobilize-for-raid/"
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Wet’suwet’en Water Protectors
Evade RCMP as Police Mobilize For Raid</h1>
January 5, 2022</div>
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<div>Media contact: Jennifer Wickham, Gidimt’en
Checkpoint Media Coordinator</div>
<div><a href="mailto:yintahaccess@gmail.com"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">yintahaccess@gmail.com</a></div>
<p>Unceded Gidimt’en Territory, Smithers (BC):Two weeks
after Wet’suwet’en water protectors evicted Coastal
GasLink workers and occupied a key pipeline drill
site, water protectors executed a strategic retreat to
avoid arrest and violence at the hands of dozens of
militarized RCMP. Before a large scale mobilization by
police, water protectors vanished into the woods,
evading police violence and criminalization. We expect
an imminent assault on our people at the direction of
Coastal GasLink as we continue to occupy and utilize
our yintah.</p>
<p>“Our warriors are not here to be arrested. Our
warriors are here to protect the land and the water,
and will continue to do so at all costs,” stated
Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham), a wing chief of the Cas Yikh
people. “Every time that the RCMP, the C-IRG, has
come in to enforce CGL’s injunction they have done
violence against our women. They have imprisoned our
Indigenous women and our warriors. We will not allow
our people to be political prisoners.”</p>
<p>For the fourth time in four years, the RCMP appeared
to mobilize for a large-scale assault on unceded
Wet’suwet’en land, booking dozens of hotel rooms to
bring police from throughout the province to
facilitate pipeline construction and to assert control
over unceded lands at gunpoint. Water protectors have
blocked drilling beneath Wet’suwet’en headwaters for
more than 70 days. In the last couple of days there
have been increased patrols by non-local RCMP, C-IRG,
and helicopter surveillance over private Wet’suwet’en
residences far from any project worksites.</p>
<p>After the first 56 day occupation, RCMP made 30
arrests before escorting Coastal GasLink workers into
Coyote Camp to bulldoze and burn down several cabins,
homes, and structures. Within a month, land defenders
retook the site, once again evicting CGL workers and
blockading the drill pad. Arrests were also made at
Gidimt’en Checkpoint, a re-occupation of our
traditional village site on Cas Yikh yintah that is
not impeding Coastal GasLink work.</p>
<p>“We know that we have to uphold our responsibilities,
and no matter how much they try to beat us down we
will never forget who we are as Wet’suwet’en people.
We will always uphold our responsibilities to Wedzin
Kwa, to our yintah and to all of the future
generations,” stated Sleydo’.</p>
<p>Wet’suwet’en people have never ceded or surrendered
the 22,000km<sup>2</sup> of traditional Wet’suwet’en
land to British Columbia or Canada, and have proven in
the Supreme Court of Canada that Wet’suwet’en
ownership of this land remains unextinguished. Our
hereditary chiefs fought for years within colonial
courts to protect our yintah as they have done on the
land since time immemorial. Under Anuc nu’at’en
(Wet’suwet’en law), House Chiefs representing each
impacted Wet’suwet’en group have banned Coastal
GasLink from Wet’suwet’en lands, and in 2020 issued an
eviction notice to the company that remains in effect.</p>
<p>Since 2019 the RCMP have spent over $20 million
criminalizing Wet’suwet’en authority over our lands,
deploying in military garb with drones, helicopters,
ATVs, snowmobiles, mobile command centers, and K-9
units. RCMP have pointed sniper rifles and assault
weapons at unarmed Indigenous people, and used
physical and psychological torture techniques on water
protectors engaged in non-violent civil
disobedience. To date, police have made 79 arrests,
including four Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs.</p>
<p>“I don’t think Coastal Gaslink, the government, or
the police understand that the Wet’suwet’en have been
here for thousands of years. Despite all the
money and effort C-IRG and CGL utilize in an effort
to get rid of us, we are never going away. Ever,” says
Sleydo’.</p>
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<div>Media Backgrounder – Wet’suwet’en 101: <a
href="http://report.mnb.email/t.js?s=61d515335e1cd93c462b055f&u=45670416&v=3&key=1fd6&skey=59fa7f5d8c&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yintahaccess.com%2Fmedia-background"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.yintahaccess.com/media-background</a></div>
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