Secwepemc Indigenous Activists Against Canadian TMX PipelineTrial Begins

With No Proof of Deed or Jurisdiction: Canadian TMX Pipeline Attempts to Incarcerate Indigenous Mothers and Allies as First Day of Trial Begins
On Monday, December 5th, Indigenous water protectors and allies will be forced to appear in court as the first of two trials concerning the Canadian TMX pipeline begins tomorrow. It’s been over 2 years since Secwepemc Hereditary leaders and allies witnessing active acts of genocide were violently arrested while in ceremony on unceded Secwepemc Territory.
Despite having no clear jurisdiction in Secwepemc Nation, RCMP attended a Water Ceremony on October 15th 2020 at the Thompson River and immediately began threatening arrest without making any attendees aware of the injunction. Hereditary Chief Saw-ses attempted to exit the arrest zone and was forced by RCMP officers to stay. He was arrested despite his Elder Hereditary status and heart condition, denied medication and released without notification to his family late at night in downtown Kamloops. Billie Pierre, a Nlaka'pamux mother was sexually assaulted while in ceremony on the same day by a group of all male officers. On October 17th, Miranda Dick, Heather Lameroux, Laura Zadorozny and Susan Bibbings were violently arrested while conducting a Woman’s Hair Cutting Ceremony before sunrise by a team of all male RCMP officers.
There are a number of legal issues with the trial:
1. The amount of time passed between arrest and trial is already well over the Canadian legal limit for unreasonable delay.
2. The trial is taking place in provincial courts despite there being no treaties granting their jurisdiction in Secwepemc Nation and having no deed to the land.
3. A Nation to Nation relationship already exists with the federal government who has also bought the pipeline which prima facie, is a conflict of interest while the Canadian Federal Government still holds land and resources in trust for Indigenous People.
4. The court can’t conclusively decide whether the charges are civil or criminal even as trial goes ahead.
5. Indigenous title is held collectively by the People of the Nation and includes all traditional territory. The court relies on agreements signed between elected Chief and Councils formed by the Indian Act and the federally owned TMX pipeline, agreements that only apply to reserve land and not the territory at large.
6. Hereditary Chief Saw-ses attempted to exit the qualified injunction zone and was forced by RCMP to stay and be arrested despite his Elder Hereditary status and heart condition, he was denied medication and released without notification to his family late at night in downtown Kamloops.
7. Judge Fitzpatrick has already admitted that there has been a violent difference between arrests of Indigenous People and non-Indigenous People.
The Secwepemc Nation has not been consulted and has never given consent for the Canadian Federal Government’s Transmountain Pipeline to proceed and cross waterways, endangering future generations protected by Secwepemc Law. The Shuswap-Okanagan Confederacy is a law older than Canada and signed between two sovereign allied nations, the Secwepemc and the Okanagan and clearly states that the land and the water belongs to the future and can never be signed away, ceded, surrendered or sold.
Canada’s TMX pipeline has violated Secwepemc Law at every turn, building man camps that are actively endangering Secwepemc women, endangering clean water, damaging and destroying pit house sites and other heritage sites, laying plastic matting to deter salmon from their own spawning streams and more. The onus falls to Canada now to prove they have any jurisdiction to build a pipeline through another sovereign Nation, something this country has been unable to do since its inception.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Miranda Dick   236 586 5182
April Thomas   778 267 6619
Anushka Azadi  403 999 9220
"So I am just one person but I am speaking for all Secwepemc Nation. It’s not just me. I have 22,000 people that I am speaking for, on behalf of them. Because not everyone is for the pipeline. We know DIA (Department of Indian Affairs) Chiefs have signed deal with them but there is no consent from the people from the elders or the children. The DIA chiefs don’t have the authority to sign over the land, the air, the water, the people the don’t have the authority to sign those over. So we’re standing here today as Secwepemc people for our rights and our title of our land. Because this is unceded Secwepemc Territory and here we are on unceded Coast Salish Territory, and we have to recognize that. Because we didn’t sign treaties here. All of BC doesn’t have treaties. So I am standing here as a Secwepemc mother, as a land defender, as a water protector and thank you all so much for being here. It means a lot. Sometimes it feels like we are all alone but standing here today I feel really powerful. I have a lot of support here, a lot of family, so Kukstemc thank you.” - Gwa T'selletkwe