Comments Off on The Association of Nehirowisiw Aski Land Defenders Wants Saboteurs Handed Over to Police
May262025
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
We’re writing what follows to enable anarchist comrades and anticolonial militants to make informed decisions about where and how to engage in struggle.
In a press release published May 17, 2025, and available on their Facebook page, the Association of Nehirowisiw Aski Land Defenders (MAMO First Nations) condemns acts of vandalism recently committed on forestry machinery apparently belonging to a contractor involved in cuts on their territory.
The press release goes further, claiming that “these acts cannot and must not go unpunished.” It continues: “If you witness an act of vandalism or if you have any information that may assist the investigation, we strongly encourage you to share it without delay with the police authorities.”
We believe that relationships of struggle are strongest when they are nourished by practices of honesty and transparent communication on the motivations and limits of each of us. We hope that these events can be the basis for nuanced and open conversations about solidarity.
Blockades are going up on Atikamekw territory (Nehirowisiw Aski) to resist the CAQ’s forestry regime. In solidarity, anti-colonial protestors seized the intersection of Papineau and Ontario during rush hour.
Paralysing southbound traffic to the Jacques-Cartier Bridge for close to 20 minutes before the police could arrive. Protestors used road flares and defended eachother in the face of brazen motorists – police were caught by surprise and were unable to intervene. After leaving the intersection, protestors took the streets, and dispersed with no arrests or police interventions. The success of this action inspires us at an urgent moment demanding solidarity with land defenders refusing the CAQ’s land grab.
The frontlines need urgent support as the logging season begins. Land defenders on the Nehirowisiw Aski are directly resisting colonial extraction and the destruction of their territory. This is frontline resistance to the CAQ’s forestry regime—a regime that hands over vast stretches of so-called Quebec’s forests to industry without consent, without regard. They’re calling for material support along with solidarity—whether you can go to the blockade, send funds, or take action here in Tiohtià:ke—this struggle must be taken up by people in the city. We must disrupt comfort, convenience, and quiet complicity.
Indigenous Land defenders are not solely responsible for resisting the colonial death march of extractive industry—the frontlines are everywhere. Don’t wait for permission. Don’t ask for justice. Fight alongside those creating it. Land defenders need immediate material support and brave anti-colonial accomplices.
After a five year hiatus, Warrior Up is back. The intention of this project remains the same: to compile guides and practical information relevant to struggles against industrial devastation.
The ‘Arson’ page compiles guides on setting fires. The ‘Sabotage Techniques’ page compiles sabotage techniques for different types of infrastructure. The ‘Studying Vulnerabilities‘ page compiles analyses of how the megamachine functions and where it is vulnerable. The ‘Maps‘ page compiles mapping projects focused on infrastructure and extractive industries.
This project relies on submissions, so please send us content, including anything published years ago that we may have missed! We now use an Autistici email:
warriorupthrowdown ( at ) autistici ( dot ) org
Our PGP key, however, remains unchanged (Fingerprint 4283 5D10 4ABA 6B2D 0C60 A4F1 F7A9 73A3 8FD8 16E0). It can be found on the contact page, which now also includes a contact form.
Donald Trump is not only completely unhinged, he is completely obsessed with Canada. It will be remembered that throughout the last election campaign, he talked about tariffs but said nothing about the US absorbing Canada. Only after becoming president did Donald don his imperialist hat, threatening Greenland. Panama, Gaza and Canada.
Trudeau, Carney and the Liberals meanwhile have abandoned postnationalism to become flag waving nationalists. Pierre Poilievre of the Conservatives has adopted the slogan Canada First, having abandoned Canada is Broken, which now echoes Trump’s claim that Canada is not viable if it is not part of the States.
Trump has adopted a spheres of influence approach in which North America is destined to be dominated by the US, and Canada and Greenland are to be annexed to access their natural resources. His approach to Mexico is different. Trump does not want more Latinos, he wants fewer Latinos, so annexing Mexico is out of the question. However, he is putting pressure on Mexico in various ways, including attacking Mexico’s sovereignty by threatening military action against the cartels, a move rejected by Mexico’s new president.
Canadians have reacted to the trumpian assault with shock, fear, anger and a sense of betrayal, An upsurge in Canadian nationalism has taken place as well as a questioning of Canadian identity.
On the issue of identity of interest are statements by Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, an Irish-Canadian Catholic. After attending the Saint Patrick’s parade in Montreal, Carney flew to Europe, where he visited Notre Dame Cathedral and met Emmanuel Macron. He then met King Charles and the British prime minister. On the trip Carney emphasized Canada’s European roots and described Canada as being founded by three groups, the British, the French and indigenous peoples, giving the impression of an equality of influence. In reality, the British and French, along with the Spanish and Portuguese, arrived in the Americas as conquerors, subjugating indigenous peoples and warring against each other here in the Americas as they had in Europe. The founding of Canada signified a continuation of an assimilationist approach towards indigenous peoples embodied in the residential school system, designed specifically to
eradicate native cultures. This sad legacy weighs heavily when it is a question of Canadian identity.
