Rally for DULF & Safe Supply - Jan. 16, 2024

By Mike Ma, Jan. 16, 2024

Today, I had the opportunity to attend a demonstration organized by the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) in support of Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum. The event was held at 800 Hornby — the downtown courthouse — and was truly inspiring, featuring numerous speakers advocating for drug decriminalization, safe supply, and compassion clubs.

Among the speakers was Pete Woodrow from the Surrey Union of Drug Users, an organization I’m proud to be a part of. Pete did an excellent job emphasizing the need for solidarity, activism, and compassion.

Garth Mullins, the producer of the Crackdown Podcast, also spoke and shared his personal journey as a drug user. As he stood on the steps of the courthouse and pointed, he recounted his younger days spent near the trees and bushes of the courthouse where he remembers drinking and using drugs. His experiences with the shame of criminalization lent a profound authenticity to his narrative. His impassioned speech underscored the need for a regulated safe supply and a non-medicalized approach to addressing the toxic drug supply.

He highlighted the role of compassion clubs, where people support each other in a non-institutional, non-medicalized setting. Additionally, he advocated for the continued prescription of medical-grade opioids by healthcare professionals.

A second-year medical student, Elaine Hu, from UBC also spoke at the event. She provided a very valuable perspective on the rates of overdose and the safety of those who have access to overdose prevention and safe supply. As a future medical professional, she emphasized how evidence-based research shows clear evidence supporting safe supply and absolute necessity for the decriminalization of unregulated drugs. She cited studies showing people are less likely to die after receiving safe supply only once per day.  She suggested that the lack of endorsement for this approach by all levels of government was criminal.

“Mom, Stop the Harm” was also in attendance at the event. Their representative, Deb Bailey, who tragically lost her daughter to the toxic drug supply, spoke with great passion. She shared how a safe supply had significantly benefited her child when it was available, suggesting that her daughter Ola might still be alive today had she continued to have access to it. Deb commended DULF’s efforts in distributing tested, safe drugs, expressing the comfort it brought her knowing her child was using safe substances. She conveyed her sadness over the discontinuation of this program due to the arrests of Eris and Jeremy by the VPD, and the ongoing criminalization of drugs.

Despite the cold weather, I stayed for the entire event, which lasted about an hour and a half to two hours. The turn out was pretty great considering the cold spell. The presence and solidarity of about 150 to 200 people at the rally underscored the importance of the event, the importance of supporting DULF, Erys and Jeremy. Their work is crucial, and we must continue to support their efforts.

All Out for Palestine & End the Genocide in Gaza - Public Rally (Vancouver & Toronto) - Oct. 28, 2023

"What struck me about the event was the glaring absence of any politicians or leaders, despite thousands of ordinary people unified in demanding an end to the genocide in Palestine. The void left by those in power, who have a responsibility to represent the voices of the people, was shocking and disheartening." DB

“The Toronto Rally was hosted by Palestinian youth who spoke and led protest cries for hours. It started as a sit in with a group of a few hundred. Pro-Palestinian convoys from across the GTA all convened in the area too. I don’t think anyone expected to march until the last minute, but thousands of people came out. We spilled into the streets and walked down Bay St. all the way to Union Station.” Allison Ing

https://palestinianyouthmovement.com

Palestinian Youth Movement (@palestinianyouthmovement)

Thousands gathered at Nathan Phillips Square in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza - CTV News

Vancouver Calls for Justice Amid Worsening Gaza Onslaught

October 19, 2023

Several hundreds of us gathered at the Vancouver City Hall for a vigil tonight to mark the thousands of lives lost in the current assault on Gaza by Israeli forces.We gathered together, without the thought of our differences, but in the unified understanding that humanity is at risk with every Palestinian who loses their life caught within an endless cycle of state-led madness. We gathered to confront our government and all of those other allies of Israel, who wish to turn away from the war crimes that are currently and have been continually perpetrated by Israel against Palestinian lives. We gathered because earlier this week it was reported that a bomb fell on the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza killing hundreds, and just before then the UNRWA school in Al Maghazi refugee camp was bombed, leading the UN to declare that these crimes against humanity are escalating to full scale ethnic cleansing. We gathered because we are all witnessing a genocide take place as our governments are standing lock step with Israel. While our media news outlets tell us other stories about an equivalence of violence, the rights for the Israeli state to defend itself, at the same time this media does not tell us that the fuel shortage in Gaza is so extreme that the ambulances are unable to carry injured and dying away, Palestinians are without food to eat, without electricity and without running water.  We gathered today because we can’t just be at home watching the unravelling of our world alone, we witness together, we stand together, we chant together. We gather because our governments misrepresent our voices, they do not speak for us. We gathered because as each of the speakers at tonight’s vigil reminds us “Palestine will be Free from the River to the Sea!”

