For distribution at Standing Rock solidarity initatives, to disprove the accusations against those who wear masks and counter narratives of pacifism.
From SubMedia.tv
In less than a year seven oil pipelines in the US and Canada have been shutdown by climate activists, costing oil companies millions. Here’s how they did it.
CORRECTION: In our haste to produce a video homage to Jean Leger, we mis-identified the three people in Sarnia as women, when two identify as queer and one as non-gender binary. We apologize for this oversight and will do our best to research the gender identities of people in our videos.
In Montreal, while representatives from 191 governments met in talks under the umbrella of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN agency to discuss “security environments” in international aviation, we took action to expose their hypocrisy and affirm our solidarity with the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes (NDDL).
On the eve of the end of the week of international mobilization against the airport NDDL and it’s world, we held banners for half and hour in support of the ZAD at the ICAO Headquarters, to disrupt, if only for moments, their barren universe. The ZAD in NDDL is not only a foot in the mouth of the French government, AGO Vinci, and all the shareholders of this airport project, but also an example of autonomy, self-defense and a breach of their attempt to commodify everything around them.
Threats are intensifying against the ZAD and we need to take note of the situation, despite the ocean between us; to affirm our active solidarity and full support to this gratifying example of resistance whose ethincs and objectives go beyond the grove itself! Expulsion or not, we’ll be there to support the ZAD as much as we can, because it represents for us one of the greatest signs of hope and inspiration of our time, not only for our political struggles and the living earth, but also on all aspects of the existing (food autonomy, social relationships, love, everyday life and others)!
VINCI, RESISTANCE, SABOTAGE
VIVE LA COMMUNE
VIVE LA ZAD
YOUR COMRADES AND FRIENDS IN MONTREAL
From It’s Going Down
This summer, during nocturnal escapades, around thirty pylons had bolts removed. They were unbolted to different degrees, on some there are bars missing, others shake with the wind, threatening to collapse. The construction of hydroelectric dams has devastated territories, polluted rivers and ravaged life that exists there. It isn’t a clean energy. High-tension lines are part of a large network of energy transportation infrastructures, along with pipelines, ports, highways, airports, etc. Their construction serves only one goal: industrial development. Let’s sabotage the world that needs such constructions, in all its forms. We used ratchets and 15/16 and 1 1/8 sized parts.
Friends of the night
From subMedia.tv
Over 50 indigenous communities in the US and Canada, signed a historic pact to stop the expansion of Canada’s Tar Sands oil extraction project.
Indigenous Leaders endorsed a treaty, in which they vow to support each other to stop infrastructure that would aid further development of the “Tar Sands.”
For more info go to treatyalliance.org
From It’s Going Down
A Love Letter to Sacred Stone Camp
[from Hamilton, ON]
For weeks, your numbers and our hearts have swelled in unison.
The world is watching as you spark the revolution.
We all wish that we could join you but realize we have ways to help from here.
We have work to do right here.
And so we offer up a small act of resistance. Of defiance.
A rejection of their narrative.
Enbridge is funding the Dakota Access pipeline, as well as Line 9 here.
As of one week ago, a merger made them the largest energy delivery company on Turtle Island.
But the era of oil snakes is over.
Gone are the days where companies can profit off death and destruction unopposed.
Enbridge has blood on their hands.
We have made this clear by using our hands to cover their Hamilton office in red prints.
A message was left on the windows to have it known we stand in solidarity.
There are those that will conflate this with an act of violence.
Yet stay silent as corporations use the mouths of hounds as weapons against women and children.
These are people who value property above people.
Things over beings.
Some of us have blood responsibilities to protect the land and water.
The rest have the responsibility to support those protectors.
We fight for the water and land. For life.
And for a world where we don’t have to.
We are with you. We are watching.
We stand with Standing Rock.
From Submedia.tv
A week of Anti-Pipeline resistance kicked off with a disruption of the meetings of the National Energy Board which seeks to approve the Energy East Pipeline, a project that aims to transport oil from Alberta’s Tar Sands to the East Coast. The disruption successfully shut down the meetings indefinitely.
This was followed up by a protest in front of Local 144, a pro-pipeline union of welders and plumbers, implicated in a series of scandals of corruption and violent intimidation, and who partner with oil companies like Petro Canada and Shell.