Today’s Canadian cities are multicultural and complex. How Canadian identity fits in with other cultural and identity aspects is complicated, but a reaction to Trump is evident in cancelled trips to the States and boycotts of American products. However, information is largely anecdotal, making it difficult to know what is happening. There are still lots of New York Yankees baseball caps, I’ve noticed, although I have never been able to figure out what they are supposed to mean.
I personally have not experienced an upsurge in Canadian nationalism. I am not Canadian or Québécois or part of any state. But like most Canadians I detest Trump, a dangerous predator and would-be dictator. The U.S. is presently in turmoil as Trump attempts to radically reshape the country.
Carney, Ford, Smith
As I write a Canadian election has just begun and as one would expect, the Trump factor is playing a big role. The Liberal Party has seen a remarkable rebound, going from more than twenty points behind to even with or leading the Conservatives. Support for Quebec sovereignty has fallen from 35% to 29%.
Trump presents himself as a strongman, although it seems he never stops whining. Unfortunately but understandably, the tendency is to search for a counter-strongman. a savior.
Trump is not the only strongman model out there. Carney represents another model, a financial strongman as it were. It is claimed that he has the chops to go mano a mano with Trump. Brain versus brawn.
All this is a reminder of the centralization of power inherent in electoralism. Trump cranks out dozens of executive orders and fancies himself a king. As prime minister, Carney formally incarnates the nation.
Premier Doug Ford of Ontario represents a strongman model closer to Trump. In effect Ford was a Trump supporter until the tariff threat intervened, which Ford has characterized as “like a family member stabbing you in the heart.” He apparently doesn’t get that America First means America First. Ford subsequently became Captain Canada, appearing on American cable news networks, and calling a snap election to take advantage of the situation. He attempted to impose a 25% surcharge on electricity Ontario exports to several American states, but quickly backed down when Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Canada from 25 to 50 percent. Trump “needed to break some guy in Ontario“ was how American commerce secretary Howard Lutnick disparagingly and crudely put it.
Danielle Smith of Alberta, clearly the Canadian premier ideologically closest to trumpism, has travelled to Mar-a-Lago to cozy up to Trump and has appeared on far right American podcasts. She has ruled out curtailing oil shipments to the U.S., the potential trade war weapon that would have the most damaging effect. She has argued on a far right American podcast that Trump should put off his tariffs until after the elections in order to assist Poilievre’s electoral chances.
Techno-industrial Nightmare
“Drill, baby, drill,” his mantra on the campaign trail, sums up trumpism: oil barons and billionaires. Claiming that climate change is a “hoax,” Trump has declared a no holds barred war on the environment. Located next to the U.S., Canada will be severely affected.
Trump says Canada has nothing the U.S. needs and at the same time that Canada must become a “cherished” U.S. state. He may not need Canada but it seems there are lots of things he wants. His goal is to destroy Canadian manufacturing in order to to bolster American manufacturing, making Canada purely a provider of natural resources.
But wherever it is produced, a car remains an earth destroying monster. We are already too industrialized and digitalized.
Canada is lakes and rivers and forests and mountains. Natural resources are better off left in the ground.
Comments Off on Call to Action Against the Canadian Mining Company Aclara: #FueraMineraAclara
Feb272025
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
In the Spanish-language document annexed below, the campaign identifies Aclara’s Canadian mailing address as 666 Burrard Street, Suite 1700, in Vancouver, BC. In addition, the University of Toronto has cooperated with the company on research.
We want the hills of Penco free from extractivism.
Communities from Penco, Lirqué, Tomé and surrounding areas have been struggling against a rare earth mining project for more than ten years.
It was called Biolantánidos at first, now Minera Aclara.
We intend to revitalize this struggle against these death facilities, inform communities about its dangers and consequences, and to weave active networks. For this reason, together with collectives and movements in defense of the hills of Penco, we’ve created the #FueraMineraAclara campaign, in circulation across alternative media, free radios and newsites from Abya Yala (the so-called American continent) and the planet.
Against a strong intervention from this corporation over Penco, resistance continues within a community that loves, values and coexists with the natural environment, generating a continued land defense, versus the military and technological interests of global power and devastation companies.
Currently Penco is in the sight of global extractivism. The Aclara Resource company, publicly traded in Toronto, would offer the US and Canada rare earth production levels competitive to China, after two extraction facilities are built, one in Penco (Chile) and another in Goiás (Brazil).
