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Indigenous Land Defender Named Amnesty's First 'Prisoner of Conscience' in Canada
"This fight has been going on for 240 years," said Likhts'amisyu Clan Wing Chief Dsta'hyl of the Wet'suwet'en Nation. "Now, we are all 'prisoners of conscience' because of what the colonizers have done to us."
Aug 01, 2024
Amnesty International on Wednesday made what it called the "unprecedented decision" to designate as Canada's first-ever "prisoner of conscience" an Indigenous leader convicted for actions taken while defending his people's land against a fracked gas pipeline.
Likhts'amisyu Clan Wing Chief Dsta'hyl of the Wet'suwet'en Nation was arrested in 2021 for violating a court order to not obstruct the construction of TC Energy's Coastal GasLink liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline. The hereditary chief is currently under house arrest for contempt of court.
"The Canadian state has unjustly criminalized and confined Chief Dsta'hyl for defending the land and rights of the Wet'suwet'en people," Amnesty International Americas director Ana Piquer said in a statement Wednesday. "As a result, Canada joins the shameful list of countries where prisoners of conscience remain under house arrest or behind bars."
"With the utmost respect for Chief Dsta'hyl's critical work to protect Wet'suwet'en land, rights, and the environment we all depend on, Amnesty International demands his immediate and unconditional release and urges Canada to stop the criminalization of Wet'suwet'en and other Indigenous defenders during a global climate emergency," she continued.
"Indigenous peoples are on the frontlines of climate change and will face disproportionate harms if humanity fails to move on from burning fossil fuels," Piquer added. "States must hold up, not lock up, Indigenous land defenders like Chief Dsta'hyl and follow their lead towards a healthier, more sustainable future for all."
According to Amnesty:
Based in part on witness testimony of four large-scale Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) raids on Wet'suwet'en territory marked by the unlawful use of force... Wet'suwet'en land defenders and their supporters were arbitrarily detained for peacefully defending their land against the construction of the pipeline and exercising their Indigenous rights and their right of peaceful assembly. The rationale for the land defenders' detentions was violating the injunction order (an order which Amnesty International has determined is not in conformity with international law and standards) which makes their detentions arbitrary.
In June and July 2022, the [British Columbia] Prosecution Service decided to charge 20 land defenders with criminal contempt for allegedly disobeying the injunction order to stay away from pipeline construction sites. Seven of the 20 land defenders pleaded guilty because of restrictive bail conditions, as well as the familial, psychological, and financial impacts that the criminal trial process was having on them. Five others had the charges against them dropped.
Canadian authorities, including the RCMP, have answered nonviolent Wet'suwet'en land defense with armed officers including snipers who employed heavy-handed removal tactics. Scores of Wet'suwet'en land defenders, including four hereditary chiefs, have been arrested and charged, as have journalists and legal observers. In December 2021, Coastal GasLink dropped charges against two journalists who were arrested while covering a previous militarized police raid.
In 2022, the Gidimt'en—one of the five clans of the Wet'suwet'en Nation—filed a submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council detailing how their territory and human rights are being violated by Canadian and British Columbian authorities in service of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The 416-mile conduit carries fracked gas from Michif Piiyii (Metis) territory in northeastern British Columbia to an export terminal in coastal Kitimat, on the land of the xa'isla wawis (Haisla) people.
The Gidimt'en filing noted that "ongoing human rights violations, militarization of Wet'suwet'en lands, forcible removal and criminalization of peaceful land defenders, and irreparable harm due to industrial destruction of Wet'suwet'en lands and cultural sites are occurring despite declarations by federal and provincial governments for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples."
The heavy-handed persecution of the Wet'suwet'en sparked solidarity protests throughout Canada and beyond that focused on the pipeline's impact on First Nations tribes, the environment and climate, and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Likhts'amisyu Clan members—whose presence in what is today northern British Columbia long predates the existence of Canada—claim they have not been consulted on the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which traverses land that does not belong to the Canadian government.
Dsta'hyl and other Wet'suwet'en leaders argued that they were enforcing ancient tribal trespassing laws. Ironically, they ended up charged with trespassing. During their trial last year, Dsta'hyl and other Likhts'amisyu chiefs asserted that they were fulfilling their duty to protect Wet'suwet'en land—or yintah—by enforcing their traditional trespass law.