Davina Bhandar

All Out for Gaza - Protest & Vigil (Ben Nelms-CBC)

People hold up a 'Free Gaza' sign outside Vancouver City Hall on Thursday October 19, 2023. (Chad Harris, CityNews Image)

People hold up a 'Free Gaza' sign outside Vancouver City Hall on Thursday October 19, 2023. (Chad Harris, CityNews Image)

Photo by John Sóos @globalpilgrim

Photo by John Sóos @globalpilgrim

All Out for Gaza - Protest & Vigil (Ben Nelms-CBC)

Surrey BC has only ONE safe consumption site!!!

By Mike Ma

It is rather appalling that Surrey only has ONE safe consumption site. There are 6 or 7 overdose deaths each day in British Columbia, Canada, but only one safe consumption site in all of Surrey!

https://www.surreynowleader.com/news/safepoint-safe-consumption-site-marks-five-years-of-truly-saving-lives-in-surrey-2989339

It is a mindboggling lack of service since the population of Surrey is almost the same size as Vancouver. And Vancouver has many many more services and safe consumption sites than Surrey. Surrey is in fact ready to surpass Vancouver in population by 2030: https://www.straight.com/news/future-lives-here-surrey-population-growth-rate-outstrips-vancouver-by-almost-double

Peer-led organizations like the Surrey Union of Drug Users (SUDU) have been advocating for opening more safe consumption sites, but the Fraser Health Authority have been dragging their heels.

We should all support the work of SUDU and get behind their initiatives. Visit their website here:

https://sudubc.weebly.com

Support the work of SUDU!

Indigenous Politics in Chile 50 Years After the Coup

Posted by Mike Ma

On September 16, 2023, a one-day workshop was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the military coup that overthrew Chile's Unidad Popular government led by Salvador Allende. This watershed event in 1973 unleashed a wave of brutal repression, destroyed a unique democratic socialist experiment involving popular power, and established a dictatorship that imposed a radical neoliberal agenda.

Following mass student movements against marketization in the early 2010s, Chile witnessed a "social explosion" in 2019 against the legacy of inequality and violence stemming from the Pinochet regime's incomplete transition to democracy. This led to an effort, propelled by social movements, to repeal and replace the 1980 neoliberal constitution. The proposed constitution recognized indigenous sovereignty and incorporated a strong feminist perspective, but was voted down in a 2022 referendum, leaving the coup's legacy and neoliberalism largely intact.

This workshop revisited Chile's current conjuncture of social struggle through the prism of indigenous movements. It featured keynote talks by Mapuche scholars Elena Loncón on indigenous participation in the constitutional process, and Fernando Pairicán on the Mapuche movement's trajectory since the coup. A panel discussion, moderated by Evelyn Encalada Grez, followed with professors Andrés Cabrera Sanhueza, and Johnny Mack.

The event fostered learning and reflection on ongoing efforts to reverse the dictatorship's impact that enabled dispossession of indigenous peoples through non-recognition. It also explored resonances with indigenous struggles for justice locally.

The following videos document this timely workshop as participants examined the enduring shadows of the coup and envisioned alternative futures grounded in plurinationalism and collective rights.

