Massive protest in Canada

[jericho]

https://globalnews.ca/news/6558170/wetsuweten-protests-canada-update/

Tensions remain high across Canada as railway blockades and protests in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs enter a third week.

While the dispute over the 670-km Coastal GasLink pipeline goes back years, nationwide demonstrations started earlier this month after the RCMP began enforcing a B.C. Supreme Court injunction that would clear the way for construction.

READ MORE: Wet’suwet’en solidarity protesters block CN rail lines in East Vancouver, Amtrak affected

Coastal GasLink has signed agreements with 20 elected Indigenous councils along the route but the $6.6-billion liquefied natural gas pipeline is opposed by the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, who claim rights over the unceded land the pipeline will pass through.

Face-to-face meetings begin as nation-wide protests grind rail traffic to a halt

The chiefs and their supporters are calling on the B.C. government to withdraw permissions for the project to proceed.

Across the country, groups have rallied in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation, blocking rails, streets, bridges and ports. Via Rail has cancelled most of its service across Canada, and CN has shut down its rail network in Eastern Canada, halting freight traffic.

Industry groups have warned that the protests could cause layoffs and shortages of goods.

Here’s a quick look at what happened across the country over the weekend — and what we can expect this week.

British Columbia

Demonstrators opposed to Coastal GasLink pipeline project target Vancouver rail lines

Dozens of protesters who support Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs blocked CN Rail lines in East Vancouver on Saturday. There was also a small demonstration at a Kelowna highway overpass.

One participant, Jewel Gillies, told Global News that the Kelowna rally was “another solidarity action that’s happening all across the nation to continue to raise awareness around what’s happening with the Wet’suwet’en people and their lands.”

READ MORE: Coastal GasLink opponents return to northern B.C. camps, but say workers still allowed in

Meanwhile, supporters of the hereditary chiefs said they had returned to camps along a road leading to a Coastal GasLink worksite near Houston, B.C., where 28 people were arrested when the RCMP enforced the injunction earlier this month.

Members of the First Nation have also said they are maintaining the eviction order served to Coastal GasLink to leave their traditional territories.


Over the weekend, a social media account of the Gidimt’en clan — one of five clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation — posted a video showing an RCMP officer pointing a firearm at a protester earlier in February.

Prairies
After occupying a room in the office of Winnipeg MP Dan Vandal for 11 days, a group of youth protesters decided to go home on Saturday.

One of the protesters, Carter Graveline, said the group did everything they could.

READ MORE: Wet’suwet’en solidarity protesters leave Winnipeg MP’s office after 11 days

“We really do feel that Dan Vandal has failed us, either by taking way too long with commitments or just not really giving commitments at all,” Graveline said.

The group had called on Vandal, the northern affairs minister, to condemn the actions of the RCMP in B.C.

Regina rallies in solidarity while Saskatchewan stakeholders worry about blockade

On Sunday in Regina, supporters blocked off the Albert Memorial Bridge for a second week in a row.

“We’re hoping to send a clear message to the Regina public that we are not in agreement with what’s happening there,” said co-organizer Wendy Lynn Lerat.

“There’s growing support and we’re doing our part.”

Ontario and Quebec
The rail blockade at Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Belleville, Ont., entered its twelfth day Monday.

Indigenous Services minister says solving rail blockades must be done ‘the right way’

On Saturday, federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller visited the blockade and had a meeting with community members that lasted at least eight hours.

While Miller refrained from disclosing much of what was said, he said he would relay messages to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and cabinet in order to move forward “in respect and peace.”

Trudeau met with the “Incident Response Group” — a selection of cabinet ministers — on Monday to discuss the situation. They were tight-lipped about what was decided.

Mere hours after the meeting wrapped up, protesters set up a new blockade in Ontario, this time at the Thousand Islands Bridge to the United States.

The bridge is located in Gananoque, just east of Kingston.

Thousand Islands Bridge Authority told Global News that the demonstration is affecting both directions on the bridge — entry to Canada from the U.S. and entry to the U.S. from Canada.

Demonstrations also took place for several hours at a rail yard north of Toronto, on Saturday. CN said the protesters were trespassing on active tracks.

The company said it had obtained court orders to end that blockade, as well as the one in Vancouver.

Pipeline protest disrupts train service on Exo’s Candiac line

A railway blockade is also taking place in Kahnawake, Que., near Montreal. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office Sunday said Miller had been engaging with the protesters there as well.

As of Sunday evening, train service on Exo’s Candiac line remained suspended, according to the transit operator’s website, though shuttle buses are running.

