In Canada, Another Call for Criminalizing Climate Protest

How UK courts became the new climate protest battleground

How Canada Uses ‘Redwashing’ To Crack Down On Indigenous Pipeline Protesters

 [00:00:00] A few hours before sunrise on November 19th, 2021, a small weasel entered a log cabin in a place called Coyote Camp, a resistant camp on the Wissowitin Territory and what is now called British Columbia. It started to crawl around the land defenders sleeping inside. One of the land defenders looked at the weasel and took it as a warning.

 I am Jocey Alec Stadnee. Um, I am a Wet’suwet’en land defender. Also the daughter of Chief Woos who is the head chief of C’asyikh house of the Gidimt’en territory.. I have been arrested twice on my own territory, and um, my first arrest was during coyote camp back in 2021, um, for defending our watsinkwa, our river, from being drilled under. Um, I also had a cabin on the so called drill pad site, occupied it for up to 56 days.

[00:01:00] Um, so, November 19th, um, 2021, that was the day of the raid. Um, November 18th, there was a previous, there was another raid that happened, but that was at the G'demden checkpoint. Um, so, that day, November 19th, There were, um, three others in the cabin with me, so, um, that very morning, it was like five, six in the morning, a weasel came in, and, um, it started like, um, like crawling on us, like crawling on my friends, and like just getting right near us.

And, um, so I took that as a sign that, like, as a warning that, um, they were coming, the, yeah. And, um, sure enough, after that happened, um, we started hearing the machinery. [00:02:00] And there were the helis flying. And, um, okay, so, um, we started seeing them, like, dropping down take teams of, which are the emergency response teams.

And there were, there was, like, 3 of them that, like, 3 groups that got dropped. And, um, that was when they started surrounding Coyote Camp. The Lato and them were up there and, um, yeah, so we started watching them come down the hill and there were at least like 10 R C M P, also with 10, um, e rts. And so they started coming down the hill.

They started like, dispersing, dispersing and like getting into positions. [00:03:00] And we noticed that there were already 2 snipers on us, and they were right behind the bulldozer, and they also had a canine with them. And so, they started surrounding the cabin, they came up to the door, and they started. Um, telling us that we weren't following so called Canadian law, and that we had to come out and like, just comply with them.

But then I told them who I was, like, I'm the daughter of Chief Watts, and you're not welcome here. Told them that they needed a warrant if they wanted to come and talk to us. And um, yeah, said that. Well, first and foremost, I wanted to let them know that they weren't Malcolm and they were, they were trespassing on Wet'suwet'en territory.

And so that went on for like at least 20 [00:04:00] minutes. And then that's when they started, um, the forest entry, they got an axe. And, um, started, um, breaking down the door. And, um, yeah, so, once that happened, the door got busted down. And we were all on our knees with our hands up and saying that we were unarmed.

And so they had their snipers on us, they had the canines at the door just barking and growling. And, yeah, that's when we got arrested.

 According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a force known as the RCMP, arrests were made because the land defenders such as Sadnee were blocking work on the Coastal Gas Link, a 14. 5 billion gas pipeline under construction in Northwest BC. The company behind Coastal [00:05:00] Gas Link is TC Energy, a multi billion dollar Calgary based pipeline company, which earlier tried to build the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in the U. S. In December 2019, Colborne, Kravis, Roberts Company, also known as KKR, an American global investment company, acquired a 65 percent equity interest in the Coastal Gas Link project from TC Energy. This pipeline runs through the traditional territory of the Wet’suwet’en people, whose ancestors have lived in this area for thousands of years and never formally ceded or surrendered their territories to the federal government. Sadnee said she was there protecting her traditional territory and to stop the drilling beneath the Morris River, or known as the Wadzin Kwa River. It's been an ongoing battle between hereditary Wet'suwet'en chiefs and Coastal Gas Link for years

 so right now, currently, they [00:06:00] did drill under the river, which is extremely heartbreaking. After that happened, we were incarcerated for four nights and five days. We were brought to like seven different jail cells, um, we went to court, but that judge was all like, we don't have time for you, so we're gonna put you in the, um, we're gonna take you up to prison.