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/indigenous-politics-in-chile-50-years-after-the-coup-tickets-704879803467

The Tenant Class by Ricardo Tranjan: BTL Book Launch: May 17, 2023, Toronto, ON

By Mike Ma, May 18, 2023

Last night I attended the book launch for Ricardo Tranjan’s new book: The Tenant Class. It was an exciting and super well attended book launch. In addition to the traditional author talk it also included a panel discussion with tenant activists that grounded the event in activism and community advocacy. In his presentation, Tranjan described how the crisis of housing is not a crisis at all, but rather, is a feature of a system that greatly favours landlords at the expense of tenants. That is, it is a deliberate and harmful transfer of wealth from the tenant class to the landlord class. It is designed to privilege the landlord and never the tenant. He shared a funny story about his negotiation with his young son to clean up his room that served as an appropriate analogy of how that negotiation wasn’t a negotiation at all; it was just a way for his son to game the system. And it was a funny and useful framing of the failed landlord/tenant system we have today. I’ve got a copy of the book now and I’m excited to read it.

Resetting Behavior

By Jason Ramsey,  April 16, 2023

There are few things politicians and business leaders love more than the idea of ‘change,’ ‘innovation,’ or ‘Progress.’ Vancouver’s new mayor Ken Sim is no exception. Not only is he the first person of color to hold the office, but he and his ABC Party campaigned on shaking things up at City Hall. I suppose it paid off. Sim was carried to victory by the business community, real estate developers, and middle-class property owners increasingly concerned that “Vancouver is Dying”[1] from the effects of addiction and lawlessness. Even Vancouver’s Police Union decided to endorse Sim, “breaking a tradition of staying out of municipal politics.”[2] “Big changes are coming to Vancouver City Hall,” wrote Kenneth Chan in an October 2022 Op-Ed to mark ABC’s decisive takeover.[3] Among the most notable changes, Sim promised a new, definitive solution to the crises of homelessness and overdoses. For those who bought into the rhetoric, it surely felt like Vancouver was about to turn a corner.

But to anyone acquainted with local history, what soon followed was more of the same. On Wednesday April 5, 2023 the City undertook another brutal ‘decampment’ of unhoused residents in the Downtown Eastside. Like countless times before, resources were put towards policing, criminalization, and destruction instead of what would actually effect change, like safe supply and secure housing. Backed by officers on the ground and snipers on rooftops, City workers trashed tent after tent on Hastings St. between Main and Carrall, forcing people to pack their things into plastic bins and leave the block. By nightfall, Sim put out a press release stating that a grand total of 8 people had “requested shelter” – an odd way of saying “relented in the face of state violence.”[4]

Even so, most refused. Within hours, tents started popping back up across the neighborhood.[5] Deliveries of food and clothing streamed in. Vancouverites, unhoused and housed, were fighting back. After news of the decampment leaked days prior, mutual aid networks sprung into high gear. And while Mayor Sim hoped his shock-and-awe campaign would be over in a day, it has now been going on for a week and a half. According to details of their plan that leaked on April 11, it seemed the City realized this could become drawn out. In it, they admitted it “May take several weeks or longer to re-set behavior (i.e. no structures on sidewalks).”[6]

Re-set behavior. How does the City view its unhoused citizens? More importantly, if it is a question of breaking habits, why don’t we begin with the powerholders of so-called Vancouver? Because for all their talk of change, they have achieved little more than to continue an old and shameful pastime. If we restrict ourselves to the last 10 years alone, we’ll see that the same deadly cocktail [7] of police violence and bureaucratic indifference has resulted in 10 forced decampments, even as the housing crisis worsened and the numbers of unhoused residents grew:

September 2014          Oppenheimer Park

November 2016          54 W. Hastings St.

November 2016          Thornton Park

June 2017                    950 Main St.

November 2017          1131 Franklin St.

May 2020                    Oppenheimer Park

June 2020                    CRAB Park

April 2021                   Strathcona Park

August 2022                Hastings St. between Main and Carrall

April 2023                   Hastings St. between Main and Carrall

About a week into the offensive, a reporter asked Sim how he saw the situation. He had this to say: “Well, there's so many different ways of looking at it. Have we made progress? Absolutely.”[8] Yet when asked to comment on the City manager’s admission that there weren’t enough shelter spaces for all, Sim responded: “I don't want to speak for the city manager, but the way I interpreted it was that if everyone requested it, it could be challenging.”[9] 

Understand what this means. The mayor is openly admitting that, for the 10th time in 10 years, Vancouver is banishing people from their tents without anywhere to put them all. So: Have we made progress? Absolutely not.

