Open letter to Ellis Ross MLA for Skeena and John Rustad MLA for Nechako Lakes.

Open letter to Ellis Ross MLA for Skeena and John Rustad MLA for Nechako Lakes.

There is no point it writing it to the NDP as most of them are members of those environmentalist groups listed lower down on this letter.

The following people and organizations penned an open Letter to Dr. Bonnie Henry. Our concern lies in the fact that this is not a legitimate request but rather a concerted effort by vexatious organizations and people who have been trying to shut down industry inclusive of the CGL pipeline long before the world knew COVID 19 existed.

We have included the actual statement in blue, our rebuttal in black.

We are writing you to echo the concerns put forth by Wet’suwet’en Ts’ako ze’ and Skiy ze’ who are urging British Columbia to shut down LNG Canada and Coastal GasLink work camps amid COVID-19 outbreaks.

Note that the use of the words (Ts’ako ze’ and Skiy ze’ ) is used to bamboozle the readers into the “Bambi effect”, in simple English (the language they themselves use for almost all communications) we include a translation.  Ts’ako ze: female chiefs, Skiy ze: people waiting for names. When we address people we make sure we include everyone Dinee Za (male chiefs, ts’ako ze (female chiefs) Skiy Za (those waiting for a name)

Note that the use of the words (Ts’ako ze’ and Skiy ze’ ) is used to bamboozle the readers into the “Bambi effect”, the English language is what they themselves use for almost all communications in daily life, then when speaking to “white man” (in the press) suddenly they need to speak using our Wet’suwet’en language.

 

Below is a list of the real people who are signatures on this letter to Bonnie, who also have historically fought against all pipelines, the same people lost the election in Witset (formerly known as Moricetown) are all known participants or supporters of the illegal blockades on the Morice River Logging Road, long before COVID 19 existed. These are also the same people who rejected the authority of the Witset Band Council , after losing the election where they failed to get support for their fight against the pipeline.

Mabel Forsyth, Melanie Forsythe (same family)
Delee Nikal, Lillian Wilson, Lorraine Naziel (same family) cousin to Gagnon family. Lucy Gagnon.
Doris Rosso, Freda Huson, Brenda Mitchell, Helen Mitchell, Catherine Michell and Karla Tait (same family)
Jolene Andrew, Leona Joseph, Virginia Pierre, and Sue Alfred.
Violet Gellenbeck, Sandra Martin Harris, Charlotte Euverman, Lillian Granley (same family) all nee Bazil’s
Molly Wickham, Jennifer Wickham who are not born Wet’suwet’en)

Reality check, that is a total of 22 women with family ties in Witset  many of them do not even live on claimed Wet’suwet’en territory. Now consider that Witset has 815 on-reserve, Approximately, 800 off-reserve members. These 22 women actually represent a small fraction of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, and all have roots in Witset. The Wet’suwet’en Nation is in fact much larger than just Witset, they include Hagwilget, Browman Lake, Skin Tyee and Nee Tahi Buhn and are not included in the counts of women in the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

So these 22 women actually represent a tiny fraction of the total Wet’suwet’en women’s population, and all were opposed to the pipeline prior to COVID 19

They cannot claim to represent the Wet’suwet’en Nation

Note that these women themselves do not use traditional names in daily life, they use the same name that is on their birth certificate, drivers license, medical card, status card, and on and on, my point here is I would like to refer the usage of traditional names here as the “Bambi Effect” or others might better relate to it as the “Rudolf Effect” (Every reindeer reminds you of ?) The idea is that when you use those names, your mind instantly conjurers up some Disney version of an almost extinct character who vilifies the general Canadian population as “settlers and colonizers” in particular the governments of British Columbia and Canada. Call it sad, bad, or someones else’s fault but very few Wet’suwet’en can even speak their own language. So in a nutshell the usage here is intentionally misleading as to who they really are in real life.

Clean projects like LNG can change that and most First Nation communities now see that and are sharing the wealth generated by these projects. The very people that these two people are referring to as transient are in fact many of their own brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles working at CGL building the pipeline. note the contradictions in their own statements.

Imagine the difference in effect if the letter said. “We are writing you to echo the concerns put forth by twenty two Wet’suwet’en members, out of a population of close to 1600 members, who are urging British Columbia to shut down LNG Canada and Coastal GasLink work camps amid COVID-19 outbreaks.” Its exactly the same statement, and look at how different it would appear to someone in Europe reading this. (Keep GoFundMe in mind when I say this.) Over half a million dollars has been acquired by these protestors via GoFundMe, thats a pretty steep number for people who do not work for a living.

