A rally was held November 26th in support of Wet’suwet’en and the protesters against Coastal GasLink’s pipeline/ Connor Luczka, 2021
At Victoria park this Friday, hundreds of Londoners gathered for the ‘Lighting of the Lights.’ Just down the road, across from Aeolian Hall, there was another, less publicized gathering.
Around 40 activists gathered to show solidarity for the Wet’suwet’en and their fight for the Wedzin Kwah river.
At the gathering were activists, community leaders, and protestors of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Skyler Williams is of the Mohawk wolf clan. He was at these protests and described why the Wedzin Kwah is so valuable. Compared to the Thames, the Wedzin Kwah is a whole other river.
“None of us have ever thought of putting our hands together in the river here and taking a drink. . . that would just be silly. You know, most of us don’t let our kids swim in it, let alone drink. And as we walked out to this river, you see these salmon jumping out of the river as big as you’re leg. It is absolutely beautiful and so clear. 50 feet across and you can see the very bottom of it in the very middle. It is one of the most beautiful sites that you’ve ever seen.”
“Respect existence or expect resistance”– one of the signs at November 26th’s rally in support of Wet’suwet’en.
“You’re more likely to catch a no frills shopping cart or 1978 BMX bike then a bit of salmon in there.”
He says that the protests are really about preservation.
“Whether you’re talking about Ipperwash or the Mi’kmaq Fishers. This is just the reaction that we get when more people stand up for what is inherently our grandchildren’s futures . . . when we were young we talked about what that meant to have these lands. The lands that we’re on right now are borrowed. We borrow these lands from those future generations.”
LISTEN MORE: Skyler’s FULL speech
The Wet’suwet’en have been defending the Wedzin Kwah (or the Morice River) from Coastal GasLink, who intend to build a pipeline through it. Problems arose as the pipeline began construction even though the project was never approved by the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs.
Recent protests saw 15 people arrested on November 19th. In that group were two journalists: Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano.
Toledano later released footage of the arrests that raised concern. Many considered the RCMP to have used force excessively.
Layla Staats is a Mohawk activist and one of the speakers on Friday’s solidarity rally. She shared her story of the protest.
The new article from @CBCIndigenous @JorgeBarrera on the RCMP #Wetsuweten raids, casually slips in mention that a third journalist, documentary filmmaker Layla Staats, was arrested as well
All the #FreedomOfThePress coverage I've read, has only featured the two others. #cdnmedia pic.twitter.com/0ms8Jfe4qS
— Greg Macdougall (@GregEqEd) November 26, 2021
“When you’re standing on the front line, and you see 100 RCMP coming towards you in formation . . . one of the things I’ll never forget is the RCMP marching up that bridge.”
Staats is a documentarian focused on the boil-water advisories on reserves. She says she was drawn to the Wedzin Kwah after she heard about how clean it is. In her work she was seen so many water sources polluted, that she knew how valuable that can be.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one drawn to it. As she and other protestors were at the river, the RCMP drove up in convoy. She and her brother Logan were on the frontlines. She describes what happened to her and her brother:
“I vividly see him being torn by 15 RCMP officers on top of him, taking him down, grabbing him by the braids that I had put in his hair and shoving his face into the ground– bending him into this pretzel and him screaming: ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.'”
“When I was brought to the police car, sat in the back of the car, the cop slammed the door in my face. And he looked at me through the window and he winked.”
“I’ve seen the reports that they deny that this dog cage exists, but in the back of their SUV they open up the hatch and there are two metal cages– three foot by three foot– and you go inside. And that’s how you’re transported to the court– like an animal. I remember walking into this courtroom in my underwear. Boot-shackled, shuffling across the carpet with a podium of strangers, courtroom officials, police officers, people all staring at me as if I am a criminal.”
LISTEN MORE: Layla’s FULL Story
Friday’s rally in London was about solidarity. But as Skyler Williams said, it is also about the issues that are going on here in London and across Canada.
“How can we be talking about the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People? How can we talk about Truth and Reconciliation calls to action? How can we even talk about missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, while we’re pointing guns at those same people. It is an absolutely disgusting thought that this is still the conversation that we’re having in 2021.”
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