The unveiling of Mr. Rammel’s interactive sculpture unveiling and performance starts at 20 mins. (The three judges featured were put on BC’s Supreme Court by Steve Harper.) This art is clever and fun. Mr. Rammel’s artist statement is just as clever, more fun and infuriating.
The entire video is worth listening to. Many important “legal” things to learn, notably about criminal contempt of court and how Canada’s judges appear intent on running us and Parliament to keep deadly corporate pollution and rape of us, our homes, communities and loved ones going strong, and their power and respect intact to serve themselves and their egos, which I think is criminal and disgusting.
I transcribed my favourite bits:
Steve Harper’s Justice Assfleck, oopsie daisy, excuse me, Affleck:
“I don’t need to see your evidence.”
Steve Harper’s Chief Justice Robert Bauman:
“I will not allow your evidence or expert witnesses in this court! … Twenty-one days for you! Take him away!”
Steve Harper’s Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick (a terrifying, pro corporate, rip the citizenry off via bankruptcy/insolvency shit shows Harper judge with hanky panky ties to retired supreme court of Canada J Thomas Cromwell, another Harper judge, that nastily shat on our charter in his ruling in Ernst vs AER; Harper hates our charter):
“Your environmental concerns are of no concern to this court! … Take her away!”
George Rammel pointing to J Shelley Fitzpatrick:
“I think she needs to be removed from the bench. … Her court room is ugly. She treats Indigenous people like they don’t possess their own agency. Her courtroom is a colonial environment. She’s pushing dispossession. You feel like you’re in the 1930s in her courtroom. It’s embarrassing. It’s ugly. It’s racist!”
Artist George Rammel’s statement at Min 26 is in my view, the best part.
Mr. Rammel points to J Affleck (aka Assfleck), then pats him on his head as he describes the sculpture:
“How did this guy get to be a supreme court judge? … His role in life was to be a lawyer for big tobacco. That’s his history. … We have the crown at the top, it’s covered in jewels from all over the world. … Hmm, that’s interesting, the beavers are recruiting for CSIS! … You can get a job spying on Indigenous Elders and their allies. … The lion, he’s got the crown on his butt. … [Justin] is holding a halo that says, ‘ignore Indigenous Law.’ … There’s a drop of oil with light coming from above the judge’s head. … This is a symbol of conquest. This is what the judges are working under. That’s the mindset that they’re focused on. … This is Chief Justice Robert Bauman whose lips performed a judiciary baffoonery of historic scale. … It’s important [J Fitzpatrick] get’s dragged off the bench, but it’s also important to look at the much bigger picture: Is the myopic world view these judges have. Why aren’t we drawing from humanities for judges? It boggles my mind. The whole thing is a gong show. … How they keep changing the rules as they go along. … Why aren’t these judges apologizing to these men? They should be given retribution for their damages. But these judges won’t apologize for that! …”
…
Reuben George, last speaker on the panel:
“Who they put on there, the Federal Court of Appeal judges. We saw the writing on the wall.
I did too when Canadians voted Steve Harper a majority in 2011, I knew in an instant, I had lost my lawsuit because of the creeps he would slither onto the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. We’re stuck with his appointments for years ahead, including Mr. Supremely Creepy, J Russell Brown. We look at the law with our lawyers. … This is what’s supposed to be, and why we are presenting this. But this is the likely possibility because of who’s behind the bench. Which is bullshit.”
MUST WATCH:
A few snaps taken from the above clip:
Note the dinosaur on top of J Bauman’s head. It was tossed at the sculpture from direction of the audience. Note also the drop of oil over his head. (Many other dinosaurs were tossed at the judges during the performance.)
The judges’ heads and mouths move, wonderfully and skilfully done. Note in the above snap, the dinosaur falling to the side of J Bauman’s head after the judges shook their heads vehemently denying the protesters any rights (while of course giving the polluter everything it asked for and more).
George Rammel with partner at the end of the performance (to the right of the sculpture)
Ha ha ha! Artist Mr. Rammel patting J Assfleck (oopsie, J Affleck) on the head.
Mr. Rammel explains the crest and it’s many damning features, including Trudeau’s arm with halo that says, ‘ignore Indigenous Law’ over J Bauman’s head.
Keep in mind, each of these three pro polluter, anti Indigenous rights judges were put onto BC’s Supreme Court by racist pro polluter Harper and fellow CPC thugs.