Union members tried to intimidate protesters and media. But the crew stayed on.
That is, Until the union members called the cops
From Interruption
This morning we hung a banner on a hydro-line pylon in St-Alphonse-Rodrirguez where the high tension lines cross Highway 343. The banner states “NO to the line 735 and its world.” Hydro-Québec wants to contruct a new line capable of transporting 735,000 volts at a time beside the line that already exists.
We won’t stop in the face of this new project that Hydro-Québec and its world is trying to impose upon us. Solidarity with those who continue to resist being pushed out because of the new projects of Hydro-Québec.
The struggle continues…
From Interruption
735 000 volts. This is what will pass through the new very high tension line that Hydro-Quebec wants to construct as of this year. The trajectory of this line is 400km long and will transport electricity from the Chamouchouane central to Sanguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, passing through Lanaudiere, towards an eventual post that does not exist at the moment, in Terrebonne, called Judith-Jasmin. This will be linked to the Montreal region by a second segment of 19 km towards the Bout-de-l’Ile post. This is the most important hydro line in 20 years, estimated at 1,3 billion dollars. In fact, it’s the 12th line of this scale in so-called “Quebec”.
But firstly, they need to clear-cut the path where pylons will be planted. The deforestation has already begun in the north and in Lanaudiere. It has caused multiple expropriations and partially crosses the hunting grounds of Attikamekws in the north, St-Michel-des-Saints, St-Zenon, Ste-Emelie-de-l’Energie, St-Alphonse-de-Rodriguez, Rawdon, etc.
The project has been contested by many residents, farmers and ecologists for the past 6 years: “Useless, environmentally devastating and economically unjustified” (Citizens Under High-Tension). Beyond any doubts, it is a categorical refusal. The BAPE (Bureau of public audiences on the environment) has recommended the government wait until they have more information, to deepen the study of the impact and to take into consideration the opposition of the area. Nonetheless, the State has adopted a decree imposing the pursuit of the construction. Hydro-Quebec gave 4 million dollars in compensation to the Regional County Municipality of Lanaudiere and another one million to Manawan as compensation to make them swallow their salads. But there are still people who oppose; most have land concerns, they are angry property owners because the value of their houses will decrease or because they have farms and their animals can’t handle the strong electromagnetic fields of these high-tension lines. They refuse to sign the letters sent by Hydro-Quebec that requests residents permission to cut trees on their lands as Hydro will not have compensated them personally in cash. In response Hydro is harassing them and has obtained an injunction. Even if it is heartwarming for people to be mobilizing against Hydro-Quebec, this refusal only slows the process of systemic destruction and doesn’t aspire to halt it. We can even say that the motives of this opposition are absolutely contradictory to the desires of wild freedom that live in us. Our desire is to expand the field of possibilities, so we wish to propose other avenues to break the realization of this hydro project. As of this moment, the project is going ahead and the deforestation has already begun.
Another national myth
The Hydro-Quebec mafia has no interest in retreating faced with a project like this that represents enormous profit. In fact, the era of combustible fossil fuels is in decline. Facing the drying up of petroleum resources, the costs of extraction and transportation have become too high. The turn to green has been in the works for a few decades and in this context, hydro-electricity, perceived as a renewable and green energy, becomes a precious commodity. The large global corporations of commerce and finance are in the process of restructuring and transforming the industry and transportation in order to adapt to “green energies”. The new Minister of Transportation of Quebec has for an innovative mission the electrification of public transportation with new hybrid and electrical vehicles. Electrical cars become more and more accessible, Hydro installs battery recharge stations in every corner of so-called “Quebec”, even field vehicles will be electric in the near future. And all this with the objective to maintain the speed and the productivity of the industry. The infrastructure projects of energy transportation, as with roads, railroads, ports, pipelines and airports, are indispensable to the expansion of industry, a tentacular project in itself.