We are never going to get past racism, and even the injustices of the past until we see each other eye to eye, without the smoke and mirrors generated for the press, mostly by organizations who care little about the Wet’suwet’en people, but use/abuse them for their own goals. I fully respect having traditional names and their usage in feast halls, but the “intent” here is misleading and therefore presents the moral issue of justification.

The cases reported in the work camps in the communities of Burns Lake (C’ilhts’ëkhyu Clan territory), Huckleberry Camp near Houston (on Gidimt’en Clan territory) and camp 9A (on Unist’ot’en territory) pose considerable risks to the health and culture of these communities.

The sad part here is that I am reasonably sure that Dr. Bonnie Henry as well as Northern Health are fully aware of the situation, and are working closely with the respective camps to insure everyone is isolated. Keep in mind this is a PR STUNT the very reason why its an OPEN letter, and why we are also replying with an OPEN letter.  If you are going to have a virus, would it not be logical that the safest place for it is far far away from civilization? Both Huckleberry Camp and Camp 9a are 70+ kilometers into the mountains south of Houston, and Witset where almost all the elders live is another 97.6 kilometers west on Highway 16.   The Burns Lake Camp has no connection to the ones on the Morice River Logging Road camps other than by driving 70+ kilometers from these sites, then another 80 kilometers to Burns Lake.

From a logistical point of view their claims are almost indescribably impossible.

Locals know this so once again this is another BAMBI stunt aimed at people who do not have a clue where the camps are in reality.

As stated in the letter Wet’suwet’en women sent to you on November 30, these work camps do not have the capacity to isolate all COVID-19 positive workers and often send them home to cohabitate with elders and other community members. As the result of ongoing colonialism and racism in the health care system, Indigenous peoples are at increased risk with COVID-19 due to underlying health concerns. The loss of elders and knowledge-keepers poses enormous intergenerational cultural impacts for these communities.

The letter sent by this organized group of women (listed above) claim (these work camps do not have the capacity to isolate all COVID-19 positive workers) See next paragraph, where they call their infected people transient workers, in one comment and in another say “send them home to cohabitate with elders and other community members”

The fact is it’s Northern Health that makes the final call on if or not these cases are handled onsite or elsewhere, one thing is certain, they will NOT be placed where they are a risk to others. Thus the PHONEY letter was never really intended for Dr. Bonnie Henry but rather a PR STUNT for gullible press and public who has no clue as to the logistics involved.

Bringing transient workers to these remote communities during a pandemic only perpetuates the harm of colonization and puts economic gain ahead of their health and cultural wellbeing. To not heed these women’s concerns is to put corporate profit ahead of Indigenous lives, which is not only morally wrong it is also incompatible with the B.C. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

Once again the BAMBI WARS are in play here, with key words like “transient workers” God forbid we cannot call them working Canadian employees, most of them local, however specialized workers may require that some Canadian workers are not local, what is wrong with that? They too have families and children to feed. Another BAMBI WARS term is suggesting colonization is anything done by Canadian citizens as opposed to by First Nations people, inclusive of those FN people who have more than 90% of their DNA coming from colonizers blood.

Without jobs, without the money that projects like this bring to the Canadian Government and BC Government the only thing Canada or BC could offer these ungrateful protestors would be a bankrupt nation. They have absolutely no consideration for anyone but themselves, they disrespect their own elders. They disrespect their own communities like Witset, they disrespect the very police they call on every time they have or create a problem.

Then to top it all off we have the following signatures using/abusing Wet’suwet’en people to do what they always wanted to do, that is sending our nation into bankruptcy.

The following people and organizations penned an open Letter to Dr. Bonnie Henry. Our concern lies in the fact that this is not a legitimate request but rather a concerted effort by vexatious organizations and people who have been trying to shut down industry inclusive of the CGL pipeline long before the world knew COVID 19 existed.

The entire North West of our province is under attack by the following people and organizations and  ‘None of them even live here.’ Keep in mind every group below gets funding from the Tides Foundation. Also keep in mind that most of the organization repeat the membership from one organization to the others. Its roughly or loosely speaking the same people in each organization.

None of them even live here in the Skeena Watershed.

 

Sierra Club BC
Dr. Tim K. Takaro, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Charlene Aleck, Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust Initiative
Christy Ferguson, Executive Director, Greenpeace Canada
Council of Canadians
My Sea to SkyWilderness Committee
Stand.earth
350.org
Watershed Sentinel Educational Society
RAVEN Trust
PIPE UP Network
Glasswaters Foundation
Center for Sustainable Economy
Gulf Islands Front Lines
Our Time Vancouver