Panel after the sculpture presentation
Unveiling of George Rammel’s “Chambers of Predetermined Outcomes / Gatekeepers of Justice” by Protect the Planet Stop TMX, March 26, 2023
On Tues. March 21, 2023, George Rammell’s sculptural work “Chambers of Predetermined Outcomes: Gatekeepers of Justice” was unveiled by Rueben George of Tsleil-Waututh nation. The unveiling was followed by a discussion with the artist and statements by panelists Rueben George, Alex Phillips, and Michelle Silongan on the TMX struggle, political art, and injunction culture. The sculpture was funded through the British Columbia Arts Council.
This edited video captures the evening as follows:
00:00 Solidarity Notes
04:00 Welcome by Rueben George of Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN)
20:00 Unveiling and Performance
26:00 Artist’s Statement, George Rammell
44:00 The “Narrative Arc”, Christine Thuring
47:00 Panel introduction, Ian Angus (Philosopher and Prof. Emeritus SFU)
00:48:20 Alex Philips (Sculptor and Ass. Prof. Emily Carr), “Protest Art”
01:02:00 Michelle Silongan (Criminal Defense Lawyer), “Challenges to overcoming criminal contempt: In the Court’s own words”
01:22:40 Rueben George (TWN, Sacred Trust Initiative), “Fire, Earth, Water and Sky”
01:36:00 Discussion
01:47:00 Closing Drums
Artist unveils sculpture mocking ‘colonial’ TMX judges: ‘They’ve got blinders on’, George Rammell’s latest work included a performance element — critiquing the B.C. Supreme Court and criminalization of land defenders by Cara McKenna, March 22, 2023
A caricature-like sculpture depicting three judges who have presided over pipeline injunction cases was unveiled on Tuesday — highlighting the absurd side of the colonial “justice” system.
The artwork by George Rammel features unflattering depictions of B.C. Supreme Court justices Kenneth Affleck, Robert Bauman and Shelley Fitzpatrick — the last of whom has recently been under fire for her treatment of Indigenous land defenders.
The piece also includes an ornate backdrop that depicts a nefarious-looking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau grinning alongside Stephen Harper.
Rueben George of Tsleil-Waututh Nation uncovered the piece — titled “Chambers of Predetermined Outcomes: Gatekeepers of Justice” — to a crowd which packed an Indigenous church in “Vancouver.”
After George stepped aside, people taunted, cheered and threw objects at the sculpture, letting out their frustrations after several people in attendance had faced the judges in court.
Rammell himself has previously faced Affleck after defying a Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) injunction in “Burnaby.”
Tsleil-Waututh land defender Will George is currently in jail after being sentenced by Fitzpatrick, who also recently sentenced six people in Tkʼemlúps — stirring up outrage after she remarked on the evidence of graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Art imitating life
After the unveiling of the sculpture, puppeteers behind the piece controlled the mouths of the “judges,” imitating statements they’ve made in the courtroom, in a performance that ridiculed perceived biases in the justice system.
“There are hundreds of you, but you’re all guilty!” said the puppeteer impersonating Affleck, as people in the crowd howled with laughter.
“Will George, how would you like it if someone parked in your driveway?” remarked the Fitzpatrick imitator, as strings were pulled to pound her sculpted fist on the table. “Where do the Tsleil-Waututh live, anyways? Does anybody know?”
“21 days for you! Take him away!” the Bauman mocker replied to a raucous person in the crowd. “There, that will keep him quiet.”
Emily Kelsall — another person who was sentenced by Fitzpatrick — was present in the crowd and stood up to “confront” the sculpted panel of judges.
“You hot-headed, limp-wristed, petulant fool,” Kelsall exclaimed, before another arrestee donning a sheriff’s costume, Maureen Curran, dragged her away.
‘Her courtroom is ugly’
When the performance had concluded, people in the room gave Rammell and the performers a standing ovation.
Rammell is a longtime artist and teacher who formerly worked as a studio sculptor for renowned Haida artist Bill Reid.
He pointed out some of the details in the artwork, such as two beavers holding a CSIS recruitment banner, and Trudeau’s arm holding a ring that says “ignore Indigenous law.”
Above them is “Canada’s” coat of arms featuring British imagery that Rammell said is a “symbol of conquest.”
‘That’s what these judges are working under. That’s the mindset that they’re focused on,” Rammell said.
“They’ve got blinders on. They have such a limited worldview because that’s all they know.”