A myth is built around hydro-electricity as a green and renewable energy source. We brag about it almost as if it was the national joy of so-called “Quebec” with its numerous fresh water rivers of high flow. In reality, we should perceive hydro-electricity as an exploitable resource, commodifiable as much as iron, uranium or petroleum. Today, the territory is completely disfigured, there remains only a few high flow rivers that haven’t yet been invaded by dams. The electricity itself that they speak of is actually a gigantic enterprise of ecosystem destruction, of river pollution and the destruction of ways of life of communities that depend on the river for survival. When a dam is constructed, the river is blocked and a reservoir of water that floods a large surface of the territory is created. The river in question overflows from its bed near the dam and dries up along all its length. The trees and plants that have been flooded die and release methane and carbon dioxide into the water and the air. The methane and the carbon dioxide are greenhouse gases; it is reported that 12% of greenhouse gases emitted on the colonized lands of the Canadian State originate from hydro-electric dams. Another consequence of these floods is the methyl-mercury contamination of the water, originating from the release of fossilized inorganic mercury in the soil. Once the ground has been flooded by water, the mercury is released and transforms into methyl-mercury, a neurotoxin that is consequentially found in the food chain. The fish, animals and humans that consume it may develop a variety of illnesses, such as cardiovascular disorders and cancer. It has been accordingly discouraged for people to consume the fish of these rivers for a period of 30 years following the flooding of a basin. To summarize, the plentitude of fresh-water rivers of so-called “Quebec”, in the past potable, have all become toxic. The animals and the humans that depend on them for drinking water and food are poisoning themselves or losing a source of potable water. As a result: thousands year-old ecosystems and ancestral forms of life disturbed and destroyed.
The first intention of Hydro-Quebec is evidently the creation of consumer markets with the United-States, with a pretty discourse singing praise for hydro-electricy as being cleaner than coal electricity. On their website, they make the comparison. What they don’t say, is that its the shitty industry put in place with its logic of monopolization since the beginning of colonization by the Europeans 500 years ago that causes the destruction of life. Hydro-Quebec therefore explores all the american markets and talks of even undertaking other projects of dam construction for the few fresh water rivers still intact. They obviously don’t have any reservations regarding the real damages caused by their thirst for wealth.
The bleeding of electricity
Hydro-Quebec owns approximately 62 hydro-electric centres. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the great rivers of the James Bay area and the North Shore have been used to feed a hydro-electric complex (i.e. the Caniapiscau, the Opinaca, the Eastmain and Ruper), and seriously disrupted following the installation of hydro-electric centers (i.e. Sainte-Marguerite, the Romaine and Toulnustouc). These famous high tension lines transport the electricity coming from the North and supplied to the entire province, its urban centers, its suburbs, its industries and its mines. As an example, supplying a single mine in heating and electricity, to render its below ground environment inhabitable for the people who work in it, is the equivalent energy consumption of a city like Trois-Rivieres. As those who oppose the project say, the province has no need to produce more electricity. In fact, most of the electricity produced is already surplus. At the moment we consume only 15% of the electricity produced, the rest is lost through transportation, or even watered because it isn’t profitable to stockpile it in batteries. Actually, if the produced current isn’t consumed right away, its lost. Therefore, this 735 000 volt line will transport energy coming from the dams in the north: James Bay, Manicouagan, and the new dams of La Romaine on the North-Shore, projects that have faced intense resistance by the inhabitants of the region during the past years. The State accordingly justifies this project by saying the new dams provoke congestion on the existing lines.
Let’s not forget that Hydro-Quebec is a State company that has the monopoly on matters of electrify, that frequently gives contracts to companies with cloudy numbers, that imposes high fees, that expropriates land in exchange for ridiculously low compensation, and who works solely with the goal of favoring the industry. Here, what is important to us goes far beyond the value of houses. There is the annihilation of the environment, a reality erased by all kinds of false publicity of Hydro Quebec. Because in reality, the energy of the industry comes from a carbon thermal center, nuclear reactors or hydroelectricity,the paradigm stays the same: productivity, the pillage of territories and the expansion of the market. No energy dedicated to industry could be clean.
We are fighting to re-appropriate our lives. We have the intention of destroying what destroys nature, because we need it to be well and live healthily. Industry, dams, mines, and deforestation are devastating parasites. It suffices to imagine being a bird flying in the sky contemplating the scenery to realize the devastation that has been initiated is irreversible, to see the holes in the forest, to see the flooded lands in the bassins of the dams. We quickly understand that the ecology is far from being a priority of Hydro Quebec and its shareholders. They pay themselves hunting and fishing trips in resorts for the rich, and appropriate the rest of the lands by buying cottages, they build chains and fences, put up signs that say “private property, access forbidden”. Those responsible for these companies aren’t entitled to forgiveness.