And so we got brought up there. They kept us in for the night, and we had court in the morning, and so they made up these conditions for us, and one of those conditions is for us to not return to our territory, and um, so they gave us the conditions while we were in the holding cell. And said that if we sign it, we get released and if we didn't sign it, [00:07:00] we would have still been incarcerated

 she agreed to their conditions and got released by the time she got out. Her cabin had been burned to the ground. She blamed the RCMP, but said the RCMP accused the land defenders who started bonfires just before the raid, sadly, wondering why would they start bonfires so close to their own cabins?

This was the third raid since 2019. Since establishing the camp, the land defenders have faced court ordered injunctions invariably followed by heavy handed police tactics, including heavily armed SWAT teams and K 9 units, only to see the corporations they're fighting engage in what they call red washing in nearby communities.

The Wet'suwet'en chiefs and land defenders are so opposed to fossil fuel expansion because of the potentially severe impacts on their drinking water, wild salmon, and the global climate. It's a controversial project that hereditary Wet'suwet'en [00:08:00] chiefs never agreed to.

 my name is Kris Statnyk I am a citizen of the Vantagwichen First Nation from the community of Old Crow, Yukon. Our territory is situated in the North Yukon. I am a lawyer by training. I practice in the area of Aboriginal law, and in that work, I work exclusively with Indigenous peoples primarily those whose territories are in What is now British Columbia and Yukon on issues of title rights and self determination.

 Statnik has worked on various issues with the Wet'suwet'en, including the coastal gas link project.

 in the Coastal Gas Link case we see this major pipeline passing through the Wet'suwet'en territory. Several individual house groups within the Wet'suwet'en Nation own specific territories that the pipeline traverses.

And those houses through their own [00:09:00] governance system did not consent to the pipeline and through their system actually made a decision to not consent to any pipelines through that corridor due to their concerns about the impacts on things like the watershed and the health of their people.

And that was essentially ignored and continues to be ignored as if it doesn't exist and as if that decision wasn't made.

 The refusal to acknowledge that decision prompted ongoing opposition to the Coastal Gas Link that became impossible to ignore. That story is coming up after this quick break. I'm Martha Troian in Canada and this is Drilled, the Real Free Speech Threat.

Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders and other members of the First Nation had for years occupied a series of camps along the pipeline's proposed route.

As a way to remove the camps, TC Energy applied for an injunction from B. C. 's Supreme Court.

 the company you know, relying [00:10:00] on permits that had, had been issued by the provincial government of BC you know, saying, yes, you can go ahead and build this pipeline subject to these conditions. They said that gives us the legal right to build this pipeline and these individuals are blocking or impeding our ability to do this work authorized under provincial law.

And therefore, court, we want you to issue an order against these individuals saying that they can't. Impede construction or they will be arrested and face, you know, criminal contempt potentially.

 The Wet'suwet'en argued that those permits were invalid because the hereditary chiefs governing those territories had said no to the Coastal Gas Link project. Although the Wet'suwet'en have never negotiated treaty with the Canadian government they have also never ceded their territory.

 And so, they went to [00:11:00] the court and took this step. And of course the Wet'suwet'en as a nation having in 1997, already went to the Supreme Court of Canada after, you know, over 20 years of litigating, trying to get proof from the court saying, yes, you do have ownership and jurisdiction over this land.

Even though they've taken that significant step and, and the court in that case kind of met them halfway and said well, we don't have enough here to say that you have title to a specific defined area, but we have enough here to say that for sure you guys don't have a treaty, and you've never had your, your rights extinguished by any government, and these rights are now constitutionally protected.

And so it was a bit of a halfway measure, but significantly it left that conclusion that Wet'suwet'en title and rights are still existing. They've never been extinguished. And so, [00:12:00] when it came to this injunction proceeding, the Wet'suwet'en sought to raise the fact that they do have title that's never been relinquished, that they still have jurisdiction and the right to make decisions about how it's used.