Rammell spoke about the “buffoonery” of the three judges, and went so far to say Fitzpatrick “needs to be removed from the bench.”
“Her courtroom is ugly. She treats Indigenous people like they don’t possess their own agency. And her courtroom is a colonial environment where she’s just pushing dispossession,” he said.
“You feel like you’re in the 1930s in her courtroom, it’s embarrassing.”
All three of these ultra pro rape & pillage judges, Fitzpatrick, Bauman and Affleck (aka Assfleck), were appointed to BC’s Supreme Court by Steve Harper
‘I am left with no choice’
Although Will George of Tsleil-Waututh couldn’t be present at the event because he was in jail, he released a statement last week standing by his decision to defy the TMX injunction.
“Canada is sending me to jail because I was doing the work the colonial government failed to do — protecting my territory and my nation from a catastrophic oil spill,” said George.
“Tsleil-Waututh Nation has worked for a decade to oppose the Trans Mountain pipeline, but Prime Minister Trudeau failed us, so I am left with no choice but to do whatever I can to stop it.”
Rueben George spoke about the importance of raising awareness — something he and his family have been doing for years as they try to prevent the TMX project from going further because of concerns about climate change and the impacts on the land and water.
Alex Phillips, a sculptor who teaches at Emily Carr University, spoke after the performance piece about the concept of protest art and how it can make waves during troubling times. Rammell’s piece is set to be displayed at Emily Carr University this summer.
“Art in the service of protest is pretty good at creating common cause among activists and making everyone feel better when rubber and rhetorical bullets are flying,” Phillips said.
“Thank you, George. for employing your exceptional talent to give us all a little comic relief from some of the dinosaurs who populate our courts.”
‘There’s no respect’: Judge’s comments shock KIRS survivor as land defenders given jail time, As sentences were handed out to six people, a Secwépemc Matriarch has already appealed over ‘blatant bias’ in favour of TMX by Aaron Hemens, February 24, 2023, IndigiNews
CONTENT WARNING: This story includes content about the Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS). Please read with care.
The former Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS) is about a 10 minute drive from the courthouse where six water and land defenders — including a survivor — were sentenced this week for resisting Trans Mountain’s construction in Secwepemcúl’ecw.
The evidence indicating the presence of 215 children’s remains at KIRS — uncovered through an investigation led by Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc in 2021 — is still a raw subject for the many affected families, some of whom were present in court.
But that didn’t stop Shelley Fitzpatrick, the judge who has been presiding over the land defenders’ case for two years, from making her thoughts about the findings at KIRS known.
On Tuesday, she stated that “there are no bodies that have been unearthed” there and participated in a tense exchange with a lawyer that resulted in outrage from the room filled with Indigenous people.
For Secwépemc Hereditary Chief Saw-ses, who endured 10 years at KIRS, her comments — which appeared to be entirely out of pocket — were surprising and enraging.
“I was pretty mad,” said Saw-ses, who was not present in the courtroom at the time of the comments but heard about it afterwards.
Then, on Friday, Fitzpatrick sentenced Saw-ses to 28 days in jail.
Saw-ses was one of eight water and land defenders charged with criminal contempt for disrupting the development of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project (TMX) in his homelands. Six of them were given jail time this week, between 28 and 32 days.
Saw-ses and his defence lawyer, Benjamin Isitt, had submitted to the court that his decade at KIRS be considered during his sentencing.
“The overall sentence of 28 days jail for a survivor of the KIRS — and all of the time, the years of time, that Saw-ses already served for no crime at all — we do think that should’ve been applied as a credit against any sentence imposed for the contempt of court,” said Isitt.
Saw-ses was slated to self-represent himself in court — an approach that all the land defenders had been taking up until the sentencing portion — but he told IndigiNews that changed last minute following Fitzpatrick’s comments on the findings at KIRS.
Also on Friday, settler-ally Romilly Cavanaugh was sentenced to 32 days in jail. Both Saw-ses and Cavanaugh have already submitted notices to the B.C. Court of Appeal.
Fitzpatrick had sentenced Saw-ses’s daughter, Secwépemc Matriarch Miranda Dick — along with settler-allies Susan Bibbings and Laura Zadorozny — to 28 days in jail on Wednesday, while settler-ally Heather Lamoureux was given a 29-day sentence.