We call everyone to join this campaign with activities, propaganda, talks, graffiti, rallies and everything within our imaginations, to stop the destruction of the hills of Penco. This is only the start of an extractivist vanguard looking for rare earths in the South.
Join us and together we’ll defend the forests and hills of Penco.
#FueraMineraAclara
We want the hills of Penco free from extractivism.
MINERA ACLARA: Tierras Raras, geopolítica y extracción en Abya Yala*
Minera Aclara, es un proyecto impulsado por la empresa REE UNO SPA, hoy presentada como ACLARA Resources, en el que se pretende extraer Tierras Raras desde dos módulos, uno en los cerros de Penco, territorio ocupado por el estado chileno y en Goiás, territorio brasilero. Las tierras raras son un conjunto de 17 minerales principalmente utilizados para el armamentismo y la industria tecnológica (baterías, autos eléctricos de lujo, turbinas eólicas, etc.) todo lo que se vende hoy como tecnologías verdes. Estas tecnologías, que no son de uso masivo, sino de las industrias, las élites militares y económicas, se sostienen en base a la extracción de materias primas de Abya Yala y otros territorios, que han enfrentado históricamente la colonización por parte de las potencias mundiales. Actualmente Penco y Goiás son territorios que se encuentran en el ojo mundial del extractivismo, representando un punto estratégico en la guerra por el control de la producción de estas sustancias.
El proyecto que se pretende instalar en Penco, consiste en tres zonas de extracción de Tierras Raras, que consisten en minas de tajo abierto que tendrán un diámetro aproximado de 45 hectáreas, lo que equivale a 45 canchas de futbol y una profundidad de entre 40 a 60 metros, que es donde se encuentran las concentraciones de estos minerales. Por otra parte el módulo que pretenden instalar en Goiás, comprende un área expansible de 1500 hectáreas.
¿Qué sabemos de la extracción de Tierras Raras?
Por años China ha tenido el control de la extracción de las tierras raras, generando más del 95% de la producción mundial de esta aleación de minerales. Un terrible ejemplo de las consecuencias de esta industria, fue lo que sucedió en Baotou, el mayor proveedor de Tierras Raras en el mundo, en donde un antiguo pastizal fue convertido en un lago tóxico de residuos del proceso de extracción “compuesto por un cóctel de ácidos, metales pesados, carcinógenos y material radiactivo utilizado para procesar los 17 minerales más buscados en el mundo” [1]
Pero este monopolio está siendo amenazado por otras potencias del capital: EEUU y Canadá, quienes pretenden competir contra China para controlar la extracción de tierras raras. Es ahí donde los territorios de Abya Yala, desde la mirada colonialista de estos dos países, aparecen como proveedores fundamentales para llevar a cabo este plan, al igual que Boutu lo fue para China. Actualmente la empresa Minera Aclara, se muestra hacia el exterior como una alternativa “sustentable” al mercado extractivista Chino, y pretende competir contra el control chino a partir de la extracción de Tierras Raras en Goiás, Brasil y en Penco, $hile.
En $hile sólo en la región del Biobío, la empresa Aclara Resourse ha obtenido derechos de agua de Penco Tomé y Florida [2], así como también concesiones de exploración minera en 24.300 hectáreas sólo en Florida (39% de la comuna), con un total de 27.000 hectáreas constituidas en diferentes territorios y 23.500 hectáreas en tramitación, sumando a territorios como: Santa Juana, Concepción, Tomé, Chiguayante, Hualqui, Ranquil y Quillón. Durante el mes de noviembre del 2024 Minera Aclara
por medio de su director general Ramón Barúa, anunció el aumento de estas exploraciones, tras una millonaria subvención entregada por la CORFO (Corporación de fomento de la producción) a la empresa para “desarrollar tecnología de exploración utilizando modelos de inteligencia artificial”[3] la cual consiste ni mas ni menos que en US $730.000.
En Brasil, Aclara busca extraer 191 toneladas de minerales desde el yacimiento Carina, ubicado en Nova Roma al noreste del estado de Goiás, en la zona central de Brasil. Esta cantidad representa el 13% de la producción de China. Actualmente este proyecto también se encuentra en proceso de evaluación y según la empresa, este 2025 tras seguir una serie de pasos, entregarían su Estudio de Impacto Ambiental. El módulo Carina, sería de mayor proporción que el de los cerros de Penco.
¿Quienes son los dueños de Aclara Resourse?
Aclara Resources es una empresa inscrita en la bolsa de valores de Toronto, Pero ha pasado por muchas manos. El año 2011 se constituyó en $hile la Sociedad REE Uno Spa, creada por ex asesor de la sub secretaría del medio ambiente del primer gobierno de Piñera, Manuel José Barros Lecaros. Para el 2012 los únicos accionistas eran Barros Lecaros y el Fondo de inversión privado Lantánidos. En este momento la firma inscribe 200 mil hectáreas de tierra para la posible explotación minera en $hile, repartidas entre las regiones del Maule, Ñuble, Biobío y La Araucanía.
