"RCMP are investigating what is being described as a “organized violent attack” on pipeline workers, police and equipment at a Coastal GasLink drilling site near the Morice River in northern British Columbia"

financialpost.com/commodities/energy/oil-gas/coastal-gaslink-site-in-b-c-left-with-millions-in-damage-after-violent-attack-by-masked-assailants-wielding-axes

s***s been heating up lol

thats my province

is there context to this that the average person seeing this would be missing?

i got no clue whats going on up there

f*** going on

Think Standing Rock, but at a larger nationwide scale spanning multiple decades. Essentially, there is an inherent clash between the capitalist conceptualization of property that treats lands as a commodity and as something to be acquired, versus the Indigenous conception of land which is viewed as being the basis of their cultural identity and way of living. Something not to be relentlessly exploited or "conquered", but respected. This contradiction has existed throughout all of Canada's history and is still felt in the present.

Canada has a long and evil history of Indigenous peoples being displaced and f***ed over so that colonizers could extract resources and claim land as their own. Lots of awful policies persisting to this day that are meant to destroy Indigenous forms of subsistence and their way of life. The struggle for Indigenous sovereignty and liberation has been gaining traction in recent years. Keep in mind "Indigenous" is sort of an umbrella term used to describe a multitude of different nations and tribes, it's not monolithic. Indigenous in Canada refers to the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit, which are all very diverse and composed of separate entities (albeit with a shared culture/way of living to varying extents)

Legally, Indigenous peoples have protected rights and valid claims to their territories according to the Constitution Act. But, the Constitution also says that opportunities for economic development (like oil extraction) render these rights null, and so infringing on them is justified in the eyes of the Canadian government. AKA, profits are more important than anything else.

people oppose resource extraction and infrastructure projects such as oil and gas pipelines that infringe on Indigenous territories because:

1) They trespass on Indigenous territories, nullifying their mode of living/culture, and are built without the approval of Indigenous peoples
2) Investing tens of billions of taxpayer dollars into non-renewable energy sources in 2022 is f***ing stupid. It wont benefit society collectively, or Indigenous peoples. Most of the wealth generated by these pipelines will go to the oil/gas tycoons
3) and obviously its bad for the environment

In typical Lib fashion the Canadian government has been shamelessly preaching about "Indigenous rights" and "reconciliation" while doing nothing to help resolve the systemic issues faced by Indigenous peoples, instead continuing to violate their rights and trespass on Indigenous territories. Obviously, corporate interests will always be the #1 priority of the state. These interests are incompatible with respecting Indigenous rights and territories, and/or fighting climate change, so all the preaching that the Canadian government does is for the birds. Basically everyone aside from stupid liberals are well aware of this, which is why people are taking things into their own hands. Many Indigenous people believe that their liberation will come not by working with the state, but only through direct action and revolution. Read this for a taste of Indigenous socialism

But regarding the specific incident in OP, no one knows who did it, and there is no real consensus amongst Indigenous peoples about the plan of action that must be taken to combat settler colonialism afaik. For example, some nations might opt to work with the state, while others might denounce doing that entirely.

The Oka Crisis in 1990 was one of the most famous instances of Indigenous resistance and gave Indigenous struggles a lot of exposure for the first time which changed the game. Since then, Indigenous struggles have been more publicized, but are still slept on by mainstream media outlets and are typically portrayed so as to paint Indigenous peoples as irrational bigots who are "stuck in the past" and "upset for no reason".

Anti-pipeline protests and Indigenous solidarity is one of the hottest topics in Canadian politics right now. This summer, hundreds of children's graves were discovered at former residential schools. As a result there were huge protests across Canada on July 1st (Canada's independence day), churches were burned, statues toppled, highways have been blocked off, etc. and this momentum hasn't really died down. Like 1000 people have been arrested in the past year for protesting against logging in Fairy Creek BC, and there's probably a lot more stuff I'm forgetting

Over the past couple years in Northern BC, Wet’suwet’en lands have been continuously raided by the RCMP where they've deployed attack dogs, snipers, and choppers in order to clear the way for the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The Wet'suwet'en raids and defence of their lands is the biggest Indigenous struggle in Canada rn but the mainstream media hasn't provided that much coverage. Even Leo was tweeting about it tho

I'd recommend this short doc on the Wet'suwet'en raids. It's from 2019 so since then s*** has only gotten worse

its f***ing lit

Oh no I can’t believe someone would do this I absolutely cannot condone these actions. It would be especially terrible if someone were to do this to American oil companies as well…

always interesting to see the reaction the state has between left wing protest to right wing protest, Truduea reaction to the trucker protest has been terrible but like when u compare it to indigenous activists it’s nothing indigenous activists get snipers pointed at them watching every move. Also the media focus, indigenous struggles are always under blown while i can’t stop seeing s*** about this.

fr