Dick appealed her sentence and was released on bail on Friday. The basis of Dick’s appeal, according to a press release issued by the land defenders, was to challenge what they described as Fitzpatrick’s “blatant bias against Indigenous communities and in favour of TMX.”
Fitzpatrick also sentenced a Tsleil-Waututh land defender last year for actions against TMX in his own homelands.
“Fitzpatrick has presided over TMX pipeline cases since 2019 and has incarcerated a long list of Indigenous Nation members and supporters on unceded territory since,” the release states, in part.
“The appeal will seek to not only challenge [Wednesday’s] sentencing decision but the unfair and unjust sentences that have been the bread and butter of Fitzpatrick’s long and storied career protecting corporate interests.”
In December 2022, Dick, Bibbings, Zadorozny and Lamoureux were found guilty of criminal contempt after holding ceremony in a buffer zone located within a TMX construction site on Oct. 17, 2020. Dick had much of her hair cut off by her sister, in grief over the destruction of her homelands and waters by TMX — now owned by “Canada.”
Two days prior to her arrest, Saw-ses was arrested alongside Secwépemc Matriarch April Thomas, Red Deer Billie Pierre of Nlaka’pamux Nation and Cavanaugh after holding a water ceremony at Sqeq’petsin (the Thompson River) before entering TMX’s injunction-protected construction area.
Saw-ses, Cavanaugh, Thomas and Pierre were all scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 23 and 24, but Thomas and Pierre have had their sentencing adjourned to May, as the two await the completion of Gladue reports.
Both Saw-ses and Cavanugh were represented by Isitt, who also represented Dick, Lamoureux, Bibbings, and Zadorozny during their sentencing.
‘How dare you say that?’
On Tuesday, Isitt was providing Bibbings’s submissions to the court. The lawyer made note of Bibbing’s tree-planting efforts that she had completed throughout the years with Sequoia Solution, an organization that she founded.
He highlighted that Bibbings had helped plant 215 trees to honour the evidence of unmarked children’s graves of former “students” at KIRS, saying their “bodies had been unearthed.”
“There are no bodies that have been unearthed,” Fitzpatrick interjected, which prompted a quick correction from Isitt, who said that “remains had been unearthed.”
“They have been?” she asked him. Again, Isitt provided a clarification, this time saying that remains had been identified through ground-penetrating radar.
“Potential,” she replied, which immediately prompted outrage from a courtroom packed with Indigenous people.
“They have been identified,” one person shouted. “How dare you say that?” said another.
“There’s no respect,” someone said as they got up and left the courtroom.
Thomas shouted “Racist!” from the courtroom gallery, which led to a courtroom sheriff asking her to leave.
“Well it was racist. Shame on you!” she said to Fitzpatrick as she exited the room.
‘See the acts of genocide’
Prior to the first day of sentencing Tuesday morning, a ceremony was held outside of the courthouse. Drums were played and people sang, “Canada has no jurisdiction, RCMP has no jurisdiction and Canada is on Indian land.”
Before Dick’s uncle, Secwépemc Elder Mike Arnouse, said a prayer, she spoke before the crowd and invited them to come into the courtroom to “see the acts of genocide that Canada is doing to our people.”
“(Fitzpatrick) has really been very hard on us,” Dick said. “The fact that we self-represented ourselves all the way up to this point has set precedent that the people can say what they need to say, and not be governed by Crown portions.”
As she has done on countless occasions, Dick reiterated the threat that the pipeline poses to Secwépemc waterways, the salmon and the land.
“Everything we do is for our people and for future generations,” she said.
“We stand on the Shuswap-Okanagan confederacy, which states that we cannot sign, sell, cede or surrender our territory. That’s what we’re standing on today.”
‘I still have not been heard’
Leading up to the sentencing, several of the land defenders expressed to IndigiNews what they described as a condescending attitude towards them by Fitzpatrick.
Tsleil-Waututh and Secwépemc lands were never surrendered to “Canada” but violently colonized, resulting in colonial justice systems such as the B.C. Supreme Court and RCMP — which differ greatly from Indigenous laws.
During the land defenders’ case, they have described feeling frustrated at having to operate within a colonial courtroom and have upheld ancient Secwépemc laws which prioritize the land, water and all relations.
During her sentencing statement on Tuesday, Dick addressed Fitzpatrick, where she said that despite spending the past two years explaining Secwépemc law to her, as well as sharing her upbringing and the crucial role that she plays for her family and community, she feels she has not been heard.