Posteriormente la firma incorporó capitales extranjeros del grupo Hochschild, de origen peruano, con casa matriz en Londres. El año 2018 este grupo pasa a ser el dueño de la empresa tras adquirir el 93,8% de las acciones y con esto el control de REE Uno Spa.
El año 2021 HochschildMining transfirió la propiedad de REE Uno Spa desde Londres, por medio de un paraíso fiscal, a la bolsa de valores de Toronto, Canadá, donde es manejada por Aclara Resouce.
Posteriormente, según informó el periódico Resumen.cl en abril del 2024, la empresa anunció que el grupo CAP (anteriormente a cargo de la siderúrgica chilena Huachipato, cerrada por ellos mismos recientemente) paso a ser propietario de un 20% de REE Uno Spa, quedando como “subsidiaria a cargo del proyecto que pretende instalarse en los cerros de Penco”. Esto sucedió meses antes del cierre de Huachipato, hecho que fue aprovechado por el ampresariado chileno y el estado para levantar el llamado “Plan de Fortalecimiento Industrial” que califica al proyecto de extracción de tierras raras de Aclara Resource como prioritario.[4]
Esta maraña de traspasos, se podría resumir finalmente en que la empresa siempre ha sido REE Uno Spa, que el grupo Hochschild es el accionista mayoritario, que las empresas accionistas como CAP quedan en vinculación con Hochschild y todos los proyectos mineros que estos se encuentran desarrollando en relación a las tierras raras y que REE Uno Spa está siendo operada por medio de Aclara Resouce desde Toronto.
Las personas que hoy están manejando este proyecto
Hochschildactualmente es manejado por Eduardo Hochschild, presidente, mayor accionista y heredero del conglomerado (que se origina en 1911). También es presidente de Cementos Pacasmayo S.A.A., Director del Banco de Crédito del Perú y Presidente del Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima.
En el directorio compuesto por 8 directores y un secretario, llama la atención la participación de Tracey Kerr, directora no ejecutiva independiente, que ha sido partede múltiples exploraciones mineras. Fue jefa de exploración de la firma Angloamerican, liderando exploraciones en 15 países, entre ellos $hile, en donde esa empresa ya tiene conflictos ambientales, como el de minera Los Bronces Integrado, por dañar y contaminar irreparablemente glaciares.Así mismo, Kerr es directora no ejecutiva de antofagast PLC. del grupo Lucksic dedicada a la extracción de cobre.
Respecto a Aclara Resource, en enero del 2025 la empresa nombró como director nacional para Brasil a Murilo Nagato, quien fue bienvenido por el actual director general de Aclara en Chile: Ramón Barúa, quien anteriormente era el director financiero del grupo Hochschild.
A su vez, en $hile quien representa a la empresa en su cometido de persuadir a la comunidad de Penco es Nelson Donoso, gerente general de la minera, que asume el cargo tras la renuncia de Rodrigo Ceballos (en medio del rechazo generalizado de Penco y Lirquén al proyecto). Donoso es también director de la Cámara de Producción y Comercio Biobío y parte del directorio del CFT (Centro de Formación Técnica) Estatal Región del Biobío. A Nelson Donoso lo acompañan un equipo de “profesionales” jóvenes al momento de confrontar a la comunidad. En este sentido Fernando Illanes, gerente de valor social, es un personaje ya reconocido y participe de las estrategias de intervención social y comunitaria de la minera.
LXS ANIMALES…
Animales que sufrirían las consecuencias en Penco:
Las zonas de extracción y la de deposición, alterarán profundamente las rutas de traslado y movimiento del Pudú, y con esto dañarían sus procesos de alimentación y reproducción. Este mismo efecto se vería en otros animales altamente vulnerables gracias al antropocentrismo, entre los cuales encontramos Pumas, Güiñas y Monitos del Monte. En el lugar también habitan aves como el Chucao, Cherkán, Fiofío, Sietecolores, Lechuzas, Buhos, entre otros, además de ser zona de flujo y descanzo de miles de aves costeras. De igual manera, podemos encontrar reptiles como la Lagartija de Shroeder y la Rana Rosacea de Hojarasca.
Animales que sufrirían las consecuencias en Goiás:
La instalación de Módulo Carina alterará el habitat de múltiples especies. En esta zona se verán afectados animales endémicos como los zorros de campo, el armadillo potepeute del norte, actualmente en estado de vulnerabilidad, culebras como la Anilius Scytale, el Mico estrella, y peces como el Caballo de la Vea y Corydoras Aeneus, entre otros.
