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Naked empire
Dec. 20th, 2019 04:48 pmIt's important to remember that when Indigenous activists (or my F6 ass doing my best to amplify their voices) say that things are bad, they're really bad, they've always been bad, no, worse than that—they are not exaggerating.
Case in point: The RCMP—yes, those quaint friendly Mounties that the Americans find adorable for whatever reason—just said the quiet part out loud. The Guardian broke the story and now it's spreading.
From the article:
Another important thing to remember is that most of what Canada calls British Columbia is unceded territory, meaning the Indigenous people there never gave up possession of the land to European settlers. The government decided to build a pipeline through their land anyway. The land defenders were not using violence but even if they were, it would have been completely morally justifiable in the same way that if someone tries to break into your house in the middle of the night, you basically have the right to defend yourself and your property. Except in this case they're not just defending their community but the entire world, where we descendants of European settlers also—surprise!—have to live. But the RCMP acknowledged that while they did have firearms for hunting, there was zero indication that they intended to use them against the people violently invading their territory in violation of UN conventions.
And the RCMP planned to shoot them anyway. Including Elders and kids. Or at least shoot the adults and kidnap the kids.
This is under the shiny Liberal government of Prince Justin of the Nice Hair, by the way, who promised a nation-to-nation relationship (unless he really wanted to build a pipeline, like, really badly).
The fact that I'm not in any way surprised about this in no way lessens my utter disgust and contempt for the rotting and fetid colonialist project called Canada.
Case in point: The RCMP—yes, those quaint friendly Mounties that the Americans find adorable for whatever reason—just said the quiet part out loud. The Guardian broke the story and now it's spreading.
From the article:
Notes from a strategy session for a militarized raid on ancestral lands of the Wet’suwet’en nation show that commanders of Canada’s national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), argued that “lethal overwatch is req’d” – a term for deploying snipers.The RCMP commanders also instructed officers to “use as much violence toward the gate as you want” ahead of the operation to remove a roadblock which had been erected by Wet’suwet’en people to control access to their territories and stop construction of the proposed 670km (416-mile) Coastal GasLink pipeline (CGL).In a separate document, an RCMP officer states that arrests would be necessary for “sterilizing the site”.
Another important thing to remember is that most of what Canada calls British Columbia is unceded territory, meaning the Indigenous people there never gave up possession of the land to European settlers. The government decided to build a pipeline through their land anyway. The land defenders were not using violence but even if they were, it would have been completely morally justifiable in the same way that if someone tries to break into your house in the middle of the night, you basically have the right to defend yourself and your property. Except in this case they're not just defending their community but the entire world, where we descendants of European settlers also—surprise!—have to live. But the RCMP acknowledged that while they did have firearms for hunting, there was zero indication that they intended to use them against the people violently invading their territory in violation of UN conventions.
And the RCMP planned to shoot them anyway. Including Elders and kids. Or at least shoot the adults and kidnap the kids.
This is under the shiny Liberal government of Prince Justin of the Nice Hair, by the way, who promised a nation-to-nation relationship (unless he really wanted to build a pipeline, like, really badly).
The fact that I'm not in any way surprised about this in no way lessens my utter disgust and contempt for the rotting and fetid colonialist project called Canada.