As much as they like to tout themselves as powerful changemakers, politicians remain captive to the interests of capital and its endless cycles of accumulation and disposal. And it is time that more people focused on their behavior in this light.

So how’s this for a start?: It is certainly true that, rather than recognize capitalism and settler colonialism as the root causes of suffering on the Downtown Eastside, some commentators like to deflect focus onto those who suffer. For instance, they often blame the crisis on “mental health.” But what do you call it when a person – or a City government – does the same thing over and over while expecting a different result? Or they blame it on drug addiction. But could we not say that the mindless dependence on police & prisons to manage social suffering is one of the most damaging addictions there are?

If it is actual change we want, then it is the behavior of the powerful that require ‘re-setting.’ And that wont happen until the very system that imprisons them – and us – is undone. In the meantime, we will keep supporting one another in the struggle.

[1] Gunn, Aaron. “Vancouver is Dying” Oct 5, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT8OU8Yhs_s Accessed Apr 13, 2023

[2] Kulkarni, Akshay. “Vancouver Police Union breaks with tradition and endorses ABC Vancouver for municipal election.” Oct 5, 2022 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-police-union-endorsement-1.6607093 Accessed Apr 13, 2023

[3] Chan, Kenneth. “Opinion: Big changes are coming to Vancouver City Hall” Oct 20, 2022 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/abc-vancouver-city-hall-changes-council-park-board-ken-sim Accessed Apr 13, 2023

[4]City of Vancouver. Apr 5, 2023.  https://twitter.com/KenSimCity/status/1643794981000454146?s=20

[5] Howell, Mike. “What the East Hastings encampment looks like — one week later.” Apr 12, 2023. https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/what-the-east-hastings-encampment-looks-like-one-week-later-6845246

[6] https://twitter.com/AndreaWoo/status/1645855081827540992?s=20

[7] Pieters, Kelsea. “Study Shows Involuntary Displacement of People Experiencing Homelessness May Cause Significant Spikes in Mortality, Overdoses and Hospitalizations.” Apr 10, 2023. https://news.cuanschutz.edu/news-stories/study-shows-involuntary-displacement-of-people-experiencing-homelessness-may-cause-significant-spikes-in-mortality-overdoses-and-hospitalizations

[8] Howell, Mike. “What the East Hastings encampment looks like — one week later.” Apr 12, 2023. https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/what-the-east-hastings-encampment-looks-like-one-week-later-6845246

[9] Ibid.

Educators’ Call for the Regularisation of Undocumented Migrants, Status for All and “Education for All”

The Time is Now!

Educators’ Call for the Regularisation of Undocumented Migrants, Status for All and “Education for All” 

(Voir la version française ci-bas)

Across the country, many undocumented youth are unable to attend school. But we have a historic opportunity right now. The federal government is in the midst of developing a regularization program, and it is essential that no one is excluded. We call on the federal government of Canada to regularize all undocumented people and ensure permanent resident status for all 1.7 million migrants. We further call on provincial governments to guarantee universal and free access to education to all. We call on the government of Quebec, with its specific powers over immigration policy, to ensure the regularization of all migrants including undocumented people in Quebec.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light many existing but hidden and uncomfortable truths. We saw that people living without full immigration status – undocumented migrants, refugees, migrant workers, international students, etc. – are among the most marginalized members of our society. In a time of ever-growing inequality, they are disproportionately afflicted by precarious living conditions and low-paying, dangerous jobs and are denied access to basic and essential services, such as education, health, social services, work protections and benefits.

Undocumented migrants in particular are forced to live in constant fear of deportation, making them vulnerable to exploitation. Many have no recourse to the judicial system in the face of injustices and discrimination. Migrants have been on the frontlines throughout the pandemic, performing the essential yet highly risky work – cleaning, food distribution, care work – helping countless people stay afloat and keeping our society functioning. Instead of supporting pathways to permanent residency, employers continue to pressure for the expansion of the coercive, hyper-exploitative temporary foreign worker program.

There have been some partial and temporary regulatory changes, but they remain woefully short of what is needed. A May 2021 federal program offered permanent residency spots to some migrants in healthcare, limited ‘essential jobs’, and recent graduates. But unfair requirements excluded most people, including undocumented people, asylum seekers, and migrants who were not employed. Similarly, the so-called Guardian Angels program only granted status to a few thousand people. At the municipal level, cities like Montreal, Toronto and others have adopted resolutions supporting regularization, but no steps have been taken to concretize these resolutions.