PRESENCIA EN DISTINTOS PAÍSES
En Penco, Región de biobío, $hile, la empresa instaló una sede que llaman “Casa Aclara” ubicada en calle Las Heras 565, a una cuadra de la plaza de Penco, utilizada para lavar su imagen y generar estrategias de intervención comunitaria.
De igual manera, la empresa instaló una planta que llaman “Centro demostrativo”, ubicada en San Pedro de La Paz, específicamente en el KM 10 del camino a Coronel, en la bodega 8 C y D, en donde la empresa aparte de experimentar con el proceso que llama hipócritamente “Cosecha Circular de Minerales”, hace recorridos a grupos de personas (como forma de intervención y persuasión social). En declaraciones la firma ha anunciado que en esta planta se procesarán arcillas traídas desde el Módulo Carina desde Brasil.
Sus oficinas publicadas son en Santiago, $hile, Av. Cerro el Plomo 5630, Piso 15 Las Condes. En Belo Horizontesus oficinas parecen ubicadas enRua Bernardo Guimarães, 245, 8º andar, sala 701 Funcionários, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, CEP 30140-080, Brasil. Y como la firma es manejada desde Canadá, en su página figura la dirección Suite 1700, 666 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6C 2X8, Canadá.
El grupo Hochschild Mining, dueño de Aclara Resource, registra en la dirección 21 Gloucester Place, London, W1U 8HR, United Kingdom. En Perú en Calle La Colonia No. 180 Urb. El Vivero de Monterrico, Santiago de Surco, Lima 15023. En Argentina en Av. Santa Fe 2755 piso 9 (C1425BGC) Capital Federal y en Brasil en Rua Antônio de Albuquerque 330 sala 601, Savassi Belo Horizonte Minas Gerais – CEP: 30112-010.
La empresa mantiene cooperación con la Universidad de Toronto, Canadá, debido a su inscripción en la bolsa de valores de dicha ciudad. En Chile mantienen alianzas con la Universidad San Sebastián, Universidad de Concepción e Inacap.
La extracción de Tierras Raras es continuidad del colonialismo y de la devastación capitalista. Hoy la extracción de estas sustancias es la base para la reproducción del capitalismo verde y su falsa sustentabilidad que no es más que muerte, armamentismo, control y especismo.
Franklin Lopez looks back on grassroots movement media and the creation of the documentary film, Yintah.
In the summer of 2011, I was exhausted—physically, mentally, creatively. I’d just finished hauling my feature film, END:CIV, across North America, and when I got back to Vancouver, I didn’t even have a place to sleep. So, I did what many DIY filmmakers do: I moved into my van.
That’s when I got an invitation that would change everything: the Unist’ot’en Clan asked me to bring my film to their territory. I piled a crew of anarchist friends into my old camper van, and we headed north to the Wet’suwet’en yintah (land). At the time, I had no clue I was stepping onto ground zero for a legendary fight against pipelines.
Turns out, the Wet’suwet’en were gearing up to resist thirteen proposed oil and gas pipelines crossing their unceded lands—projects like the Pacific Trails fracked-gas pipeline and Enbridge’s Northern Gateway tar sands line. “The Wet’suwet’en” in those days basically meant three people: Freda Huson, Toghestiy (now known as Chief Dini Ze Smogelgem), and Mel Bazil, all determined to protect the Wedzin Kwa River from potential pipeline ruptures. Once I tasted that ice-cold water straight from the river, I understood exactly why they were putting everything on the line.
We started off screening END:CIV in Witset (then Moricetown) and Smithers, the nearby settler town. At the time, a major focus of my film work was decolonization and climate change—so the timing couldn’t have been better. Like many informed people, I believed that if we didn’t halt oil and gas production, our planet would face catastrophic climate chaos. Coming from a family of Boricua anti-colonial fighters, I also found it easy to connect with my new friends on the territory. Then my crew and I headed deeper into the bush to attend an action camp at Unist’ot’en Camp. Back then, it was just one cabin built squarely on the proposed Pacific Trails pipeline route—a bold statement that no pipeline would pass without resistance. Little did we know the strategy sessions in that tiny cabin would spark a movement that would eventually shake Canada to its core.
Documenting Resistance: Oil Gateway and the Early Days
During that first visit, I started filming. I talked with Freda, Toghestiy, and Mel, capturing some of the earliest footage from Unist’ot’en Camp. Those interviews would form part of my short doc, Oil Gateway, which laid out the bigger picture: the tangle of pipelines threatening so-called British Columbia. At the time, subMedia, my anarchist media project, was basically just me, operating on the principle of “rapid release and share.” In other words, frontline struggles need their story told right now, not stashed away for some festival circuit months or years down the road.