READ MORE: Tyendinaga Mohawk chief agrees to meet Indigenous services minister to discuss Ontario blockade

Maritimes

Wet’suwet’en Nation supporters gather at Confederation Bridge

On Sunday, demonstrators gathered on the P.E.I. side of the Confederation Bridge in support of the hereditary chiefs.

The protesters, who waved flags and signs in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation, did not block traffic on the bridge, the only road link between P.E.I. and New Brunswick.

What’s to come
Late Sunday, as protests continued, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office announced he would not be taking a scheduled visit to Barbados to meet with Caribbean leaders.

On Monday, Trudeau has scheduled a meeting of the incident response group — a working group of cabinet ministers who respond to crises — to discuss “steps forward,” his office said Sunday.

Trudeau cancels Barbados trip amid rail blockades

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett and B.C. Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser are looking to meet with the hereditary chiefs this week.

“We are open and available at the soonest opportunity,” she said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Via Rail said that almost all of its train service remains cancelled until further notice. As of Monday afternoon, 470 trains had been cancelled and more than 94,000 passengers affected due to the blockades, according to a statement.

Because CN shut down its rail network in Eastern Canada on Feb. 13, all Via routes with the exception of the Sudbury-White River and Churchill-The Pas are not operating.

READ MORE: Wet’suwet’en Nation supporters gather at Confederation Bridge

Via Rail says it’s not accepting any bookings for travel before Feb. 21.

–With files from Global News’ Sean Boynton, Hannah Lepine, Kamil Karamali, Maryam Shah, Joe Scarpelli, Alexander Quon, Mickey Djuric and The Canadian Press

 

[BringHarmony]

I have pictures of massive protests in front of BC assembly in Vic, will post it soon.

For those who want to understand what is happening, watch this video :

.

Actually watch the whole video to get a more detailed and hilarious idea of Canadian politics.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I have pictures of massive protests in front of BC assembly in Vic, will post it soon.

For those who want to understand what is happening, watch this video :

.

Actually watch the whole video to get a more detailed and hilarious idea of Canadian politics.

That faker.

 

[jericho]

I have pictures of massive protests in front of BC assembly in Vic, will post it soon.

For those who want to understand what is happening, watch this video :

.

Actually watch the whole video to get a more detailed and hilarious idea of Canadian politics.

I don't like this host because of his over the top style of presenting, but I have to say the video had a lot of detail and clips presented so that is good. Interesting choice of title "two sides" he had, because i think Trump called Trudeau "two faced" a while back. I saw some CNN facts about him, which mentioned that he used to work as nightclub bouncer and if i remember correctly, smoked marijuana too. Not sure about his policies though, news outlet in developing countries in Asia rarely highlight social unrest issues happening in countries like Canada.

 

[gangsta_rap]

RCMP will move out and eventually things will return to normal
but it is a little disturbing to see a group overriding the authority of the police like that.

 

[BringHarmony]

I don't like this host because of his over the top style of presenting,

He is among the few people who pushed Trudeau in a corner about his dishonest policies. I respect him for that.

 

[jericho]

Canada's government has abandoned its responsibility to lead

The federal government has an unconditional duty to protect the rights of those whose interests are imperilled by illegal activity

A protester walks in front of a snowplow blade that has signatures from Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs, at a rail blockade in Tyendinaga, near Belleville, Ont., on Feb. 21, 2020.Lars Hagberg/AFP via Getty Images

Because of my frequent criticism of the present federal government’s Indigenous and climate change policies, which along with posturing about matters relating to gender are the principal preoccupations of this regime, I have withheld comment about the ongoing rail blockades here and with my friend John Oakley on CFMJ (Toronto), an AM radio station. The problem has festered for two weeks as the federal government fumbles and obfuscates, passes the buck to the provinces and calls for “patience.” It is now the most absurd fiasco to afflict a Canadian government since John Diefenbaker announced in January 1963 that at the meeting of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and British prime minister Harold MacMillan in the Bahamas a week before (which Diefenbaker crashed), there had been “a change in the views of NATO” about nuclear weapons, and Canada would not honour its commitment to deploy atomic warheads in anti-aircraft missiles.

He had pledged to this deployment (with a dual firing authority — the government of Canada and the NATO command both had to approve use). This was a breach of faith with our principal allies and the alliance system that assured Canada’s security. It was a monstrous falsehood about what Kennedy and MacMillan agreed, was unutterable nonsense in straight military terms (without such warheads, the Bomarc missile would have had warheads of sand). The government fell, the Liberals under Lester B. Pearson came into office, and the warheads were deployed.

