8.5 x 11″ | PDF This flyer contains information on transportation infrastructure in Canada, vulnerable infrastructure bottlenecks by province, and the 20 worst traffic bottlenecks. We put it together for distribution at demonstrations, in the hope that it can help to spread action beyond these moments.
On the week of December 20, we are hosting an International Week of Action to Defund Coastal GasLink. Banks and private equity corporations are bankrolling Indigenous rights violations and destroying our shared climate. Their lack of accountability in financing colonial violence and land theft from Indigenous people is unacceptable. We are all in this together! We all have a responsibility to stand up to big financial institutions that invest and keep the fossil fuel industry going full force. ...
On Saturday, more than sixty people acting in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders blocked the CN main line in Saint-Lambert south of Montreal for over six hours. It was the longest rail blockade in Quebec since the winter of 2020, interrupting Via Rail service and immobilizing six freight trains. These notes reflect the experience of a couple participants in Saturday’s blockade. Nostalgia mixed with anticipation as we arrived at the tracks where they cross rue Saint-Georges, with banners ready to hang across the rail crossing and no police in sight. It was a bright morning, temperatures just below freezing and the ground snowless, a contrast with that first night in February 2020, when temperatures sunk to 25 below and snow could be piled into mounds atop the rails. ...
This November 27th, 2021, the Convergence des luttes anticapitalistes (CLAC) called for a demonstration in front of the RCMP offices near the Atwater metro in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people. This call was supported by over twenty Montreal organizations . Thus, despite the cold and the huge police presence, there were more than 750 demonstrators who responded to the call with breathtaking energy, allowing to defend the right to protest in the face of an out of proportion police force. ...
There is nothing left unsaid. RCMP Out. CGL off the Yintah. Defend the Wedzin Kwa. This is an act of genocide. An active genocide. An armed invasion by the colonial state. There is nothing left to say: they do not listen to words. So just do; that is what we have done. One recent evening, allies/accomplices went out into the night to pick up where others may have left off in the spring of 2020: targeting rail infrastructure. ...
This morning in Tiohtia:ke, a large banner reading “ALL OUT FOR WET’SUWET’EN" was installed on the 720 Westbound. It was insured that the banner be secured with rope and that no road signs be blocked to make sure the highway is safe for drivers. We act in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation and Gidimt’en clan. On November 19th, 2021, RCMP violently raided unceded Gidimt’en territory, removing unarmed Indigenous women from their land at gunpoint on behalf of TC Energy’s proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline. Among other land-defenders, spokesperson Sleydo’, Corey Joyahcee Jocko, and Jocey Alec (Chief Woos’ daughter) were illegally removed from their own Cas Yah Yintah where they are protecting the sacred headwaters Wedzin Kwa. They were illegally and brutally detained for four nights and five days, where they were denied access to water and food. ...
“Observant individuals can easily identify many such critical bottlenecks across Canada. They share several common characteristics: they are of immediate and significant value to businesses and governments; they concentrate valued resources or essential economic functions; they are located at the intersection of related transportation systems, thus allowing protesters to use their scarce resources efficiently; most are far from major national security resources and forces, thus complicating the deployment and maintenance of these forces; most are close to First Nations communities that would likely be neutral if not active supporters of insurgents and would provide safe-havens and logistical support to main participants; all are high profile assets the disruption of which would attract (for governments) troublesome national and international political and media attention; and all are vulnerable (i.e., value multiplied by the ease of disruption).” – Canada and the First Nations: Cooperation or Conflict? For more info on the weak points, check out: ...
This guide is an improved version of the practical section of the To Settlers, By Settlers callout that we recently re-published. Thank you to the reader who brought it to our attention. The aim of information here is to disrupt rail flow, not be a catalyst for derailment or accidents, which could further injure life or land. As always, we encourage folks to think about your heart, as well as the longevity of these actions and overall struggle; a gentle reminder that you are being careful with yourselves, fingerprints and DNA – for everyone’s safety – and that repression often follows action. ...
Skip to the practical section. It’s important to know that settlers have written this. We don’t have the lived experience of any Indigenous person, including the Wet’suwet’en. We do write from a place of heart and affinity within this struggle – personal, political, and/or relational. In that we feel responsibility to act against the systems and corporations that harm the people and land within it. We acknowledge our settler responsibility and complicity in this, and look for opportunities and strategies that align politically as a way to enact solidarity. This does not mean we speak for them, or should be closed to critiques. ...
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. ...
This morning in Montreal, two tire fires were lit on the CN railway tracks in the neighbourhood of Pointe-St-Charles, at the choke-point of the train yard exit. Care was taken to ensure there was no risk of derailment. A long straightaway location was chosen, and timing was based on the first scheduled Via passenger train of the morning. As the train approached, an individual stepped onto the track waving two road flares. When the train came to a stop, tires that had previously been filled with cotton towels were placed onto both tracks. They were then doused in gasoline, and the road flares were tossed in from a safe distance to light them up. The action was quick and easy, required few people, and ensured the train was able to stop and not hit the items placed on the tracks. Rail service was interrupted for at least two hours. ...
A charter plane full of RCMP have landed at the Smithers airport, with between 30 and 50 officers equipped with camo duffel bags. Police loaded onto two buses and unmarked, rental pick-up trucks and headed out towards the yintah. An RCMP helicopter is reported to be heading to the area. Throughout today, helicopters have circled over our camps, conducting low, deliberate flights for surveillance. The road into our yintah remains blocked by RCMP at 28km, with hereditary chiefs, food, and medical supplies being turned away. ...