After another grueling year of grassroots touring (read: sleeping on couches and eating from dumpsters) END:CIV around Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Europe, I promised to return to the yintah. By 2012, the Unist’ot’en Camp had grown from that one cabin into a bustling center for resistance. I was humbled to see around 150 people attend the action camp, with many mentioning they first learned about Unist’ot’en through Oil Gateway. It was clear that pipelines were choke points in the fossil fuel machine, and documenting the fight to stop them became my obsession. So I released a second short doc, The Action Camp, showing how Unist’ot’en was evolving into a force to be reckoned with.
Planting the Seeds of Yintah the Film
In 2012, I met filmmaker Sam Vinal of Mutual Aid Media, who was already passionate about the Unist’ot’en struggle. He wanted to make a full-length doc, but my style—rapid release and share —didn’t mesh with the slower festival and grant world. Sam, along with his then-partner, Alexandra Kotcheff, decided to immerse themselves in the yintah, filming extensively at Unist’ot’en. That laid the groundwork for what would become Yintah the film —and kicked off a decade-long collaboration between me and Sam.
Meanwhile, I moved to Montreal and started documenting the movement against oil and gas pipelines in eastern Canada. I teamed up with Amanda Lickers of Reclaim Turtle Island to produce a film exposing the pipeline threats in the region. While covering a Mi’kmaq anti-fracking blockade in Elsipigtog, New Brunswick, I witnessed the lengths the Canadian state would go to shield private extractive projects and trample Indigenous sovereignty. The violent RCMP raid gave me a glimpse of things to come on the yintah but also gave me hope, as hundreds of supporters descended on Elsipigtog to support the anti-fracking fight, and eventually the fracking company pulled out. During that time, I crossed paths with producer Andrea Schmidt from Al Jazeera—a coincidence that turned out to be huge later on.
In 2014, I was back at Unist’ot’en with Amanda Lickers, interviewing Freda and Toghestiy. During that trip, I also met Michael Toledano, a Vice News stringer reporting on the unfolding resistance. In the footage we captured, Freda made a statement that turned out to be prophetic: if the Canadian government attacked, allies would rise up to shut down Canada.
AJ+ and Going Viral
Soon afterward, Andrea Schmidt, now at AJ+, asked me to produce a short documentary on the Wet’suwet’en fight. I got approval from the camp and went back to film. That short documentary reached over a million viewers on Facebook, further helping thrust the Unist’ot’en Camp into the international spotlight. It included a powerful moment where Freda confronted an Enbridge executive, telling her they did not have consent to build their pipeline. Soon after, Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline quietly died.
In 2015, I got a frantic message from Michael Toledano, The RCMP had rolled up on the Unist’ot’en bridge. One of my best friends was getting married that weekend, but he understood when I told him, “Dude, I have to go.” I scrambled to get a plane ticket and headed north. After seeing Michael’s footage, I urged the Unist’ot’en women to post it immediately. Rapid release and share! They agreed, and I edited the video on the spot—it blew up online. Overnight, the RCMP faced widespread backlash and backed off—for a while.
Later that year, I produced Holding Their Ground, a follow-up AJ+ documentary that netted nine million views on Facebook alone. This documentary featured a previously published viral clip of Chevron execs being turned away at the Unist’ot’en bridge, proving that front-line footage can be released in real time and still have a major impact later. This footage is also featured in our film INVASION as well as in Yintah.
Naval resistance in the west, shutting down pipelines in the east.
While on that trip out west, I got a call from an anarchist comrade, telling me that Tsimshians on the coast needed some visibility for their fight to stop a liquefied natural gas (LNG) port from being built on their waters. I jumped at the opportunity, and while visiting their camp, I captured powerful images of Tsimshian fishermen blocking Petronas workers from conducting survey work. The Tsimshians continued their fight, and by 2017 the LNG project was dead.
This was a very special time, and it felt like we were riding a wave. My partner was several months pregnant, and she and I organized a series of events in Montreal featuring Freda, Toghestiy, and Felipe Uncacia, an Indigenous leader from Colombia. We also took advantage of this trip to connect them to Kanienkeha’ka (Mohawk) communities in the region, including stops in Kanehsatà:ke, Kahnawake, and Akwesasne.
The following year, my child was born. Watching this tiny, noisy being taking his first breaths made me reflect on the kind of world I was bringing him into. Stepping away from the struggle wasn’t an option—I had to stay in the ring and keep fighting against colonialism and capitalism for his future and ours.
2019: The RCMP Raids and a Movement Under Siege
By late 2018, the Gidim’ten Clan asserted their right to control access to their territory, meaning no Coastal GasLink (CGL) workers could pass. I teamed up with Sam Vinal and Michael Toledano to find more filmmakers to document this pivotal moment. At subMedia, now a collective of four, we churned out videos and agitation clips and video updates in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en.
