The rally and march started at 10:00 am. at Vancouver City Hall, where Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’moks addressed the crowd about his opposition to the CGL pipeline through the Wet’suwet’en Unceded Territory. “This is our land, this is our air, and humanity must stand together to protect it for all,” he said. He then led several dozen people on a march downtown that included a 15- to 20-minute stop on the street in the middle of the Cambie Street Bridge. Chief Na’moks is currently on a cross-country tour of Indigenous towns and communities so he can raise awareness of the issue and how the militarized RCMP raids Wet’suwet’en sovereign land. Dozens of land defenders have been arrested over the past three years by the RCMP enforcing a 2019 Supreme Court ruling in B.C. which issued an interim injunction restraining anyone from interfering with access to a road leading to a CGL construction site. “They come through our doors with axes and chainsaws, with snipers standing there, with attack dogs, and the least we could do is try to hold them accountable,” Chief Na’moks said as he explained a civil lawsuit that community members have. filed against the RCMP. Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs are in Vancouver at the invitation of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust, which opposes the expansion of the TransMountain Pipeline through unceded Tsleil-Waututh territory. “What they are doing is within their law to protect what they love,” said Rueben George, a spokesman for the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust. “It’s not just for the Wet’suwet’en. They do it for everyone.” Indigenous leaders were also joined by climate activists from the group Stop Fracking Around, which wants to see an end to all fracking in Canada. “Any fossil fuel extraction just exacerbates the problem we’re already seeing with melting glaciers and the safety of drinking water,” said Christine Thuring, one of the organizers of this group. CGL says the project is already 70 percent complete and work is continuing to complete the pipeline. Chief Na’moks says his people and their supporters will continue to fight against him and the court order. “This is our territory. We are inadmissible without condition. We have 22,000 square kilometers,” Chief Na’moks said. “This is the territory of the Wet’suwet’en people and we will continue to have access to it.” The Coast GasLink project involves the construction of a 670-kilometre pipeline that will transport natural gas to northern B.C. at the LNG Canada Terminal in Kitimat. Once it reaches the terminal, the gas will be liquefied and shipped to international customers.