Everyone deserves to live in dignity with access to services – such as education – in their place of residence. Presently, children under 18 years of age in Quebec and Ontario (irrespective of status) can access education, but in BC and Alberta, there are no province-wide inclusions. In May of this year near Vancouver, the Canada Border Services Agency even resorted to waiting outside a school to arrest an undocumented parent.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that education is a fundamental human right that is essential for exercising other rights. Education not only provides the training and skill sets for securing livelihood but serves as a key site for fostering critical inquiry, social connections, and inter-personal skills. These connections and skills serve as the bedrock for a caring, productive, and prosperous society.

It is time for equal rights for all, and that means full and permanent immigration status for all.

We demand justice, solidarity, and equality and sign onto this pledge for education for all.

* See list of signatories

Agir maintenant!

 Éducateurs et éducatrices demandent la régularisation des sans-papiers, un statut pour tous et toutes et « l'éducation pour tous et toutes »

À travers le pays, plusieurs jeunes sans papiers ne peuvent pas fréquenter l'école. Mais une opportunité historique se présente en ce moment. Le gouvernement fédéral est en train de développer un programme de régularisation, et il est essentiel que personne n’en soit exclu. Nous demandons au gouvernement fédéral de régulariser toutes les personnes sans papiers, et de garantir le statut de résident.e permanent.e aux 1,7 millions de personnes migrantes en situation de grande précarité. Nous demandons également aux gouvernements provinciaux de garantir l'accès universel et gratuit à l'éducation pour tous et toutes. Nous demandons au gouvernement du Québec, du fait de ses pouvoirs uniques en matière d'immigration, d’assurer la régularisation de toutes les personnes migrantes, y compris les sans-papiers au Québec.

La pandémie de COVID-19 a mis en lumière de nombreuses vérités, jusqu’ici cachées et inconfortables. Nous avons vu que les personnes vivant sans statut migratoire complet – sans-papiers, réfugié.e.s, travailleurs et travailleuses migrant.e.s, étudiant.e.s internationaux, etc. – sont parmi les plus marginalisées et délaissées de notre société. Au moment où les inégalités ne cessent de croître, elles sont touchées de manière disproportionnée par des conditions de vie précaires; surtout du fait d’emplois dangereux et mal payés auxquels elles se trouvent cantonnées. Elles se voient refuser l'accès aux services essentiels et fondamentaux, tels que l'éducation, la santé, les services sociaux, et les protections et avantages sociaux au travail.

Les personnes sans papiers, en particulier, sont contraintes de vivre dans la crainte constante d'être expulsées, ce qui les rend sujettes à l'exploitation. Beaucoup parmi elles n'ont pas de recours judiciaires face aux injustices, abus et discriminations. Les personnes migrantes ont été en première ligne tout au long de la pandémie, effectuant des tâches essentielles mais très exposées aux risques – nettoyage, distribution de nourriture, soins – aidant d'innombrables personnes à rester à flot et faisant fonctionner notre société. Au lieu de les soutenir dans l’accès à la résidence permanente, les employeurs et employeuses continuent de faire pression pour l'expansion du programme coercitif et contraignant des travailleurs et travailleuses étrangers temporaires basé sur l’exploitation.

Quelques changements réglementaires partiels et temporaires se sont produits, mais ils demeurent terriblement insuffisants par rapport à ce qui est nécessaire. En mai 2021, un programme fédéral a ouvert la voie à la résidence permanente pour certaines personnes migrantes dans le secteur des soins de santé, quelques « emplois essentiels » limités, et pour de jeunes diplômé.e.s. Mais des exigences injustes excluaient la plupart des personnes, y compris les sans-papiers, les demandeurs et demandeuses d’asile et les migrant.e.s sans emploi. De même, le programme dit des Anges gardiens n'a accordé le statut permanent qu'à quelques milliers de personnes. Au niveau municipal, des villes comme Montréal, Toronto et d'autres ont adopté des résolutions en faveur de la régularisation, mais aucune mesure effective n'a été prise pour concrétiser ces résolutions.