We honour all acts of resistance, we salute the courage of communities struggling for self-determination and wild freedom. We are those who oppose the ravaging deforestation in the forest of Ouareau, with the Cree who are opposed to the clear-cuts in the forest of Broadback, with Six Nations who are also fighting against deforestation in the Red Hill Valley related to the high tension line in the south of so-called “Ontario”, with the Mi’kmaq who are fighting again fracked gas, with the Mohawks who threaten to block the Energy-East pipeline, with those who occupy Lax U’u’la (Lelu island) in blocking the construction of the Pacific Northwest LNG terminal and with all the accomplices with wild and combative spirits.
In this very moment, deforestation of the company of the region has begun, as well as the establishment of access roads. There is still time to stop the construction and it isn’t the State or any representative, even those with good will, who will help us. What are we waiting for?
To contact us: anti735[at]riseup.net
Resistance to LNG on Gitwilgyoots Territory
In late August, a crew of women of Tsimshian, Haida, Nisga, and Gitxsan bloodlines initiated the defense of Lax U’u’la (Lelu Island) and the Flora Bank1 from LNG industry destruction. The Gitwilgyoots Tribe Sm’ogyet Yahaan (hereditary chief) and Ligitgyet Gwis Hawaal (hereditary house leader), and their families began a defense camp on Lax U’u’la, which is Gitwilgyoots traditional hunting and fishing territory. They were also joined by various significant hereditary people from other Tsimshian tribes, and a motley crew of native and non-native outside supporters.
This camp has been set up to prevent any further destruction of their land, as Petronas and Pacific North West LNG (PNW LNG) are planning on building a $11 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Lax U’u’la, which is at the mouth of the Skeena river near Prince Rupert, BC. They have been conducting environmental and archaeological assessments since 2012, which have resulted in over a hundred test hole sites and cut blocks, and have in the process cit down several culturally modified trees. This plant would be fed by 3 pipelines, including the recently provincially-approved Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT), owned by Trans Canada, which crosses through multiple indigenous territories, and which is currently being met with resistance from the Gitxsan people at the Madii Lii encampment. This proposed LNG plant has been opposed not only by the Sm’ogyet Yahaan, but has also been unanimously refused by the 9 allied Tsimshian tribes of Lax Kw’alaams, who turned down a $1.25 billion offer by Petronas at 3 separate meetings in Lax Kw’alaams, Vancouver, and Prince Rupert. Regardless, in preparation for the LNG plant construction, Petronas/PNW LNG have been trying to continue to conduct environmental and engineering assessments around Lax U’u’la, which include test drilling that are actively destroying habitat essential to all the salmon that run throughout the Skeena Watershed.
One of the major rivers that flow into the Skeena is the Wedzin Kwah (so-called Morice/Bulkley), which is the river currently being protected by the Unist’ot’en Clan, grassroots Wet’suwet’en and their supporters. The ‘Unist’ot’en Camp’ was also started to resist mega petro-infrastructure (including another major pipeline project of the Trans Canada corporation). The Unist’ot’en, Madii Lii, and Lax U’u’la are the first three bold frontlines against LNG development in the Skeena Watershed. At the time of this writing, others are organizing towards opening new action fronts in this bioregion.
The importance of the salmon is not abstract or theoretical. In addition to the negative mental health effects of disconnection and destruction of the land, most communities that live within the Skeena watershed rely on the salmon, oolichan, and other seafood to feed their families. Even if you are broke, and can’t afford food at the grocery store, you can still rely on the river’s steady supply of wild salmon to feed your kids and get through the winter. The same can be said of wildlife such as moose, deer, beaver, berries, etc…which would all also be heavily affected if these projects are realized. Many people also maintain a relatively autonomous income within the current capitalist reality by harvesting sustainably from this bounty.