Led by Molly Wickham, Gidim’ten land defenders and anarchists set up a checkpoint to stop CGL vehicles. The RCMP responded with paramilitary-style force, armed with semi-automatic rifles, arresting Molly and several others. Fearing a similar outcome, the Unist’ot’en leadership took down their blockade. It was heartbreaking to watch, and Sam and Michael filmed every moment.
That spring, after 25 years of subMedia, I needed a break. I was burned out, broke, and bummed out. I took my family west, and we visited Gidimt’en and Unist’ot’en, where the sight of cops and pipeline workers on once-autonomous land really sank my spirits. That’s when I got the idea to launch Amplifier Films, a new project dedicated to uplifting anti-colonial and anti-capitalist movements across Turtle Island. Around then, Sam and Michael decided to merge their footage to finish the film that had been percolating for years. Freda asked me to edit, and the timing was perfect. That fall, we produced INVASION, a short doc about the daily reality at Unist’ot’en under growing RCMP and CGL pressure. I edited INVASION at Amplifier Films in Montreal, reusing some of the best bits from my AJ+ docs and subMedia clips, including a tense confrontation between Tilly (a St’át’imc woman) and Prime Minister Trudeau.
We released INVASION online right as Freda declared that CGL workers had to vacate the territory or risk being blocked. The doc became a key tool for organizers prepping for another big clash with the police. It also premiered in Hot Docs and other prestigious festivals, despite being freely available online for months. Which just goes to show: rapid release and sharing is what movements need most.
Sure enough, raids began once again, culminating in a full-on assault on Unist’ot’en in early 2020. The footage of the RCMP tearing down the gate and arresting Freda and other defenders was intense. But it sparked a massive wave of solidarity actions across Canada. Soon after, Mohawks in Tyendinaga blocked CN Rail lines, kicking off “Shutdown Canada” as railways, highways, and ports were barricaded by anarchists and allies in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en. It was a watershed moment for Indigenous-led resistance.
Making Yintah and Reaching the Breaking Point
Riding that wave of momentum, Sam and I took Yintah to the Big Sky Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. We pitched it to a live audience and secured our first round of funding—enough to produce materials for bigger grants. Then COVID hit, but we pressed on, cutting a trailer and rough scenes for potential funders. Despite having a decade’s worth of incredible footage, we struggled to find backing.
That’s when Montreal’s Eyesteelfilm came on board. Known for their award-winning docs, they loved our trailer and partnered with us to help secure funding and a CBC broadcast deal. We also asked two Wet’suwet’en women—Jen Wickham and Brenda Michel—to join the team, following the principle of “Narrative Sovereignty,” so that Wet’suwet’en voices could help shape every stage of the film.
By fall 2021, we’d raised over our budget goals for Yintah, and I was in the thick of editing. We had more than 1,000 hours of footage spanning a decade. Meanwhile, new images kept rolling in—Coyote Camp rose up with the help of anarchists. CGL equipment was commandeered and roads were destroyed and blocked. Haudenauseane allies from out east travelled to the yintah to join the fight. Then the RCMP launched another brutal raid, and Molly Wickham, Michael Toledano, and others were arrested. I spent a weekend trying to bail Michael out and make sure the footage didn’t vanish into the RCMP’s hands.
Around this time, following hit pieces in far-right media outlets, the Alberta government launched a petition asking Canadians to complain to the CBC about my involvement in Yintah because I identify as an anarchist. Despite it all, we hit our production milestones. In spring 2022, we returned to Wet’suwet’en territory for a consultation where members of Gidimt’en and Unist’ot’en reviewed the scenes. By June, I had a four-hour assembly edit and a story document. A ten-minute sequence I edited even won an award at Cannes, and we got invited to True/False’s rough-cut weekend to get feedback from industry pros.
But the unrelenting pressure eventually took its toll and our dedicated team was submerged in conflictual tensions. Panic attacks, brutal insomnia, and not being there for my family forced me to make one of the toughest calls of my career: after three years on Yintah, I quit.
Reflections, Redemption, and Moving Forward
I spent the next couple of years in a dark place, hit by slanderous rumors about my departure and uncertain about ever picking up a camera again. Then, in spring 2024 right as Yintah was premiering at True/False—I found myself freezing my 52 years old ass off at another blockade, camera rolling, helping an Indigenous community in so-called Quebec document their fight against destructive logging. And once again, the rapid share & release footage proved useful in defending the land.