And that they did implement that in this case and said no, and that the court should consider that on whether this project is even, you know, properly authorized whether the company should get the injunction or not. And unfortunately, but is quite common in these types of injunction proceedings.

The court this, this, in this case, the B. C. Supreme Court said that they would give the injunction to the company and that the injunction proceeding itself wasn't the type of forum or place where the court could really resolve these title questions. And so, more or less buried their head in the sand as if they don't exist.

 That's important because [00:13:00] the court not only effectively criminalized the Witsouatan who are trying to enforce their own decision on their own territory but also because once that injunction was granted it authorized the RCMP to enforce it.

 And so with that injunction order that the company has obtained it does include an order that empowers the RCMP to enforce that injunction it does give them completely broad discretion about how and when they enforce that injunction

 Corporations in Canada are using court ordered injunctions with increasing frequency, according to the Yellowhead Institution, an Indigenous led think tank at the Toronto Metropolitan University.

In their 2019 report, Land Back, a Yellowhead Institute red paper, the Institute found that of 100 injunctions filed between 1974 and 2019 on behalf of companies and governments, 81 to 91 percent were granted. [00:14:00] However, during that same time period, just 19 percent of injunctions were granted to Indigenous applicants.

In the case of the Wissowitin, the injunction granted to TC Energy gave police the legal authority to raid the protest camps, and according to documents later shared with reporters, the authorization to shoot Indigenous land defenders, if necessary. This work was carried out by the Community Industry Response Group, or CIRG, an RCMP unit created specifically to police energy industry incidents or protests against pipeline projects. Raids have been described as a troubling pattern of police intimidation towards peaceful land defenders, according to the Union of B. C. Indian Chiefs.

 I am Chief Na'Mocks. I am a hereditary chief of that's how you clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation

 Speaking against these arrests, Hereditary Chief Namaks is another person committed to defending his [00:15:00] territory against the Coastal Gas Link pipeline.

 We are not elected officials and the names I carry are thousands of years old, and we are the authority as we have never ceded nor surrendered nor signed a treaty on our entire 22, 000 square kilometers.

If you think about the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, free, prior and informed consent, that's not happened with us because we told them from day one, this proposed pipeline owned by CGL, TC Energy and KKR, we said no from day one.

We even gave them an alternate route through some areas that were already damaged because by law, we have to be reasonable. So we did that, and they still went ahead.

 But there is a dispute between B. C. band elected Indigenous leaders. and hereditary chiefs. Elected or band chiefs and councils were created under the Indian Act of 1876 and are officially recognized by the Canadian government, whereas hereditary [00:16:00] chiefs or traditional governments inherit the title, territory, or land. Their governance system predates colonial laws.

 the reserve system was created by Canada to remove us from the land and our territories so they could have access to resources. And so they put them on minuscule pieces of land. And when you have a band-elect system of chief and council, they only have jurisdiction within the boundaries of that reserve.

The same as a municipality. With us, the hereditary chiefs, we have the jurisdiction and authority on the entire 22, 000 square kilometers of our land, and that is through our house groups, our clans and the people themselves.

 To date, 20 bands have signed Impact Benefit Agreements. An Impact Benefit Agreement is an agreement made between Indigenous people or an impacted community and project developers to share projected financial benefits and other commitments. [00:17:00] It is unknown how many Indigenous communities declined a benefit agreement with TCEnergy.

By the time that TCEnergy was outselling benefit agreements to First Nation communities, the British Columbia government began making six figure financial contributions to a new advocacy group called the First Nations LNG Alliance, composed of Indigenous leaders in favour of gas expansion. That group in turn formed a research partnership with a conservative think tank called the Macdonald Laurier Institute, which also became an outspoken advocate for coastal gaslink.