“You have not taken into consideration the outcome of clean water. The outcome of remediation work,” said Dick.
“And the fact that the conflict of interest that Canada has on the impacts of Indigenous people affected by this pipeline. And I feel like you still have not heard me.”
She said that throughout the case, Fitzpatrick has given no consideration to the impact that residential “school” has had on her family, the systemic issues of violence against Indigenous women and the impacts that colonial structures such as the justice system have on Indigenous people.
“All throughout – even right up to leading to now – I still haven’t heard you say the name of our nation …and still, you’re in our territory,” she said.
“Not even a land acknowledgement.”
‘Don’t take anything in hardship’
When the first day of sentencing concluded, the land defenders and supporters gathered outside of the courtroom for a closing ceremony, where Dick told them not to take any of the day’s events in hardship.
“(Fitzpatrick’s) words, as hurtful as they are, are not for us to take,” she said.
She urged people to lay down tobacco and say some prayers when they got home, reminding them that “we’re all here in our human form to be good human beings.”
“Let’s show the world what it means to take up our responsibilities for climate, our Mother Earth,” she said.
Refer also to:
So this is why Horgan stepped down: To fill his pockets helping profit-raping with his political connections by coal corporation connected to Teck Resources which has a vile history of repeatedly breaking the law with toxic contamination? Just another vile old white man joins corporate rapists to help enable their rape of the environment.
Former B.C. premier John Horgan joins board of coal business by Ian Bailey, March 30, 2023, The Globe and Mail
Former British Columbia premier John Horgan is taking a job in the coal industry, and says he is not worried about the criticism the move may draw.
Mr. Horgan, who before becoming premier was the B.C. New Democrats mining and energy critic, is joining the board of Elk Valley Resources, an enterprise that is in the process of being spun off from Vancouver-based Teck Resources Ltd. The new business will focus on producing coal used to make steel.
It’s a corporate turn for Mr. Horgan. Prior to stepping down as party leader last year, he had a major national profile as one of only a few New Democrats to have headed governments recently. He was also chair of the Council of the Federation, a group of premiers and territorial leaders who were making the case for the federal government to increase health care funding.
“I’ve got other things that I am going to be working on that may be more to the taste of those who would kick up some dust, but the people that are kicking up dust, oftentimes, kick it up for the sake of kicking it up,” That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve heard a politician say yet, including idiot Trump Mr. Horgan said in an interview.
“I don’t have a lot of time any more, none in fact, for public comment on my world view, or what I am doing with my time. I don’t want to be snippy about it, but there are others that are making policy decisions.”What a supreme asshole. But, then, in my view, Horgan always was an asshole of the most vile type.
Mr. Horgan, 64, was premier from 2017 until this past November. He was the first B.C. New Democrat to win two terms in the role. Former attorney-general David Eby succeeded him as provincial NDP leader and Premier.
Mr. Horgan remained an MLA until Friday, when he officially resigned his seat in the B.C. legislature. He represented a Victoria-area riding.
He conceded there may be a “knee-jerk” reaction to his move to coal, but he noted there’s a difference between coal used to make electricity and coal used for metallurgy. While there are better ways to generate electricity, he said, there are not yet better ways to make steel.That’s untrue, typical corproate rape-enabling politico bullshit.
In his new role, he said, he will be making sure that the company is meeting its obligations to workers, to First Nations, to the environment and to shareholders.Pffft! I don’t believe him. I expect his job is to help the company gets away with breaking the law and I expect he knows it.
After enduring treatments for cancer, Mr. Horgan, 64, said his health is good and that he relishes the chance to learn in a new setting.
Elk Valley Resources will run four B.C.-based operations that are expected to produce a total of 25 to 27 million tonnes of metallurgical coal per year. The spinoff from Teck Resources is set to go before shareholders at a meeting on April 26.
Some investors are increasingly concerned about greenhouse-gas emissions from coal. Late last year, the International Energy Agency said global coal consumption was set to rise to an all-time high in 2022, and remain at those levels unless stronger efforts were made to move to a low-carbon economy.
Mr. Horgan said he had his first discussion about the assignment in December.
“When I was approached to join the board, everyone knew where I was coming from, and I think that speaks to EVR’s desire to meet my expectations and, by doing so, meet the expectations of the majority of British Columbians,“ he said.
Just another old white man liar, not giving a shit about greed and profit-raping corporations fast destroying earth’s ability to sustain human life and that of many other species, putting his own pockets first in line.
