Editor,
The North Cariboo Metis Association would like to voice our solidarity with the five clans of the Wet’suwet’en nation who are enacting their laws and jurisdiction on their territories.
Each clan within the Wet’suwet’en Nation have full jurisdiction under their law to control access to their territory. Under “Anuc niwh’it’en (Wet’suwet’en law), all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en have opposed all pipeline proposals and have not provided free, prior and informed consent to Coastal Gaslink/TransCanada to do work on Wet’suwet’en lands.
On Dec. 14, 2018, BC Supreme Court issued a court injunction granting Coastal GasLink the go-ahead to proceed with their fracked gas pipeline on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. The Wet’suwet’en fought for many years in the Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa court case to have their sovereignty recognized and affirmed by Canadian law. In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Wet’suwet’en people, as represented by their hereditary leaders, had not given up rights and title to 22,000 square kilometers of Northern British Columbia. TransCanada and the provincial and federal governments are openly violating this landmark ruling.
We stand as witness to this historic moment when the federal and provincial governments can choose to follow the Principles of Reconciliation and Respect the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or respond by perpetuating and entrenching the ongoing legacy of colonization in Canada.
The North Cariboo Metis will stand in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people in demanding that the provincial and federal governments uphold their responsibilities to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and “Anuc niwh’it’en (Wet’suwet’en Law).
In the Metis Spirit,
Tony Goulet
President, North Cariboo Metis Association