An alliance of the Unist’ot’en (People of the Headwaters) and the Likhts’amisyu (Hereditary Chiefs) of the Wet’suwet’en Nation have evicted a group of Pipeline Drillers from their traditional territory, sending a clear message to Enbridge, Pacific Trails and the entire oil industry: “We cannot and will not permit any pipelines through our territory.”
This press release is cross-posted from No One is Illegal
TO ALL NEWS EDITORS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release: Pacific Trails Pipeline Evicted by Unist’ot’en and Likhts’amisyu
November 15, 2011 – Setting up a road blockade with signs “Road Closed to Pacific Trails Pipeline Drillers”, an alliance of the Unist’ot’en and the Likhts’amisyu of the Wet’suwet’en Nation have evicted and escorted out Pacific Trails Pipeline drillers and their equipment.
According to Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief Toghestiy, “We evicted Pacific Trails Pipeline drillers from our territory this weekend. The drillers in one vehicle actually cheered for our blockade and one driller told us ;Nobody wants to see any pipelines in the North – especially one that operates as dirty as this one. Have a good day guys and good luck.’”
“Pacific Trails Pipeline had moved in equipment to do directional drilling around Gosnell River where our salmon spawn. Their exploratory drilling and whole pipeline proposal will spell certain disaster in the Peace River area. We have to protect our sensitive aquifers from the destruction of pipelines – from the Alberta Tar Sands to our side of the Rocky Mountains. You cannot make compromises with the life-sustaining force of water” continues Toghestiy.
Kloum Khun, a Likhts’amisyu hereditary Chief who also participated in the blockade, said: “We had a sign that said ‘No Pipelines’ and pointed it out to the drillers. We told them to take out all their equipment from our territory.”
The Pacific Trails Pipeline, official known as the Kitimat Summit Lake (KSL) gas pipeline, is a proposed natural gas pipeline that will move upto 1 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from Summit Lake near Prince George to Kitimat using an underground 36 inch diameter pipeline with an 18-metre right of way on each side. Much of this natural gas is acquired through the environmentally destructive process of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking. After processing, the natural gas would be shipped in supertankers from ports in Kitamat to the international market. In February 2011, Pacific Northern Gas sold its stake in the project to the Apache Corporation and EOG Resources (formerly Enron).
The Pacific Trails Pipeline has a similar proposed right-of-way as Enbridge Pipeline in Wet’suwet’en territory. According to Toghestiy: “Enbridge is using the fact that Pacific Trails is proposing the same right of way as Enbridge to mitigate their own ecological footprint on our territory.” During a May 2011 interview with Fox News, Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel discussed Enbridge’s move into the natural gas market and the possibility of “synergies” between the Enbridge’s Gateway Project and the Pacific Trails Pipeline.
The $5.5-billion proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline would carry 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Alberta to Kitimat. In August 2010, representatives of Enbridge in Smithers, Michelle Perret and Kevin Brown, received formal notice from Wet’suweten hereditary chiefs Hagwilakw and Toghestiy that Enbridge did not have permission to build a pipeline on their lands and was trespassing on unceded Wet’suwet’en lands.
Freda Huson, a spokesperson for the Unist’ot’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en, says her community was not consulted about these proposed pipelines: “The corporations never informed us or consulted us about their plans. Pacific Trail Pipeline’s proposed route is through two main salmon spawning channels which provide our staple food supply. We have made the message clear to Enbridge and Pacific Trails and all of industry: We cannot and will not permit any pipelines through our territory.”
The Unist’ot’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en participated in the First and Second Indigenous Assembly Against Mining and Pipelines in BC. Says Mel Bazil: “The plans of Christy Clark and the BC government to push mining and pipeline developments into our territories will fail. We reject the short-term interests of profit that motivates those mining and pipeline developments that are trespassing on our unceded Indigenous lands.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Freda Huson: spokesperson for Unist’hot’en: (778)210-1100 or (250) 847-8897
Toghestiy: (250) 847- 8897
Kloum Khun’s: (250) 847-9673
Mel Bazil: 250-877-2805
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For background information, see: First Nations fight tar sands pipelines; Grassroots Gathering to Resist Proposed Pipelines; In BC, Pipes Spell Double Trouble
John Ahniwanika Schertow is an indigenous rights activist of Mohawk (Kanienkehaka) and mixed-European descent. For the past 8 years, he has served as the e... 
This is great news for all of BC and all of Canada. Alberta is a mess and it is already affecting the First Nations downstream of Fort Mac. I take pride in BC. It is also my home and I love it with passion. There is no place like it in the world. Thank you to the stewards of the Wet’suwet’en Territory. You are truly the saviours of the planet.
What fuels the truck in the picture? Or provides the plastic in your computers? LOL.
If Northern Gateway faces the same opposition, the bitumen could be railed by CN. Risks of spills would be higher but the opposition groups would be responsible for that. Or the line could go on the CN right of way where certain groups don’t cooperate. I’m sure CN could make better use of the revenues.
You’re missing the point, Warren. Oil may be widely used (for now…) but the exploitation of that so-called resource has to be controlled. Even industry execs know that—even though, they prefer to think those controls only serve to hinder their ‘noble work’.
As far as I’m concerned, nothing should be sacrificed in the exploitation process, especially basic human rights and the environment. If such sacrifices can’t be avoided then the project should be scrapped. And if we go without more plastic, petroleum jelly, computers, toothpaste and cheerios, sobeit.
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We don’t want to and we can’t afford to continue to extract hydrocarbons from the earth. I live in the city and we are trying to get our political ‘leaders’ to listen to us and climate scientists and demand a ban on new unconventional fuel extraction and the funding of massive project for decentralized renewable energy production.
They seem to prefer to listen to the 1% (and I know we’ll hear how mom n pop drilling ops are part of the 99% but – like UC Davis police – they don’t act like it).
Thanks for standing up for all of us, future generations and the planet.
This is a brave and important action on behalf of people and the Earth. Thank you to our Wet’suwet’en Nation brothers and sisters for taking it. We must all stand firm. Because only mass defiance of the corporate-state collusion will protect the people and our natural world from destruction by soulless, short-sighted greed-barons. Tip of the hat to the workers who readily complied with your escorting them off your land. They would be building solar farms and wind farms and well-insulated buildings if the politicians could muster the will to defy the corporations the way the people are. So I guess that means we have to pressure the politicians in a way that speaks to them more than money does. In solidarity and friendship from New York State, USA, where we are battling the gas frackers while keeping in mind and heart our allies fighting tar sands, mountaintop destruction, and other corporate criminals.
How lucky are we in BC to have these First Nations still in place on these unceeded lands to exercise their responsibility to protect the land? The Wet’suwet’en have taken a very clear and firm stand against petro-fying their still sovereign territories, with the informed knowledge that these “developement” proposals are contrary to the long term interests of their nation. That is their focus and aim, to advance and protect the long term interests of the Wet’suwet’en; coincidentallly, in this case it serves the long term interests of the entire planet.
I wholeheartedly support the opposition of the Wet’suwet’en to these oil/gas developement proposals.