À nos yeux, toute personne mérite de vivre dans la dignité et d'avoir accès à l'éducation sur son lieu de résidence. Actuellement, les enfants de moins de 18 ans au Québec et en Ontario (quel que soit leur statut) peuvent accéder à l'éducation, mais en Colombie-Britannique et en Alberta, il n'y a pas d'inclusion à l'échelle provinciale. En mai de cette année, à Vancouver, l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada est allée jusqu’à attendre devant un école pour arrêter un parent sans papiers.

La Déclaration universelle des droits humains dit pourtant que l'éducation est un droit humain fondamental, essentiel à l'exercice des autres droits. L'éducation ne fournit pas seulement la formation et les compétences nécessaires à l'obtention de moyens de subsistance, mais elle offre aussi un espace essentiel pour favoriser la réflexion critique, les relations sociales et les compétences interpersonnelles. Ces liens et ces compétences constituent la base d'une société bienveillante, productive et prospère.

L'heure est à l'égalité des droits pour tous et toutes, ce qui signifie un statut complet et permanent.

Nous demandons justice, solidarité et égalité et signons cet engagement pour l'éducation pour tous et toutes.

* Voir la liste des signataires

BC Yukon Book Prizes - 2022 Gala

September 24, 2022 By Mike Ma

Tonight I attended the BC Yukon Book Prizes Gala on behalf of Between the Lines Books. Catherine Nolin and Grahame Russell’s book, Testimonio, was nominated for the “Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes”. Her book, which was published by BTL Books, was competing against many great BC books that included Spíləx̣m, Dog Flowers, Peyakow, and Border and Rule. Border and Rule was written by the acclaimed activist writer Harsha Walia, and it was her book that won the prize! Congratulations to Harsha! Harsha gave a great acceptance speech that culminated in an invitation to the other competitors to join her on stage to demonstrate that social justice struggles can only be won in unison with others.

I especially enjoyed the event because it reminded me of how small the world is. As I found my seat at my table, i was surprised to see my neighbour, Emilie Smith, sitting right next to the Catherine Nolin! She has a piece in the book and has been working on liberation struggles in Guatemala for years where she first met Catherine Nolin. Who knew!?! I was really blown away.

Mike Ma, Emilie Smith, Harsha Walia, and Catherine Nolin at the BC Yukon Book Prizes Gala

Here is a complete list of this year’s 2022 winners: https://bcyukonbookprizes.com/2022/09/24/announcing-the-winners-of-the-2022-bc-and-yukon-book-prizes/

Status for All - Migrant Rights Demonstration

September 18, 2022

By Mike Ma

Today I attended the Migrant Rights gathering at Grandview Woodland Park (https://migrantrights.ca). It was a sunny day and there were lots of supporters with their kids and families. It was a great vibe.

There were a number of speakers that included temporary migrant workers, live-in caregivers, refugees, and international students, among others. It was the international student speaker that made me pause. The student —who is a student from India— had someone else read their statement because they were afraid of the state and immigration services. It made me wonder if this could be a student of mine at KPU?

We know that many students seek permanent residency after their university education but the process can be an arduous one and one that is not successful for all applicants. See below for a partial video of the student statement that was read out by a supporter.

Drug User Groups Convergence - June 8, 2022

By Mike Ma, June 8, 2022

Today I attended a great meeting where drug user groups from BC met at the Sheraton Hotel in Surrey to discuss forming a regional BC network of drug user groups. The imagined network would facilitate the work of advocacy and action. See below for some photos and interviews from the event.

Interview with Susan C. Boyd, author of Heroin: An Illustrated History

May 26, 2022

Dr. Susan C. Boyd, Distinguished professor, University of Victoria, Faculty of Human and Social Development, Emeritia, discusses her new book Heroin: An Illustrated History.

https://youtu.be/CW3dBuvwlDg

Interview with Mike Ma, Department of Criminology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

The book can be purchased through Fernwood Publishing: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/heroin

From Land Acknowledgements To Healing the Land

By Rita Wong, April 3, 2022 

Though the last two years have been hard on everyone, Tsleil Waututh community members continue to stand strong for the unceded Coast Salish lands that have sustained their ancestors since time immemorial. As the people of the inlet, the Tsleil Waututh have been healing the land and waters, bringing back clam harvests, restoring salmon habitat, re-introducing elk, and more.