The Macdonald Laurier Institute is a member of the Atlas Network, a global network of think tanks we covered in an earlier episode, and some of the strategies it developed in Canada have now spread elsewhere in the world. As early as 2012, in response to the national Idle No More protests advocating for First Nations sovereignty and [00:18:00] rights in Canada, the Macdonald Laurier Institute began publishing papers about how to neutralize First Nations opposition to resource projects.

To deal with this problem, the group recommended various approaches, including bringing First Nation leaders on board as advocates of extractive projects, and criminalizing those who weren't interested. Over time, the Macdonald Lawyer Institute became a bridge builder between governments hoping to entice natural resources investment and pro industry Indigenous leaders seeking new revenue streams for their communities.

One of its strategy documents reads, Many elected officials now depend on the relationship that MLI has built with the Aboriginal community. This connection provides credibility and support needed to battle opponents. They became a trusted media source on Indigenous issues in Canada too. Here's Ken Coates, Senior Fellow in Aboriginal and [00:19:00] Northern Canadian Issues at the Macdonald Lawyer Institute telling Bloomberg in January 2020 how the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples might impact resource projects in Canada.

 it's boiled down to this idea that It's in some people's minds that free prior informed consent means that aboriginal communities have a veto. Many people say it does not mean it's a veto. Many people say that aboriginal people have to be consulted, they have to be accommodated in a way we do actually very well in Canada.

Um, so we don't really know what it means. And what happens is First Nations will probably take this issue to court at some point. The Supreme Court of Canada eventually will rule on what UNDRIP means. Um, if it actually does mean a veto, then that gives Indigenous people preponderant power.

If it doesn't mean a veto, if it means that we have to consult and accommodate, which we do very well in Canada, um, then it means we're going to have... A much more open pathway to getting these major projects developed.

 Meanwhile, First Nations opponents to the pipeline have been [00:20:00] increasingly criminalized. In Alberta, which houses Canada's largest deposits of oil sands, then Premier Jason Kenney accused pipeline protesters of scaring away oil and gas investors by creating the appearance of anarchy. In June 2020, his government passed a new law prohibiting protests that interfere with highways, railways, oil sands, operations, and other essential infrastructure with fines as high as 25, 000 and jail sentences of six months.

Law professors and civil liberties experts in the province called it an unjustifiable violation of fundamental rights and freedoms. In 2021, Kenny launched investigations into what he called an anti Alberta energy campaigns, accusing environmental organizations of working on behalf of foreign governments.

It's one of the several talking points that Kenny has parroted from Canada's Atlas Network think tanks, all of which were originally funded by the oil and [00:21:00] gas industry. Here's Chris Statnik again

 I think not surprising given sort of the political leanings of that provincial government that they took I would say the significant step to legislate and pass a law that essentially, you know, criminalizes in the case where it's indigenous people exercising constitutionally protected rights it criminalizes them for doing that. Of course, it also potentially infringes on rights and freedoms of other Canadians.

 Statnik says the use of legislation and injunctions being used against Indigenous people are a form of what's called SLAPP lawsuits.

SLAPP standing for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.

 this is a thing or a phenomenon I would say globally where you have powerful governments or corporations who Essentially use the law and lawsuits to tie people up [00:22:00] in court, to tie them up in legal jeopardy, to have all sorts of things hanging over their head from, you know, you know, police action to criminal charges, to even civil lawsuits seeking, you know, at times, sometimes, sometimes.

Hundreds of millions of damages against an individual

 Such a case rose in the Gitxsan Territory where the Canadian National Railway, or CN Rail, sued one of the chiefs for over 20 million in damages for blocking rail traffic for two days in 2020. Statnik says even though CN Rail didn't proceed with the lawsuit, the damage was done.