The problem has festered for two weeks as the federal government fumbles and obfuscates

The present impasse over the blockades in sympathy with some Indigenous opposition to the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia is comparably absurd, and although it does not directly involve Canada’s relations with other countries, it is now bringing us into widespread contempt and ridicule in the world. The federal government’s sanctimonious fumbling and posturing is despised by everyone: the First Nations, the majority of Canadians and international opinion, as the prime minister beseeches support for Canada’s elevation to two years on the United Nations Security Council. To refresh memories, the majority of the Wet’suwet’en natives, five of six elected native councils among 20 native councils along the 670-kilometre pipeline, support the project. These are the leaders in the specific reservations. Five Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, who govern larger territories, are opposed. In sympathy with the opposing Wet’suwet’en, but contrary to the majority of them and contrary to the other 15 native councils along the proposed route from Dawson Creek to Kitimat, protesters, a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens, are blocking rail traffic for cargo and passengers at many points in B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, and scattered other places. Nearly one hundred thousand Via rail passengers have been terribly inconvenienced, as well as many thousands of motorists and local commuters who have been blocked or forced into lengthy detours, and thousands of freight trains involving billions of dollars of commerce have been cancelled or lengthily delayed.

It is bringing us into widespread contempt and ridicule in the world

These blockades have now adversely affected the entire country. This project is a matter of distinct national interest unequivocally supported by the NDP-Green government of British Columbia, and is being harassed by these blockades in defiance of more than a score of court orders across the country, and is illegally holding the entire country to ransom. Before discussing the issue, the hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs, representing a few thousand people, demand that the RCMP (under provincial control in B.C.) withdraw from what the blockaders claim to be native land. The implications of this stance are clearly that Canada has no authority on what they call their land, a definition about which there is a considerable difference between the leaders of the blockade and their sympathizers and the government of Canada. This is, in effect, secession from the authority of Canada while continuing to demand increased financial benefit from Canada. It is another step in the campaign I have often decried, of the more militant Indigenous leaders to claim not only that Canada has no authority on their present designated territory, but is an illegitimate invader and occupier of their territory.

This is, in effect, secession from the authority of Canada

Faced with the refusal of the blockaders to pay any attention to court orders that they desist, the federal government has waffled about its right or obligation to use or encourage force to stop these illegal blockades. Justin Trudeau and his officials have uttered a good deal of unctuous claptrap about Ottawa having no standing to tell police forces, even the federal RCMP, how, or even whether, to enforce the law and defend the economic life of the country from these illegal actions by people who have no legitimate interest in the pipeline. The blockaders claim they are fighting a historic battle for withheld recognition, the beginning of the slippery slope toward the notion of an Anglo-French invasion of Canada displacing and enslaving the real Canadians.

In one sense, it is unjust to blame even these unrepresentative extremists for pushing on an open door. All Trudeau’s pious bunk about “nation-to-nation” transacting between the federal government and the native leaders invited them to consider that they had equal sovereignty with Canada. And if the principle that some of Canada could be considered independent and possessed of a sovereign right, logically, takes hold, all the natives are independent of Canada, and Canada belongs to them.

A Canadian flag hangs upside down at a railway blockade in Edmonton on Feb. 19, 2020, in support of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs who are opposed to British Columbia’s Coastal GasLink Pipeline. Codie McLachlan/Reuters
Governments have the whole responsibility and duty to make and enforce laws. Indigenous affairs are a federal priority jurisdiction, and inter-provincial transport, including railways and pipelines, are federal jurisdictions. The federal government has an unconditional duty to protect the rights of those whose interests are imperilled by illegal activity. There is no possible excuse for the federal government tolerating the development of this crisis as it has. There is no right to strike against the national interest, especially when every manifestation of this lawless blockade policy has been condemned by courts. Instead of the assertion of the eminent domain of the national interest and the rule of law, we have Public Safety Minister Bill Blair (on the heels of his shambles of marijuana legalization), saying that federal police is willing to withdraw from Wet’suwat’en territory. Transport Minister Marc Garneau tried handing his responsibility off to the provinces (all of whom want the blockades stopped) and the prime minister claims to have no standing to tell the police what to do.

Governments have the whole responsibility and duty to make and enforce laws

It is the complete collapse of the spurious and corrupt Indigenous policy of this government and the outright abdication of the government itself. If it is not the federal government’s purpose to uphold laws and defend the national interest against illegal sabotage of public policy, and so defined by many courts across the country, what is the purpose of the government? If it won’t govern, we should dispense with it — “Have done with this rubbish of a state,” in the words (admittedly in a radically different context and with questionable sincerity) of Stalin. Erin O’Toole, Conservative MP and leadership candidate, has rightly called for the use of whatever force is necessary (it would be minimal) to end the blockades, and of course he is correct.

I wrote here before the election last October that this government was in office but not in power; that condition has steadily worsened.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/co...ment-has-abandoned-its-responsibility-to-lead