In finding Dsta'hyl guilty of contempt of court this February, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen declared there was no way of "harmonizing colonial law and Indigenous law," which he said "cannot comfortably coexist in the circumstances."
Dsta'hyl said Wednesday: "I've been convicted for protecting our own land while Wet'suwet'en laws have been sidelined. The end goal for us in this struggle is the recognition of Wet'suwet'en law in Canada, and it's unfortunate that the Crown is digging in their heels instead."
"This fight has been going on for 240 years," he added. "We have been incarcerated on the reserves where they have turned us into 'Status Indians.' Now, we are all 'prisoners of conscience' because of what the colonizers have done to us."
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No Amount of Greenwashing Can Make Gas Clean
Despite what the industry says, fracked methane gas is far from natural and isn’t a climate solution.
Jul 07, 2024
In response to multiple complaints, Ad Standards Canada recently found that advertising for fossil gas gave an “overall misleading impression… that B.C. LNG is good for the environment, amounting to greenwashing.”
The ads, by industry front group Canada Action, promoted the debunked message that so-called “liquefied natural gas”—which is mostly the deadly greenhouse gas methane—is good for the environment and climate because it can replace higher-emitting coal-fired power. “B.C. LNG will reduce global emissions,” the ads claimed over a bright green background. Other industry groups and gas companies are using similar messaging.
Although the standards branch has no enforcement power and doesn’t release its findings publicly, the issue illustrates the lengths to which the fossil fuel industry will go to keep profits rolling in, even in the face of disaster. (The decision was leaked by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, which was not a complainant.)
Far from a “green” replacement for coal, LNG development locks up investment in fossil infrastructure, locks in emissions, and locks out renewables.
For a relatively brief, albeit far too long, period of human history, global economies have run on coal, oil, and gas. These fossil fuels appeared to be almost limitless, and could be quickly burned in gas-guzzling vehicles and factories, driving profits to the point that the industry became the most lucrative in history.
The fuels conferred real and imagined benefits for large numbers of people, offering mobility, heat, and light; faster production, and more. Used wisely, they might have provided a net benefit to humanity. But burned wastefully and rapidly in the name of greed and obscene profits, they’ve polluted air, land, and water; harmed human health; reduced biodiversity; and spewed climate-altering greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. We’re now reaping the consequences with heat domes, floods, droughts, illness, death, migrant crises, biodiversity loss, water shortages, and more.
Most or all of the true benefits fossil fuels offer can be better realized with cleaner energy sources and less-polluting products—along with a shift away from wasteful, unnecessary consumerism.
As the consequences of burning coal for power and oil for transportation and more become clearer, the sector has seized on numerous survival strategies. For decades, industry executives and allies downplayed or covered up the evidence—some from its own scientists—that its products would heat the planet to dangerous levels if used as intended. Although that tactic is still employed, mounting evidence and real-life experiences of global heating have made it more difficult to fool the public.
So the industry is resorting to other plans—scaling up plastic production (plastic is an oil and gas byproduct) and touting the benefits of “natural” gas among them.
But fracked methane gas is far from natural and isn’t a climate solution. Throughout its life cycle, it devastates landscapes, pollutes waterways, uses excessive amounts of water (often in drought-stricken areas), consumes massive volumes of energy to process and liquefy, and creates emissions during transport and burning.
Not only that, flaring and leaks from wellhead to power plant emit massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere. Methane, of which the gas is composed, is up to 87 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. It breaks down much faster than CO2, which remains in the atmosphere for centuries, but it causes a lot of heating while it’s there. That’s why reducing and eliminating it is a good, quick climate solution.
New research from the David Suzuki Foundation shows British Columbia’s rush to develop LNG is bad on every front, from economics to climate. Far from a “green” replacement for coal, LNG development locks up investment in fossil infrastructure, locks in emissions, and locks out renewables. The International Energy Agency and others predict that LNG demand will drop precipitously as cheaper renewables are deployed at accelerating speed. A massive oversupply in gas is also being developed, much of it by low-cost competitors for Asian markets, where B.C.’s gas would be exported.
