Download CPT’s Faith Action Toolkit for Wet’suweten. As faith communities discern how to get involved in Wet’suwet’en solidarity, we encourage, you, our friends, to download and use this toolkit. It’s time for us to rise up together and work towards decolonization.
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Christian Peacemaker Teams Calls on Faith Communities to Stand with Wet’suwet’en
The province of British Columbia alongside Coastal Gaslink are continuing their plans to build a pipeline through the unceded territories of the Wet’suwet’en. The 5 Hereditary Chiefs and land defenders of Wet’suwet’en have denied access to Coastal Gaslink fearing the pipeline will cause irrevocable ecological damage. Despite lack of consent, the province and CGL continue to try and advance the pipeline. This is in contravention to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (which the province of British Columbia has signed on to) which preserves the right to free, prior and informed consent by Indigenous communities before extractive industries can access their land.
In January 2020, the RCMP began enforcing a court injunction on behalf of a natural gas pipeline development, setting up a checkpoint on the Wet’suwet’en territory. This injunction violates Wet’suwet’en law, the right to free, prior, and informed consent, and ignores the call by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to immediately suspend work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline until consent is obtained. Also concerning is the RCMP’s demonstrated willingness a year ago to use lethal force to enforce this injunction during a militarized raid on the Gimid’ten checkpoint.
CPT calls on faith communities to take action and support the land defenders of Wet’suwet’en!
Historically the Christian Church, the Canadian state, and capitalist industry worked together to colonize Canada and displace Indigenous peoples from their land. Today across Canada, many churches are rising up in the spirit of Jesus’ message of peace and justice, and learning about the history and reality of colonization, apologizing for their involvement and/or complicity in colonialism, and getting involved in activities that situate their solidarity with Indigenous peoples and not with the colonial state. Now is the time to continue that support and take action! This is our chance, as the Christian Church, to demonstrate Christ’s radical love by standing in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en.
Download your Faith Action Tool Kit