Those who depend on our labour and obedience have always seen people’s ability to sustain themselves independently as a threat. Forced state dependence was and is a goal of colonization. Dependence must be created to limit community mobility to bordered areas (such as villages, cities, or reserves). These areas are easily controlled, and any resistance or insurgence can be monitored and mitigated. Those who know how to live with the seasons and off the land are a threat, as they do not need what the state provides to thrive.
The Canadian state and international corporations are investing in resource extraction projects all across so called Canada. The impact of these extraction projects on life-sustaining resources such as clean water, wild game, and medicinal plants in not an unintentional side-effect of capitalism. It’s killing two birds with one stone. The pipelines, mines, fracked gaslands, and railroad expansions are not individual projects—they are all part of the same effort to maintain a society and lifestyle that is dependent on dwindling natural resources, while at the same time destroying the potential for any life outside of the state’s control.
This struggle is also inextricably connected to indigenous cultural revival, decolonization of the land, our minds and social relationships, anti-patriarchy and genuine reconciliation between natives and non-natives. Of course, this also means the destruction of the state and capitalist economy.
To date, the resistance to Petronas/PNW LNG’s project has mainly been on the water. Their project is still in it’s initial stages, in that there are still some engineering assessments that need to be performed prior to beginning construction on the actual plant. In practice, this has primarily taken the form of trying to prevent the workers from performing any work, and disrupting environmental and engineering assessments. This means escorting environmental surveyors off of the Flora and Agnew Banks, preventing the drill boat from entering and anchoring on the banks, slowing down or turning back charter boats bringing workers to the barges. So far, these efforts have been limited and unfortunately has only temporarily shut down drilling operations. However, with the growing force of warriors and expanding solidarity it is still possible to break Petronas and Christy Clark’s dream.
There is also resistance by re-asserting that Lax U’u’la is used as a place of healing and ceremony. Infrastructure is continually being constructed and there are other preparations for defense of the island itself (which also serve to maintain and expand water operations). Several structures have been built, and once there is less consistent confrontation, there is the intention to use these spaces as a place to teach youth about ancestral ways of living off of the land, and to heal from the continued traumas of colonization.
For thousands of years, communities have sustained themselves by the plentiful offerings from the Skeena River and surrounding landmasses. These resource extraction projects threaten to destroy people’s ability to live off of the land, as opposed to the state. European colonization brought the near extinction of the prairie buffalo, and if we don’t fight, the wild pacific salmon will surely follow.
If we wish to see victory in this struggle against petro-corporations and the Canadian state we must continue to provide solid material support. We also need to proliferate social agitation and disruption of daily life in the population centers throughout this region and beyond.
There are many ways to show solidarity with this ever-expanding and fierce resistance. Funds are always needed for boat fuel/maintenance, and the camp is specifically trying to raise enough money to buy crab traps, new boats, and fishing line so that they continue to harvest food in and around Lax U’u’la, to provide for their elders and communities. You can also always come and visit the region on your own, with a buddy or with a crew to contribute on the ground of this growing defense camp. Struggle is always strengthened by a de-centralized and broad attack, solidarity can also include resistance to industrial developments in your own backyard (Site C Dam, the Trans Mountain and Line 9 being just a few examples). These projects are also facilitated by the bureaucrats who work for the governments and companies and who’s offices are located in urban centres. In the past, solidarity has been shown through noise demonstrations and other actions against these offices and company infrastructures.
You can donate to the Lax U’u’la defense through their GoFundMe page at: http://www.gofundme.com/lelu_island
Useful websites:
Stop Pacific NorthWest LNG/Petronas on Lelu Island—on Facebook
1. A lot of the focus of this struggle has been the eelgrass and the Flora Bank, and how this habitat is essential to development of juvenile salmon that run all throughout the Skeena. While we don’t want to diminish the importance of this habitat, we also recognize that these crucial areas do not exist in isolation. The Flora Bank can not be separated from Agnew Bank, the surrounding landmasses, and the currents, sediments, and creatures that surround and impact it in more ways than we can possibly imagine. We caution against the strong focus on the Flora Bank—if the LNG processing plant is moved to Ridley Island (a neighboring island not surrounded by the Flora Bank), it will still facilitate a capitalist society and reinforce a colonial state.
300-1080 Beaver Hall Hill
Montreal, Quebec H2Z 1S8
600-1060 Robert-Bourassa Boulevard
Montreal, Quebec
