Feds try to stem tide of protests as Wet’suwet’en reaffirm meeting won’t happen with RCMP still around

By Ash Kelly, Hana Mae Nassar

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – As rail lines remain blocked and ports paralyzed, the MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley is giving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau some advice.

Taylor Bachrach has been working closely with Wet’suwet’en chiefs, for years. He was even present when the chiefs ratified their opposition to Coastal GasLink’s natural gas pipeline at a traditional feast.

“This came after they had recommended and suggested alternative routes, which were rejected by the company,” he said at an emergency debate in Parliament.

Bachrach said he’s listened to stories from those impacted by colonialism and told the story of a Sue Alfred, an 80-year-old Indigenous woman from Wit’set, the largest Wet’suwet’en community, near Smithers.

https://www.facebook.com/taylorbachrach1/videos/1300267053503266/?v=1300267053503266

Her grandparents were living on land “that Wet’suweten had occupied for millennia” when RCMP and Indian Agents arrived.

“One day, in 1914, the RCMP came to her property with the Indian agent and told her grandparents that they had to move along,” Bachrach, a former mayor of Smithers, explained.

“And they packed their things and they walked dozens of miles to an area near Smithers, called Glentanna, and they tried again to establish a home there. And what happened? The same people showed up; the RCMP and the Indian Agent, and told them that they had to move along, and they did.”

He said with such a history behind us, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise why police action in recent days and weeks on Wet’suwet’en territory “is so troubling to so many people who call that place home.”

Bachrach believes further action by the RCMP “threatens to undermine any chance of real reconciliation,” and said the only way out of this crisis is with respect and humility, while negotiating in good faith.

“We have landed in a predicament that can’t be fixed by police action,” he said, further adding, “If it could have, it would have been fixed in January 2019, when the police arrested and removed 14 people.”

But talks won’t happen, Hereditary Chief Woos told CBC’s Power and Politics, until all RCMP are off of Wet’suwet’en territory. That message has been delivered “loud and clear” to both levels of government, according to Woos.

As Bachrach advocates for peaceful solutions to the ongoing protests that have disrupted rail lines across Canada, as well as the movement of people and goods, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has called for a heavy-fisted approach.

“Standing between our country and prosperity is a small group of radical activists,” he said, calling for police to arrest people and remove blockades. His comments were later characterized as racist and became the ground for which Scheer was denied access to a meeting of political leaders that preceded the emergency debate at the House of Commons.

Meanwhile, another demonstration is planned in Vancouver for Wednesday afternoon. Protesters are planning to meet at Commercial Drive and East Broadway around 5:00 p.m.

In past weeks, supporters of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs who oppose the 670-kilometre pipeline have blocked major roads, ports, and rail lines across the Lower Mainland.

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