That fall, I finally got to watch Yintah. I was thrilled to see so much of the editing I’d done remain in place, including the Shutdown Canada sequence (what my friends call “Yintah’s subMedia moment”) set to The Halluci Nation’s “Landback.” A lot of the overall structure still followed the story outline I’d left behind. Its reach blew my mind: Netflix picked it up for North America, Canadians can watch it free on YouTube (VPNs work too), and it even got pirated on YTS! For a movement doc, that’s about as mainstream as it gets.
The scope of this whole saga is still jaw-dropping. A small cabin at Unist’ot’en grew into a global symbol of Indigenous sovereignty, standing against a massive corporate onslaught. But the fight isn’t over—with Coastal GasLink completed, Land defenders continue to face state repression and Canada has approved more pipelines to cross Wet’suwet’en yintah, and other neighboring Indigenous territories.
As for me, I’m pouring my energy into Amplifier Films. One of our first projects is “A Red Road to the West Bank,” which tells the story of Oka Crisis vet Clifton Ariwakehte Nicholas during his trip to Palestine. Our goal is to explore the similarities between the plight of the Palestinians and that of Indigenous people in Turtle Island. Stay tuned for that.
Ultimately, this story is bigger than pipelines. It’s about land, future generations, and what it means to be free. The Wet’suwet’en have shown the world what unwavering resistance looks like—anarchists have demonstrated the power of solidarity, and it’s on all of us to keep that flame alive.
Postscript: Yintah Missing Credits
There are a number of people who helped with Yintah who were not listed in the credits, but whose free labor, particularly at the beginning when we had no cash, was priceless.
Cybergeek Antoine Beaupré for his creation of the custom software video-proxy-magic, which allowed me to crunch 80TB of video into a 5TB drive while keeping the folder structure intact. This helped us share all the footage with the other producers and assistant editors without having to spend thousands on large hard drive arrays.
Many thanks to the post-production interns from the University of the West of England Bristol who helped us organize footage during the early days: Charlotte Butler Blondel, Robert Henman, and George Willmott. Also, much gratitude to Stephen Presence of the Radical Film Network for connecting them with me. A shout-out as well to Marius Fernandes, who did a short stint as an assistant editor.
Ryan Hurst was the first editor for Yintah a few years before this incarnation. A few of his sequences made it in the final film and I rebuilt a lot of his edit projects when doing the footage review.
Big ups to Macdonald Stainsby—he is thanked in the credits, but it should be known that his work in connecting Freda, Toghestiy, and Mel to other troublemakers like me was invaluable. His anti–tar sands organizing and his critiques of environmental NGOs had a huge influence on my work.
Finally, I want to extend my deepest thanks to all the anarchists and anti-authoritarians who poured so much of themselves into this struggle. Your tireless solidarity—often at great personal risk—helped propel the fight farther than anyone imagined. We couldn’t have come this far without you.
Thank you for reading and for standing with the Wet’suwet’en and Indigenous communities everywhere defending their homelands.
Cameras were blocked, tactics practiced and sharpened, trust and affinity were built and clarified. Taking advantage of these dark and long nights, a festive crew piled up some scavenged Christmas trees, blocking the CN tracks on the property of Ray-Mont Logistics in Hochelaga’s Terrain Vague.
A big bonfire and joyful celebration ensued, and we made an escape before the security guards made their regular rounds – with meters high flames burning into the skyline long after we left.
In the yard beside, a graff on an ugly shipping container read ‘LET’S BURN INDUSTRIALISM!’.
Bonne annee! We will mark the passage of time whenever we want, hopefully also by slowly marking the downfall of our targets.
This zine looks at the errors made in the 2022 film How to Blow Up a Pipeline and imagines how the film would have looked if the affinity group took security seriously. Fiction shapes reality, and the analysis is meant to help counter the unsafe practices we see on screen.
Earlier this year, Amplifier Films was invited by Shanipiap, a courageous Innu land defender, to help share her story and amplify the call for action from the heart of her ancestral territory near Lac St-Jean, Quebec.
This video captures the poignant moment Shanipiap stopped a massive logging truck to make a powerful statement: her people are still here, still protecting the land that has always been theirs. With a sacred fire burning in the background, a symbol of hope and resistance, Shanipiap and her community are standing firm against relentless industrial encroachment by forestry, mining, and oil companies, which have devastated vast parts of their homeland.
For generations, the Innu have honored their duty as protectors of the forest, water, and wildlife, fostering a deep connection to Mother Earth. But with the exploitation of Quebec’s natural resources accelerating since the James Bay Agreement, the stakes have never been higher. The sacred fire in Dolbeau/Mistassini is not just a call for help—it’s a declaration of survival and resilience.
Through this film, we hope to amplify the voices of those on the frontlines of this struggle and inspire action. Learn more about the Petapan Treaty, the Innu’s ongoing fight, and how you can stand in solidarity to protect the future of these lands and their people.