On Friday March 30 demonstrators stood in solidarity with the Unist’ot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation, handing out flyers in the sunshine outside State Street Corporation Montreal headquarters, in an action against Chevron and the Pacific Trails Pipeline(PTP). The PTP is slated to be built on Wet’suwet’en territory in occupied “British Columbia”, spanning 500 kilometers of unceded indigenous territory to carry fracked gas to the west coast for export.
Forty to fifty folks showed up in support on the holiday weekend, holding placards and a banner which read “No Consent, No Pipelines!” Police had taped off the area outside State Street Corporation headquarters and 4 police vehicles were parked in the area. State Street Corporation is the largest institutional investor in Chevron, who maintains 50/50 ownership over the PTP, in conjunction with Apache. Chevron has a particularly atrocious reputation for causing environmental and social devastation in communities, and the production of fractured gas is a dangerous process, causing methane leaks, ground water contamination, hydrogen sulphide leakage, and earthquake risks. The following Tuesday, organizers delivered a letter from Unist'ot'en spokesperson Freda Huson to the State Street Corporation, demanding a withdraw of investment from Chevron and the PTP.
The demonstration was a part of the second global day of action in solidarity with Unist’ot’en resistance to the PTP. The first day of action took place on November 27, 2011 and involved 19 cities globally, resulting in the divestment of EOG and Encana from the Pacific Trails Pipeline project. This time the call-out was sent out by Rising Tide Vancouver, and received response actions from organizers in over 10 cities, including San Francisco and Chico, California.
The Unist’ot’en clan is against all pipelines slated to cross through their territories and has repeatedly refused to consent to the development of the PTP. The Wet’suwet’en have established a camp in the pathway of the Pacific Trails Pipeline since July 2010, and surveyors have been evicted from Unist’ot’en land on two separate occasions. For more information and updates, visit http://unistotencamp.com/
