Hands Off the Wet’suwet’en! Info Picket at the Fredericton Banks
Hands Off the Wet’suwet’en! Info Picket at the Fredericton Banks
Tuesday, Nov. 23, 4pm to 6pm
In front of the Royal Bank, corner of King St. & Carleton St., Fredericton, unceded Wolastoqiyik territory
As the BC NDP government sends in the RCMP to raid Wet’suwet’en territory, arresting more than a dozen land defenders opposing the Coastal GasLink pipeline, actions in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en are occurring across the country at the banks funding the pipelines, MP offices, RCMP stations and at universities that are invested in the pipeline companies.
The Coastal GasLink pipeline plans to carry fracked gas from northeast BC to the LNG Canada liquefied natural gas terminal on the coast, the largest of its kind ever proposed in Canada. The pipeline violates Wet’suwet’en rights and title, and lacks consent of Wet’suwet’en Nation hereditary chiefs.
The Gidimt’en Checkpoint from the Wet’suwet’en Nation have sent a letter to more than 35 Coastal GasLink investors and banks in Canada and beyond, including RBC, Scotiabank, BMO, to cease their support to Coastal GasLink and LNG Canada. Financing of the project violates Indigenous rights and breaks investor commitments to racial justice and reconciliation. In October, RBC sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Week, which included broadcast programs on the Truth and Reconciliation Commmission’s calls to action. One of these calls is for corporations to commit to meaningful consultation and building respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples before proceeding with economic development projects.
“Reconciliation isn’t financing a project that’s destroying our land, without our consent. Coastal GasLink has not engaged in respectful consultation with us. Backing this project implicates investors in perpetuating violence to our land and on my people,” says Sleydo (Molly Wickham), Gidimt’en, Wet’suwet’en Nation.
Not the first raid on the Wet’suwet’en resistance camps, on January 4, 2020, the RCMP conducted a five-day military raid on the camps, violently evicting land defenders.
For more information, contact: fredericton.