Marcia Smith, the chair of Elk Valley’s board, said Mr. Horgan will bring a depth of experience and a belief in responsible mining to the organization.
“We are fortunate to have him join the EVR board and look forward to having the benefit of his guidance as we establish this new world-class Canadian company,” she said in a statement.
Mr. Horgan said he is looking at other academic, corporate and philanthropic projects now that he has retired from politics.
“I don’t need the light to be shone upon me. I just want to do my level best to improve outcomes for everyone rich around mewhile I fuck the rest of you over,” he said.
“That means collaboration and following the leadership that knows better than I, at this point, how to deal with some of the challenges ahead.”
Harper’s heinous judges don’t want to see the evidence while the rest of us are forced to live it, lose everything or die in it:
Insider Paper@TheInsiderPaper March 31, 2023:
BREAKING: University of Arkansas Medical Center has declared a level 3 mass casualty event with reports of at least 600 injuries estimated after a catastrophic tornado hit Little Rock
Canada: RCMP raid of Wet’suwet’en territory a ‘flagrant attack’ on Indigenous rights by Amnesty International Canada, March 31, 2023
The RCMP’s March 29 raid on Wet’suwet’en territory is the latest act in a longstanding “campaign of violence, intimidation and dispossession” against Indigenous land defenders, Amnesty International Canada says.
On Wednesday afternoon, more than a dozen RCMP officers encroached upon a Wet’suwet’en village site. They the arrested five land and water defenders opposed to the ongoing construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory. The raid transpired only nine months after prosecutors in B.C. laid criminal-contempt charges against 19 land defenders who had protested the pipeline project.
“The RCMP’s latest raid on Wet’suwet’en territory is a flagrant attack on Indigenous Peoples’ rights,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section.
“The governments of B.C. and Canada are well aware that Indigenous nations have a right to reserve their free, prior and informed consent to infrastructure projects that affect their territories, as stipulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. There is no excuse for the criminalization of Indigenous defenders protecting their lands, waters and rights. This campaign of violence, intimidation and dispossession against Indigenous nations must end, now.”
Criminalization of land defenders raising concerns internationally
The raid closely follows the March 2023 visit of Francisco Calí Tzay, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to Canada. In a statement capping off Calí Tzay’s fact-finding mission, he expressed concern with the “ongoing militarization of Indigenous lands and the criminalization of Indigenous human rights defenders resisting the Trans Mountain and Coastal GasLink pipelines in British Columbia.”
The abuse of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, as exemplified by the approval of the Coastal GasLink pipeline without the consent of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, also figures prominently in Canada’s country profile in Amnesty International’s just-released 2022/23 Annual Report. Launched Monday, the report named Canada as one of several states that failed to protect Indigenous rights by “[going] ahead with extractive, agricultural and infrastructure projects without obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples affected.”
RCMP raid is ‘harassment,’ Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief says
A Wednesday news release on the website of the Gidimt’en Checkpoint land defenders stated that a delegation of Indigenous leaders had planned to protest at the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) annual general meeting, set for April 5 in Saskatoon. RBC has received criticism in Canada and abroad for its financing of the Coastal GasLink project.
“This is harassment, and exactly what the Royal Bank of Canada is funding,” Chief Na’moks, of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, said in the release. “Ahead of its shareholder meeting next week, RBC continues to fund corporate colonialism, and displace Indigenous Peoples from our lands at gunpoint – all for a fracked gas pipeline we cannot afford now or in the future. In the context of the theft of our ancestral land, alleging stolen saws and clothing is outrageous.”
France-Isabelle Langlois, Executive Director of Amnesty International Canada’s Francophone section, and Nivyabandi appealed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, B.C Premier David Eby and B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma to stop the criminalization of Indigenous land defenders rightfully protecting their nations’ unceded ancestral territory.
“With each new raid on Wet’suwet’en territory, Canada turns back the clock on reconciliation and its commitments to respecting Indigenous rights,” Langlois said. “Abandoning prosecution against all Wet’suwet’en land defenders facing charges and suspending construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline will not erase all the harm Canada has inflicted. However, it would be a show of good faith and a welcome investment in a constructive nation-to-nation dialogue between Canadian governments and the Wet’suwet’en people.”
Give the middle finger to most judges!
“It’s the judges!” enabling rape and murder of women. No kidding. In Canada too.