Land Defense

Resistance is a living practice that spans across time and space. Interwoven webs connect peoples and communities - spreading fire from one space to the next. In its most subversive forms resistance will evade the capture of rationalization or quantification. Attempts to relay what is happening in any specific location will at best be incomplete stories, riddled by the storyteller’s bias. What follows is a story of recent moments of resistance to the construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. This is just one story and makes no attempt to speak for the wide variety of individuals involved in this struggle. We share these stories in attempt to add fuel to the fire. We hope this contribution fans the flames and helps to one day engulf the contractors involved in the project’s construction. To learn more about the contractors involved see seedsofresistance.nublogs.org ...

This island is riddled with train tracks: arteries that enable the flow of capital across the continent, conduits for the transport of bitumen and other products of resource exploitation, colonization, and death. The rails have always been instruments of colonial expansion. Throughout these territories, early railways displaced indigenous peoples, carried in the troops that put down uprisings, and cemented the national identity of a nascent settler state. ...

Early in the evening of Friday November 27th in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal, Canadian Pacific (freight) and AMT (commuter trains) traffic was interrupted as a response to the Coast to Coast call to Action* against the continued violent invasion of unceded Indigenous territory by militarized colonial police forces. A thick (thickness of a pencil) 13ft copper wire was tightly wrapped around (twice per rail just to make sure) and across the rails, completing a circuit that mimics a train passing, thus temporarily blocking off this section of the railroad until a maintenance crew is called, the wire found, the rails inspected, etc. The activation of train signal lights behind and ahead of us on the tracks allowed us to confirm it worked, though nearby crossing barriers didn’t go down to stop car traffic as expected. Our understanding is that maybe given the direction of the next train scheduled to pass, the obstruction created was understood by their system as being a train that had already passed the crossing. It is also unclear whether this works further away from electrical infrastructure where the current on the rails might not be as strong. ...

OPP collaborators, we see you! November 6, 2020 UAV Tower Innovations is a drone company that is being paid by the OPP to spy on indigenous land defenders. Their publicly listed address is 403138 Grey Rd 4, Durham. Last night we spraypainted a message on their driveway: OPP COLLABORATORS WE SEE YOU! WE ARE WATCHING YOU NO JUSTICE ON STOLEN NATIVE LAND This is a warning, keep your drones away from the front lines. ...

As the world falls apart around us we turn to the land more than ever. This site is meant as a resource for resisting pipelines and other exploitative industrial projects. It is full of information for ideas and action when the process has failed, when permits have been granted, and there is nothing left but our own selves to protect the land. Visit https://seedsofresistance.nublogs.org/ (with TOR or a safe VPN/browser combo!) and find all the things you’ve been looking for to ignite ideas and action.

October 16, 2020 Pipeline companies threaten violence to communities, salmon and wildlife with drilling under sacred headwaters. (Unceded Yintah / Secwepemcúĺecw Territories): Coastal Gaslink pipeline in Wet’suwet’en territory and Trans Mountain Pipeline in Secwepemc territory are both currently preparing to drill under our clear rivers, from which we have drawn sustenance since time immemorial. In the past few days we have seen Indigenous women interrupted during ceremonies in both territories, and arrests and incarcerations in Secwepemc territories, for enacting their sacred responsibilities. The Trans Mountain Pipeline weaves through over 900 rivers and creeks, threatening both Secwepemcetkwe (Thompson) and Fraser River systems. The North Thompson is connected to the Adams River, a vital spawning habitat for chinook, coho, and pink salmon, and home to one of the most important sockeye runs in the world. Any leakage would immediately threaten the pacific salmon who spawn in the Secwepemcetkwe (Thompson) and Fraser River basins. ...

Right now in Mi’kma’ki, commercial fishermen are physically threatening, intimidating and harassing Indigenous people over their livelihood catch of lobster. The violence has escalated in the past few days, and seems likely to continue to escalate. The RCMP have been filmed allowing commercial fishermen to steal and poison lobster, burn vehicles, smash windows, throw rocks at Mi’kmaq people and attack chiefs and women. What’s happening in Mi’kma’ki is a prime example of how race operates in so-called Canada, with the state protecting the side of big business and using white working-class people to project their force onto the non-white population. Examples of this can be found all over the country. ...

Update on continued struggle to resist the Coastal GasLink pipeline threatening the Wedzin Kwa headwaters on Wet’suwet’en territory. For more info, follow Gidimt’en Checkpoint . Our headwaters are under attack. Our way of life is at risk. Coastal Gaslink is weeks away from test drilling beneath Wedzin Kwa – the river that feeds all of Wet’suwet’en territory and gives life to our nation. We continue to reoccupy our territories – to prepare our foods, to hold our ceremonies, to teach our children what it means to be Wet’suwet’en. ...

On a coast choked in smoke from fires burning a vast swath of this dying planet, up road TR11A on the north side of Edinburgh Mountain on so-called Vancouver Island, we felled seven trees across the road, erected tripods, hung banners, and locked a gate to block access to old growth cutblocks higher up the mountain. Blockades were started in August in the neighbouring Fairy Creek watershed, yet industrial logging in the area continues. Some old growth areas are currently inaccessible to industry thanks to these ongoing blockades, but many others nearby are still being destroyed, and our action prevented the Monday morning destruction of at least some old growth forest. We are happy to obstruct old growth logging, but we’d just as soon have done the same thing to prevent 2nd or 3rd growth forests from being clearcut, as there is nothing remotely sustainable about the way forests in so-called British Columbia are being industrially destroyed. ...

On August 3, in so called Smithers BC, we attacked Val’s Drilling rig #004, using the accelerant in plastic bottles and firestarter cube method. After receiving word that the drill had arrived in Smithers, we departed from Prince George immediately. After arriving in Smithers and getting our bearings, we posted up at the park across the street from the hotel that the drill was parked at. After gathering sufficient Intel, a plan was developed, and the decision to act in the early morning was agreed upon. After the device was planted and ignited, we immediately left back to prince George via highway 16. We believe that firm action is required to ensure that CGL does not drill underneath the Wedzin Kwah, by whatever means necessary. Solidarity with our Haudenoshaunee brothers and sisters facing off with the OPP pigs. No state militia sponsored industry on the stolen land that is Turtle Island.

Using the jumper-cable and wires method described elsewhere the track signalling system on a CN mainline in Hamilton was sabotaged last week. This was done in continuing solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and land protectors. Work on TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline continues without the consent of the chiefs and despite the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the chiefs with BC and Kanada. the colonial governments and capitalist industry do not indicate that they will respect the sovereignty of the Wet’suwet’en. ...

It seems worth sharing that we have managed to shut down, (if only for a few to several hours), different rail lines in Southern Ontario using the ol’ copper wire technique. We did this three separate times targeting a junction in Milton, on lines that connect Kitchener-Waterloo to Toronto and Burlington. Using paper maps to follow where lines go, we had fun finding places to act with most impact. We learned more about how this was done following some of the other informative and inspiring posts here on North Shore. ...