During the pandemic, many of us have learned how our connection to nature is crucial for our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. We owe an immense debt to the Tsleil Waututh and their Coast Salish kin for their efforts to restore what colonization has attempted to destroy. If we live on Coast Salish lands, we all have a responsibility to support these efforts to heal the land, which is also to heal the people at the same time.

The Tsleil Waututh Sacred Trust has compiled a comprehensive environmental assessment, doing their due diligence where the federal and provincial governments have failed us. All this is in danger, as the Trans Mountain pipeline expands, threatening to accelerate climate destabilization even more, on a scale we cannot afford. With a skyrocketing price tag of 21.4 billion dollars and counting, this is a pipeline no one can afford.

After the past year of floods, forest fires and heat waves, the land is speaking loud and clear. It is a terrible mistake to expand fossil fuel infrastructure. We need to reduce our consumption of the earth’s resources and make a fast pivot to renewable energies.

I have been standing with the Tsleil Waututh community and thousands of people in the struggle to uphold Indigenous law and protect these unceded Coast Salish lands from the TransMountain pipeline expansion for many years. I have spent time in jail, and it was a small price to pay because the scale of climate disaster we face is much more terrifying to me than the prison industrial complex. I am doing my level best to help avert mass disaster and to support Coast Salish people’s incredible efforts to heal the land.

But as Amitav Ghosh points out, “the scale of climate change is such that individual choices will make little difference unless certain collective decisions are taken and acted upon.” This Saturday, April 9, is a time to renew our collective commitment to the land and the Indigenous peoples of these lands. The Tsleil Waututh Sacred Trust is holding a rally to end this pipeline once and for all, inviting Indigenous leaders from across Turtle Island to join us in walking the talk of respect.

Whether the pipeline becomes a stranded asset through divestment efforts, ongoing civil disobedience (including a woman who recently spent her 80th birthday in jail for obstructing TMX machinery), or sheer climate destruction (more floods and fires to come, faster and faster), it is going to die. Or it will kill us all. The choice is pretty clear that we need to step up and end this pipeline expansion. Trudeau’s greenwashing is not only misleading, but irresponsible, given what we know of the climate science.

I invite everyone who has ever made a land acknowledgement in Metro Vancouver, to show up on April 9 and contribute to the collective action that is needed for us to improve our chances of having a livable planet in the decades to come.

It is time to put our money and our bodies where our words lead us—to heal the land and waters. This is not only possible but necessary, as Tsleil Waututh community members have been showing us.

In order to heal the land, the destruction needs to stop. It has been heartbreaking to witness TransMountain pipeline contractors clearcut thousands of trees in the Lower Mainland, destroying the efforts to heal the Brunette River that volunteers have contributed over many decades. The pipeline is destroying habitat for the endangered nooksack dace, the hummingbirds who no longer have a place to nest, and so much more. What if those horrific tanks on Burnaby Mountain were turned into anerobic digesters to transform food waste into energy? What other uses could those tanks and pipes be put to? Now is the time to transform the drive toward mass extinction into a renewal of life.

As Ta’ah, the daughter of Chief Dan George, reminds us, it’s time to Warrior Up. I hope to see you there on April 9; we need to continue building relationships and momentum for the long haul.

The Land Keeps You Honest: Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek Wake-up Call

June 7, 2021

By Rita Wong

 I was honoured to visit Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek watershed recently, spending time with the ancient forests and their defenders on unceded Pacheedaht & Dididaht territory. People from all four directions are converging there in solidarity with Elder Bill Jones and hereditary chief Victor Peter’s call to protect the land for current and future generations.

I responded to this call because all people who live on unceded Indigenous territories have a responsibility to uphold Indigenous law, whether or not they understand this. The base line, as I understand it, is to protect life and biodiversity for future generations. No government—colonial or otherwise—has a right to destroy the land that nourishes life and biodiversity, including thousand-year old trees that are an incredible inheritance and gift to the world.

I have felt sickened by John Horgan’s claim that implementing a moratorium or at least a deferral on clear-cutting old-growth forest “would be a return to the colonialism that we have so graphically been brought back to this week by the discovery [of mass burial sites of children who died in residential schools] in Kamloops.”

