Solidarity

Over a hundred supporters of Wet’suwet’en land defenders blocked the CP rail train tracks in the Mile End neighbourhood of Montreal for nearly two hours, following the RCMP raid of Gidimt’en camp, criminalizing the Wet’suwet’en in their long struggle against the Coastal Gaslink pipeline. While apocalyptic flooding has devastated the lower mainland, taking out highways and rail lines, and isolating whole cities, the RCMP trespassed onto Wet’suwet’en territory equipped with K9 units, bulldozers, and assault rifles, and arrested land defenders, elders, supporters, and journalists. ...

Early this morning during rush hour, a group of settlers blocked the westbound lanes of Notre-Dame Street with flaming piles of tires and picnic tables, in solidarity with the Gidimt’en and Likhts’amisyu Clans of the Wet’suwet’en people. Notre-Dame is easily choked with rush hour traffic on mornings like this, and even temporary blockades here can cause backups to traffic heading downtown, as well as slow down trucks entering and exiting the adjacent Port of Montreal. ...

In response to the call for a week of solidarity actions to defend Wedzin Kwa , about 75 people gathered in Kingston, Ontario on Thursday October 13 for a Wet’suwet’en solidarity rally and march with banners, music and chants. We met up in Skeleton Park and listened to a few different speeches – one person spoke about how indigenous land defenders are leading the way in the fight against climate change and ecological destruction. Another shared an excerpt from a zine critiquing state-led reconciliation efforts . One person gave a powerful speech about the necessity of clean water for indigenous communities and for everyone, and reminded us all that showing up and participating in this struggle was meaningful and important. We marched down Princess St and handed out hundreds of flyers to a largely supportive crowd. ...

On October 9th 2021, as part of the Week of Action in solidarity with the Gidimt’en, some folks in Montreal shutdown trains and took the streets for a demo. This action forshadows that if Canada and the RCMP continue their aggression, they will likely be met once again with coordinated, nation-wide actions to #ShutDownCanada. #AllOutForWedzinKwa

More than 50 people blockaded five parallel rail lines outside a CN rail yard in Point Saint Charles, Montreal for more than an hour and a half this Saturday, October 9th. We were there to support the Wet’suwet’en fight to defend their territory against the Coastal GasLink pipeline. There were two banners, one saying “#AllOutForWedzinKwa 1312” and the other “All Out For Wet’suwet’en #ShutDownCanada”. Multiple trains were stopped and some rerouted, and some still seemed be sitting idle on the tracks for at least an hour after the blockade ended. Maybe because of a backlog, or an inspection of the tracks. ...

In the early morning of September 30th, the first ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we dropped a banner in solidarity with the Gidimt’en Camp. Our banner read “Shut Down Canada ‘21 #CGLOffTheYintah”. Wet’suwet’en and their supporters have been defending the Yintah from Coastal GasLink and RCMP incursion for many years. They continue to defend their land as Canada gestures emptily towards reconciliation. On September 25th, The Gidimt’en Access Point erected new blockades to stop CGL from drilling under the Wedzin Kwa, the river running through their territory. Since then, at least two arrests have occurred. ...

Canada is a lie. Reconciliation is dead. After night fell on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, RBC was targeted in the center of Montreal’s financial district. The Royal Bank of Canada is an investor in the Coastal GasLink pipeline. While they stage orange shirt photo ops to proclaim their commitment to reconciliation, CGL is attempting to drill under Wedzin Kwa, the sacred headwaters of the Wet’suwet’en people, with the help of the RCMP threatening, arresting , and torturing land defenders. ...

In the summer of 2020, three high schoolers - Bogdan Andreev, Denis Mikhaylenko, and Nikita Uvarov, all 14 years old - were arrested in the city of Kansk in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, within the claimed borders of the Russian state. The three boys are accused of forming a terrorist organization, and plotting, among other things, to construct a model of the Russian secret police (FSB) headquarters in the game MineCraft then blow it up. More credibly, they are accused of demonstrating solidarity with Azat Miftakhov, a graduate student in mathematics in Moscow and an anarchist, presently aged 28. Miftakhov was initially accused of constructing a smoke bomb that had been thrown into an office of the ruling political party over a year before. He has more recently been sentenced to six years in a “penal colony”. Andreev, Mikhaylenko, and Uvarov are all awaiting trial. ...

The same thing has also happened in Indonesia, the silencing and repressiveness of the counter-information media has been increasingly encouraged by the Indonesian Police, with initiatives such as the creation of a “cyber police” or social media police, with one of their aims being to isolate the spread of information not only from anarchist networks but also from other political dissidents and those who have the courage to criticize the state. ...

Given that, today, as has always been the case, May 1 is an opportunity for the workers of all nations to celebrate their historic victories and to put forth demands for further improvements to their working conditions and their health and safety conditions in general; given that protecting the health and safety of health care workers is of primordial importance; and given that the health care system and all of its workers, nurses, doctors, councillors, managers, office workers, and support staff are currently under enormous pressure and deserve our unconditional support; ...

Out of the charges laid for the 2020 Shut Down Canada blockades, some of the most serious are the ones against defendants in Hamilton. These charges stem from a 24 hours shutdown of the CN and CP tracks through the city on February 24th to 25th, which was a direct response to the OPP’s attack on Tyendinaga territory that morning and in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en. Initially, six people were charged for this action, but we are pleased to announce that charges against two of them were withdrawn in the past couple of months. Each remaining defendant is charged with four counts of indictable Mischief over $5000, each of which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. ...

Since July 2020, Haudenosaunee land defenders of Six Nations have blocked a housing development called Mackenzie Meadows slated for construction on Six Nations territory, near the settler community of Caledonia, Ontario. Land defenders refusing to see their lands further destroyed for colonial interests occupied the construction site last summer, renaming it 1492 Land Back Lane. Following the re-occupation of their territory, an injunction was granted to Mackenzie Meadows and enforced by the OPP in August. Land defenders fought back against the OPP’s violent eviction, temporarily retreating from the site. Shortly after the raid, land defenders backed by the community of Six Nations blockaded Argyle Road and Highway 6, and re-took Land Back Lane from the fucking police. In October last year, the police attempted to arrest a number of land defenders, shooting some with ’non-lethal’ projectiles. The police were ultimately chased off by determined land defenders, having some of their cruisers fucked up on the way out. This last violent attack by the OPP led land defenders and Six Nations community members to tear up Argyle road, disrupt CN rail lines running through their lands, and erect barricades in order to defend themselves from further police attacks. ...