fbpx

Wet’suwet’en Nation needs your support!

We need all hands on deck to support the Wet’suwet’en, whose rights and title to their unceded territory (Yintah) in northern British Columbia are at risk. 

Since 2015, Wet’suwet’en Nation have been stewarding and protecting their traditional territories from Coastal GasLink’s (CGL) liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline. 

Now, the Hereditary Chiefs of all Wet’suwet’en clans, acting in unity, have launched legal action to defend their rights and title from unwanted industrial activity.

Donate to support the legal defense fund of the Wet’suwet’en and take a stand for future generations. 

 

$44,478
OF OUR $250,000 GOAL

““Coastal GasLink has repeatedly flouted the conditions that were spelled out in their previous certificate, and shown only contempt for our people. My cousins are listed among the Murdered and Missing Women and Girls (MMIWG), BC must not be allowed to bend the rules to facilitate operations that are a threat to the safety of Wet’suwet’en women.”

Dinï ze' Smogelgem, Hereditary Chief of the Lakshamshu (Fireweed and Owl) Clan

 

 

 

Canada’s highest court has affirmed that the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have jurisdiction over their 22,000 square kilometres of territory. This video explains Wet’suwet’en governance and why chiefs oppose pipelines.



 

More about the Wet’suwet’en Case

Hereditary Chiefs representing all of the five Clans of the Wet’suwet’en unanimously support this legal action, which seeks a Judicial Review of a project extension for Coastal Gas Link’s pipeline, granted by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office last October.  

The Dinï ze’ and Ts’akë ze’ (Chiefs) wholeheartedly oppose the CNG project, which aims to blaze a trail through Wet’suwet’en territory and turn pristine forests and salmon streams into a fossil fuel corridor. Coastal GasLink has already bulldozed through Wet’suwet’en territories, destroying archaeological sites and occupying their land with industrial man-camps.

If CGL were to be built and become operational, it would irreversibly transform the ecology and character of northern B.C. It would also lock in decades of fossil fuel extraction at a time when scientists are warning of untold suffering unless all nations rapidly scale down production of fossil fuels.

The time is now for urgent support of Indigenous rights: donate to the legal defence fund here. 

 

About the pipeline: Coastal Gas Link is proposing a 670-km pipeline carrying fracked gas from Dawson Creek to a proposed LNG facility in Kitimat. The pipeline is owned by  TransCanada, the same corporation funding the Keystone XL and Energy East Pipeline projects.

Coastal Gas Link is part of a recently-approved $40 billion LNG Canada project which is the single largest private sector investment in Canadian history. The Malaysian company Petronas, which abandoned its own Pacific NorthWest LNG project when faced with First Nations opposition (link to victories page), has a 25% stake in LNG Canada.

According to the Pembina Institute, LNG Canada’s carbon footprint would be 8.6 million tonnes (Mt) by 2030, making it impossible to achieve even the targets mandated BC’s recently-weakened climate legislation. Another concern is the process of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) used to obtain the gas, which pollutes groundwater and causes large amounts of methane to escape into the atmosphere, which has a serious impact on our climate and public health. The pipeline will cross hundreds of salmon-bearing streams, terminating in an LNG liquefaction and export facility in the Skeena River estuary.


RAVEN - Donate Now

Wet’suwet’en Nation needs your support!  Donate to the legal defence fund to support Indigenous rights and sovereignty over unceded territories.

4K Shares
Get news from RAVEN by email.