It is gross to ignore the fact that destroying what few ancient forests remain is the ultimate colonial violence, and to try to spin this by hiding behind the Pacheedaht Band Council is reprehensible. But don’t take my word for it; this analysis by Bill Jones’ niece, Kati George-Jim, nails it. As she puts it, “John Horgan has not grown up out of being a white boy who has no clue about what it means to interact with Indigenous power and Indigenous sovereignty. He is irresponsible.”

Historically, band councils were a colonially imposed structure designed to weaken the original Indigenous cultures and enforce the dominance of the federal government of Canada. To see Horgan using colonial divide-and-conquer tactics so blatantly has resulted in calls for his resignation, like this one.

Before band councils were imposed on Indigenous peoples by colonial power structures, hereditary and cultural laws already existed, and they continue to be upheld despite colonial attempts to destroy them.  This is clearly articulated by Elder Bill Jones, when he tells the RCMP that “You are invading the territories of our hereditary chief." As I understand it, Indigenous hereditary leadership is responsible for the entire area, not only the reserve, and this leadership demonstrates cultural revitalization and due diligence by taking the time and space needed for meaningful collective decision-making. For this process to be effective and have integrity, for there to be the space to heal colonial divides and systemic violence against the land and the people, logging must stop immediately, and First Nations should not suffer the cost of this. It should be borne by the provincial government, which has thrown billions of dollars at the Site C dam disaster, and should be allocating billions to protect irreplaceable biodiversity.

The announcement on Monday that the Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht and Pacheedaht First Nations are giving the provincial government notice that they want to defer old-growth logging for two years is an important step in the right direction, but the details need to be confirmed as to what this actually means on the ground.

If what is being discussed is already destroyed by the time the consultation concludes, then consultation is meaningless colonial violence yet again. Forestry Minister Katrine Conroy’s nice-sounding but vague words say that no harvesting will happen but RCMP have continued to arrest land defenders and to prevent people supporting the hereditary leadership from being on those lands. If no harvesting is happening, the RCMP can go home and save billions of dollars from being wasted; so, why is the walk so different from the talk? Why are arbitrary, industry-biased RCMP exclusion zones popping up against land defenders, causing the BC Civil Liberties Association and legal observers to condemn RCMP violation of Indigenous rights and Charter rights?

If the provincial government had actually implemented the recommendations made by the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel’s report last year, I and thousands of other people would not have to put our bodies on the line for the ancient forests. It’s clear to me that the solution is to immediately financially compensate the First Nations for lost revenue from logging-- this could come from government or be crowd sourced (more than half a million has already been raised by the latter).

With 185 arrests so far and counting, people are reconnecting with the land and enacting the principle of reciprocity that is integral to our humanity (see for a comparable example, the Free, Prior and Informed Consent Protocol for Secwepemc territories).

Some of the land defenders have spectacular, athletic skills; see for instance, this video of the tree sitter, Panda. Others are sunbathers, mothers, and musicians. Everyone is dedicated and passionate.

When I arrived, I thought I would get arrested on Monday, but was saved from this by Mother Earth, who felled three large trees in a storm, effectively blocking the road that we otherwise would have blocked. Tuesday, a large group of people held off RCMP, who arrested five people and towed two vehicles away, in order to proceed the equivalent of one city block down a road. Each day brings new surprises, and new waves of people, who understand how crucial it is to protect old growth forests and uphold hereditary Indigenous leadership and sovereignty. I would like to ask the RCMP officers who have been deployed to Ada’itsx if they understand that they also have a responsibility to protect the land, not destroy it.

It was very hard to leave Ada’itsx, and I plan to return when I can. Now is the time to visit these forests if you have any capacity for this. This incredible place and community is a crash course in ethics, healing, and walking the talk of respect through collective action as people from all walks of life uphold the responsibilities that the provincial/colonial government has so far failed at. Each of us carries different gifts that we can contribute to the land and to future generations, be it a song, a meal, an arrest, or whatever skills you want to offer. See the Rainforest Flying Squad’s website for information if you go. And be prepared to be inspired by everyday people’s courage and wisdom.