Every credible agency and person—from the International Energy Agency to the United Nations to universities worldwide and climate scientists everywhere—has warned that further development of gas, oil, and coal will propel the world into irreversible climate chaos.
We must leave fossil fuels in the ground. Our future depends on it. No amount of greenwashing or gaslighting will change that.
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First Nations Land Defenders File Submission to UN Human Rights Council
"Wet'suwet'en is an international frontline to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples and to prevent climate change."
Feb 07, 2022
First Nations land defenders on Monday filed a submission to the United Nations detailing how their territory and human rights are being violated by Canadian and British Columbian authorities in service of a fossil fuel corporation's gas pipeline.
"We are intimidated and surveilled by armed RCMP, smeared as terrorists, and dragged through colonial courts. This is the reality of Canada."
The submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council was filed by the Gidimt'en--one of the five clans of the Wet'suwet'en Nation--who for years have been fighting to stop the construction of Coastal GasLink's pipeline through their territory in northern British Columbia.
The filing notes that "ongoing human rights violations, militarization of Wet'suwet'en lands, forcible removal and criminalization of peaceful land defenders, and irreparable harm due to industrial destruction of Wet'suwet'en lands and cultural sites are occurring despite declarations by federal and provincial governments for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples."
All five Wet'suwet'en clans oppose the pipeline, which is being built on tribal land that the Canadian Supreme Court acknowledges as unceded. Canadian authorities, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), have answered nonviolent Wet'suwet'en land defense with heavily armed officers employing heavy-handed removal tactics.
\u201cIt's time for action. We will always take every opportunity and avenue to protect Wedzin Kwa and stand up for our people and yintah. Today we submit to the United Nations for consideration for \u201cThe militarization of indigenous land: a human rights focus\u201d https://t.co/lFOMp1L8bK\u201d— Gidimt\u2019en Checkpoint (@Gidimt\u2019en Checkpoint) 1644249601
Scores of Wet'suwet'en land defenders, including four hereditary chiefs, have been arrested and charged, as have journalists and legal observers. In December, Coastal GasLink dropped charges against two journalists who were arrested while covering a militarized police raid last November 19.
More than 30 land defenders are scheduled to appear in the British Columbian Supreme Court in Prince George, built on the site of a burned Lheidli T'enneh village, next week.
\u201c"CONTENT WARNING: POLICE VIOLENCE. \n\nViolent RCMP Raid on Unarmed Gidimt'en Checkpoint\n\n#AllOutForWedzinKwa\u201d— Gidimt\u2019en Checkpoint (@Gidimt\u2019en Checkpoint) 1637347268
Meanwhile, construction continues on the 416-mile pipeline, which will carry gas from Michif Piiyii (Metis) territory in northeastern British Columbia to an export terminal in coastal Kitimat, on the land of the xa'isla wawis (Haisla) people.
"By deploying legal, political, and economic tactics to violate our rights, Canada and B.C. are contravening the spirit of reconciliation, as well as their binding obligations to Indigenous law, Canadian constitutional law, UNDRIP, and international law," the Gidimt'en submission states, referring to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Gidimt'en Checkpoint spokesperson Sleydo' said in a statement that "we urge the United Nations to conduct a field visit to Wet'suwet'en territory because Canada and B.C. have not withdrawn RCMP from our territory and have not suspended Coastal GasLink's permits, despite the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination calling on them to do so."
\u201cWebinar February 9 w/@Gidimten spokesperson Sleydo' (Molly Wickham), Brandi Morin @Songstress28, Secwepemc Say No TMX spokesperson April Thomas, @climatejusticem + @thomasdavies59\nof @climate604\nRegister https://t.co/rOBccfY7aB\n#vanpoli #cdnpoli #canpoli #bcpoli #ClimateJustice\u201d— Climate Convergence (@Climate Convergence) 1644043422
"Wet'suwet'en is an international frontline to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples and to prevent climate change," she added. "Yet we are intimidated and surveilled by armed RCMP, smeared as terrorists, and dragged through colonial courts. This is the reality of Canada."
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