 The fact that they've filed one and there's the threat of it really works in a similar way to seek to intimidate folks or disincentivize them from continuing to speak up in opposition to projects. So, both of those pieces of legislation and how they're, I would say, weaponized against Indigenous peoples [00:23:00] are you know, I say both draconian and both problematic

 For Statnik, these lasting impacts are worrisome and only point to the colonial problem we have here in what is now called Canada.

 for me, it's concerning. You know, like in Canada, in terms of like leverage or like, strength of legal position there's probably no one in Canada with a stronger position than the Gitsan and Wet'suwet'en.

And. If this can happen to them on their territory you know, and essentially be sanctioned by, Canadian law and governments then it can happen essentially anywhere, right? And I think that's a really important part of it is, you know, we need to pay attention.

 Despite all of the raids in Wessoatin territory, TC Energy maintains that it is committed to [00:24:00] reconciliation. The Government of Canada has repeatedly proclaimed the importance of a meaningful relationship with Indigenous people.

One that is based on a non adversarial approach, a true nation to nation relationship with First Nations peoples. But some say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is too close for comfort with oil and gas companies. In March 2021, TCEnergy released its Reconciliation Action Plan report. The company claims it has an unwavering commitment to reconciliation.

In their 15 page report, TCEnergy lays out six commitments for reconciliation. To develop a Reconciliation Advisory Council. To provide training to their Board of Directors. To implement corporate wide cultural training. To invest in Indigenous communities. To set Indigenous contracting targets and lastly to develop a framework to identify project equity opportunities with Indigenous [00:25:00] groups.

Around the same time that TCEnergy was rolling out its Reconciliation Action Plan, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed how there is no relationship more important to the Government of Canada than the one it has with Indigenous people.

With a new federal budget announced, The Liberal government promised to spend more than 18 billion over the next five years to close the socioeconomic gap between Indigenous and non Indigenous peoples and to right any historic wrongs. Here is Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on that commitment.

 Our government has made progress in righting the historic wrongs in Canada's relationship with Indigenous peoples, but we still have a lot of work ahead.

 In an update to their reconciliation report in November 2022, TCEnergy announced its inaugural Indigenous Advisory Council members.

Even before any reconciliation reports, TCEnergy [00:26:00] has been working with Indigenous peoples for quite some time with their lucrative purse strings in hand.

 You do come from a long line of who have shown their resilience and their ability. You do come from a long line of strong, powerful leaders, warriors, ancestors who have shown their resilience and their ability to, um, overcome obstacles.

 TCEnergy's social platforms are saturated with short videos, such as this one highlighting the company's accomplishments and indispensable presence in Indigenous communities.

TC Energy's website touts how the company has been working with Indigenous Peoples for more than 40 years. The website lists business, employment and training opportunities, and even their renewed reconciliation goals. And all the buzzwords and phrases are sprinkled throughout their site. Distinct relationship [00:27:00] with the land.

Respect, trust, unique governance, multigenerational. Since 1982, TC Energy has provided an annual scholarship program to Indigenous students. Most recently, the company cites how it has invested 5. 5 million to support Indigenous partners and students across North America in 2022. When it comes to Indigenous culture, TC Energy has funded everything from sun dances, powwows, Métis festivals, language and elder programs, to species protection initiatives.

Tsuut’ina Nation near Calgary, Alberta is just one nation benefiting from these investments. In a large headdress and ribbon skirt, then Vice President Tracy Robinson of Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines and Coastal Gas Link, spoke to a group at the signing of a new relationship agreement with the Tsuut’ina Nation in spring 2021.

 [00:28:00] As I speak today on behalf of our team in TC Energy, we know we have so much to learn and we thank you for being our teachers in this. and for taking us on this journey. We will become better and better by sharing time with you. And we've been so blessed today to hear the Tsutina language in song, in prayer, and spoken.

 The agreement was written on a buffalo hide in both the Satina and English languages and gifted to TC Energy. As for Chief Na'Moks, he feels these jobs and handouts are either short term or menial compared to the value of these projects and companies. NMAAHC said he's not mad at people for taking these incentives, it's about the process itself and those who are directing it.

 it's all bribe money. And if you talk about millions of dollars, that's pretty minuscule. If you think about, uh, the [00:29:00] Kitimat LNG plant, which is where this proposed pipeline is to go, that's 40 billion. And they throw out minuscule amounts, as he stated. And even the project here that is going through our territory is at 23 billion.

