Protests Continue Against Gas Pipeline Construction in Canada

Indigenous protests continue in Edmonton, Canada, against the Coastal Gas Link, a pipeline construction project of TC Energy Corporation. The protesters, led by First Nations communities as the Wet'suwet'en people and Indigenous sympathizers who support their rights, blocked the train rails to prevent the invasion of their lands. 

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These actions left a billion dollar loss in regards to oil, grain, forestry, and other resources. Besides, thousands of passengers had to find alternative routes or transportation.

The native leaders have expressed their support to the Coastal Gas Link pipeline construction, acknowledging it as a fundamental economic asset for the country, but they refuse to compromise their ancestral territories and resources, like forest or rivers. 

Native communities also point out that the project was conceived without respect to their authority, along with no consent. As Perry Bellegarde, Chief Assembly of First Nations declared:  “When governments ignore First Nations' rights it creates conflict and court cases. But when the government respects the First Nations' rights, it's a pact of peace, progress, and prosperity.”

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insists that police action is not the solution and instead, that dialogue is the way to solve the conflict. “It is time and past time for this situation to be resolved, but what we are facing was not created overnight. It was not created because we have embarked on a path of reconciliation recently in our history. It is because for too long in our history for too many years we failed to do so.” 

For hundreds of years, the Wet'suwet'en Chiefs of that region prevented the invasion of their lands and kept a strong stand and do not compromise to ´trade propositions that can compromise their territory.