Dozens in Calgary rally in solidarity against B.C. Coastal Gas Link pipeline construction

In the days after RCMP arrested protesters blocking Coastal Gas Link construction in British Columbia, about 100 people in Calgary showed solidarity with those fighting to stop the pipeline project.

“I want to stand with the people out there on the frontlines in B.C. that are being treated like animals,” said Isaac Racette, who attended the rally Tuesday evening.

RCMP arrested Wet’suwet’en camp leaders, supporters, and journalists at the construction site last week as officers enforced a court injunction prohibiting blockades around the project.

“It’s really heartbreaking that they don’t have the respect that they should be getting as the keepers of the land… we believe we were entrusted to keep the land for our future generations, our grandkids, your grandkids,” said Calgary protester Sonny Campbell of those arrested.

The crowd formed in front of the TC Energy building around 4 p.m., with signs demanding the RCMP leave Wet’suwet’en territory.

“It’s a continued genocide of us and the land. We’re connected to the land, we’re part of it, we come from it, we go back into it. When we leave, we don’t have these dollars and cents that they have up there now in their high rise,” said Taylor Dumais, pointing up to the gas company’s headquarters.

The scene outside the TC Energy building in Calgary as people here stand in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders. @citynewscalgary pic.twitter.com/yxuacoy1rT

— Stefanie Lasuik (@StefanieLasuik) November 23, 2021

The protest spilled onto the street, blocking traffic at several downtown intersections during the evening commute and frustrating some motorists. Protesters said they were trying to draw national attention to Wet’suwet’en.

“I’m only 23 years old and I’ll tell you there’s a lot of other things that I’d want to be doing rather than just standing for our people’s basic rights. The right to protect the land, the right to take care of the land,” said Racette.

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Dumais added they want to try to find a common ground.

“When we try to tell people that we want land back, it’s not necessarily a transfer of land because there’s no way that we could do that. It’s to come into our world for a little bit to see how we live off the land so that we can have this land for the next seven generations to come. I was always taught if what I’m doing now is going to negatively impact the next seven generations, then I shouldn’t be doing it.”

Calgary’s protest was one of many solidarity demonstrations organized across the country.