 All of these actions are nothing more than cheap opportunities for industries to appear as benevolent, according to activist and writer Clayton Thomas Muller.

 Boozhoo, Tansi,, My name is Clayton Thomas Muller. I'm a Cree man from Puget Iowagan Cree Nation, Treaty 6 Territory, but I live here in the City of Winnipeg in Treaty 1 Territory. Red wash or red washing is, you know, unfortunately, a super common and, um, you know, actually, the practice has been increasing dramatically, uh, in recent years, and essentially it's the. Corporate sponsorship of indigenous, cultural, artistic, or [00:30:00] education institutions to paint extractive industries or, you know, like, make a oil or mining or forestry fisheries corporations or hydro.

You know, to kind of paint them as benevolent or good neighbors or an essential or, um, you know, non replaceable part of our economy. Um, and essentially, you know, this practice, uh, is kind of a version of modern day, um, bead trading or, you know, smallpox blankets trading. You know, that's utilized by these companies here in the Canadian economy and across the world, actually, um, in economies where indigenous peoples, uh, reside under the occupation of settler colonial states.

Um, so that these companies can acquire social license to continue to operate as business as usual

 Even though these redwashing strategies are [00:31:00] becoming more sophisticated, Thomas Muller says these companies are also facing more scrutiny than ever before because Indigenous peoples are becoming more literate about extractive industries and risks and threats they pose.

 these companies are the very companies that are committing industrial genocide on Indigenous peoples and that are directly in conflict and breaking section 35 Canadian constitution and interrupting our ability to hunt fish and trap in our traditional territories.

And, you know, these section 35 rights are not just protected by the Canadian constitution, but they're protected by treaties. They're protected by international legal instruments, like the U. N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples . these are supposed to be inherent rights. Um, but every day here in the Canadian economy, we see corporations running roughshod over them and working in collusion with provincial and territorial governments to [00:32:00] do so. And all the while the federal government is turning a blind eye.

And the liability around whose jurisdiction it is to deal with indigenous peoples and their grievances, the buck is passed back and forth and the burden of proof in the Canadian colonial courts, of course, falls on indigenous peoples . And corporations all the while continue to dole out these little sums of money, you know, they show up at our community barbecues with their flashlights that have the corporate logos.

They show up at our schools and donate school supplies to our students.

 How should a community deal with these dole outs? Is there a solution to all of this?

 I think the solution is that Canada has a fiduciary and legal obligation to recognize and respect and adhere to the sovereignty and self determination of each individual First Nation. You know, Canada's Indigenous peoples are not a monolith. We're very, very diverse.

We have greedy, [00:33:00] capitalist First Nation peoples, even leaders in our communities who are super pro profit even in the wake of the violence that, you know, boomtown economies, uh, extractive industries bring into our communities in the form of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls.

But the fact of the matter is that what we need to be doing is having forums and conversation and informed debate so that Indigenous nations across Canada, whether they're Inuit, Métis or First Nations can make informed decisions.

 What kind of impact does redwashing make in Indigenous communities? Is this helping or hindering? Are these funds being put to good use? Is that what matters, or is it just pitting Indigenous peoples against one another?

We asked an expert who researched impact benefit agreements about redwashing and how Indigenous communities are impacted by it.

 My name is Cliff Atleo [00:34:00] jr. I'm a assistant professor in the school of resource and environmental management at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. I'm Nuu chah nulth on my father's side from the community of Ahowzit, which is on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

And I'm Tsimshian on my mother's side from a community called Kitsilas.

Transcription

As we resume our season focused on the global criminalization of climate protest, reporter Martha Troian brings us to Canada, where the Wet'suwet'en people have been fighting for years against a gas pipeline they never authorized on their territory.

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