Wet’suwet’en Activist Society Speaks for few Indigenious People

It should go without saying due to the excessive property damage, civil disturbances, squatting, and other illegal activity that those protesting under the banner of the Wet’suwet’en do not speak for Indigenous people.

After RCMP removed the protesters off the Coastal Gaslink construction site in B.C., the radical environmentalists tipped their hand by immediately protesting in major cities from Victoria to Montreal, showing this to be a mostly privileged metropolitan movement. 

It is quite disgusting to have radical environmental activists using an Indigenous band’s name, who has approved the Coastal Gaslink pipeline, as a rallying cry to their illegal activities. Implicating Indigenous people in your radical civil unrest is borderline libel.

Sadly enough, many, including the mainstream media, have given legitimacy to the claims of the Gaslink pipeline protestors, acting as if the unfound claims that the group is an authentic voice of the Indigenous community. 

Yes, self-proclaimed hereditary chiefs are saying that they did not approve the LNG pipeline, but it wouldn’t matter even if they were verified chiefs, as the band council and elected chiefs are in charge of economic matters. Trying to get around Indigenous bands, legal standards would be actual harm against the community.

Something that should be noted is the Wet’suwet’en Society claiming to be speaking on behalf of the Wet’suwet’en people is not legitimate. With a society anyone can be admitted as a member, it isn’t like an official band where membership is strictly reserved for actual Indigenous people from that specific group. This is why so many protests working on behalf of the Wet’suwet’en Society can be traced to have come from all over B.C. and Canada.

Yes, there are Indigenous people among the protestors, including some Wet’suwet’en, but they are acting as individuals and do not get to claim to speak on behalf of the whole Indigenous band.

Environmental activists pretending that they represent the Wet’suwet’en do not seem to care that they are damaging the consultation process between the government, private industry, and the Indigenous bands. To them, stopping pipelines supersedes unfavourable consultation outcomes. 

These “Wet’suwet’en” protesters are merely eco-colonists who are more than happy to trample on Indigenous rights to make Indigenous people do what they want with their traditional land. So much for self-determination.

This is exactly like the fur industry in the First Nations community, were again to environmentalists Indigenous rights meant nothing when Indigenous group’s decisions didn’t match up with their eco-colonial agenda. 

Fort McKay Chief Jim Boucher told The National Telegraph, “I remember back in 1982 when the Europeans imposed a fur ban on the sale of fur, and we watched the fight, and we tried to get involved, but they were successful because the environmentalists were on their side. What they did was they impoverished our people – right across the country overnight. Our people in McKay were in a situation where there was no employment, no prospects for employment, and no prospects for any economic opportunity after the fur ban went into place.”

In this situation, the economic wellbeing of the Indigenous community again means nothing to the environmental groups. They would rather have communities fall into poverty than allow energy projects to be pursued. 

Haisla Nation member and B.C. Liberal MLA Ellis Ross, in a past interview with TNT, emphasized energy projects’ importance to reconciliation.

Ross said, “[In the spirit of reconciliation], we had to accept that initiative and look towards growing our economy, instead of idly waiting for [government] handouts.” as he sees government dependency as the real obstacle to reconciliation, which so many environmentalists seem to prefer today. 

Haisla Nation Chief Councillor Crystal Smith reminded the public that, “The people that put their blood, sweat and tears into these [LNG] projects have been disregarded in the sense that [opposition] believes companies and governments are operating in a manner that happened 20-25 years ago. That’s not the case [today].”

Radical environmentalist groups using Indigenous Canadians as shields for their ideology shows how fundamentally cowardly they are. 

Honestly, the best thing that could have happened this week was the mass protests by the eco-colonial types. They have shown how minuscule support their movement receives, as well as exposed how consultation and the law mean nothing to them. 

From here on out, it is hypocritical for them to speak on legality as they have not a single shred of respect for the law, Indigenous council decisions, or court injunctions on their illegal squatting.

Anyone who is taking these protests seriously should re-examine the facts on the ground or whether or not they believe Indigenous people should have self-determination or be treated as pawns by environmentalists.