Search Results for: #ShutDownCanada

Solidarity Rail Sabotage in Guelph

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Anonymous Submission to North Shore Counter-Info

Shut Down Canada! All Eyes on Wet’suwet’en!
Solidarity Rail Sabotage in Guelph Ontario.
February 9th, 2020

Tonight we sabotaged CN Rail at 3 different locations in Guelph, Ontario.

As settlers, we took this action in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en people who are currently facing violent attacks by the RCMP and are holding down the front line to protect the health of their territory. CN rail is a culprit in supporting this colonial and destructive project as partners in transporting the infrastructure that will build this pipeline and the man camps, which create an increase in violence against indigenous women on the territory.

We were inspired by the many different #shutdowncanada actions that have targeted rail- and this call for action attacking the railways.

As directed by the call out- we wore gloves and used vinegar and steel wool to prepare the rail before contact. We connected the high gauge cooper wire to the rail circuit wire one on side and the track on the other- tripping the circuit sensors. The third spot we had scouted didn’t work for some reason, so we had to scout another spot in the moment- it was worth it to take the time and try again. It was also helpful that our spots were close to railway crossings/ signals so we knew that they were all successful. It felt like a round of applause when the bells started going off and traffic became significantly backed up in minutes.

As the RCMP continues its raid of Wet’suwet’en and begins its raid of Unist’ot’en- we take action to remind those on the front line that they are not alone and to encourage others to take strong moves in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

In summary: Eyes on the frontlines! Take action! Target the government, banks, rails, and RCMP- as CGL’s colluders in this violent project! Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en!

#eyesonthefrontlines #wetsuwetenstrong #nopiplines #respectwetsuwetenlaw

Kingston: Slow Down For Wet’suwet’en

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On Friday, January 17th a group of approximately 15 people took control of a busy commuter street on both sides of a ground-level rail crossing for the CN main line in Kingston, Ontario. We used banners and our bodies to stop traffic and flyered the waiting cars with information about the ongoing struggle on Wet’suwet’en territory.

I chose to participate in this action because I believe we should build a collective social force that threatens critical infrastructure whenever land defenders are attacked. #ShutDownCanada should be a threat and a promise, not simply a hashtag. I think we are at our strongest when we do this in public and invite others to join us in building a Turtle-Island-wide rapid response network that has the back of Indigenous land and water protectors. Last January’s actions inspired a lot of us to continue fighting along these lines, whether or not they had much impact on the actions of pipeline builders and police.

Our assumption was that this action would also result in the closure of the rail line. This was not the case. Despite a group of people standing alongside the tracks inside the boom gate right in front of CN staff, and despite a large traffic jam across the tracks being controlled only by a group of non-professionals with fabric banners, CN officials chose to close the track for about one minute, then re-opened it and allowed trains to travel along behind us.

Ultimately, the action still felt largely positive. We held onto an arterial road for more than our intended 20 minutes (a conservative window based also on the assumption that we’d be dealing with the police response to a rail blockade). Many of the drivers were surprisingly supportive despite being held up substantially during the Friday afternoon commute. Of course, some of them were instead angry. People even had a few conversations through open car windows and answered questions about why we were there. The police response came after our departure. Several people came out who I haven’t seen at similar actions in the past, and I suspect it was a new kind of risk for more than one of them. I hope that it felt empowering and that it will embolden us for future collective actions.

I learned a few things from this action. CN’s decision to shut down the line does not work the way we thought it would. They clearly are not as concerned about liability or human safety as we thought they would be. In the future, if we did this again, it might make sense to have additional bodies to hold the track itself and somehow make it more clear to CN officials that we don’t intend to move. Or we could just choose to hold a road, but in that case we almost certainly could have done so for longer.

Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en people defending their territories. May the fossil fuel industry collapse and may all those fighting for their freedom and sovereignty be victorious. Stay tuned for future actions if Coastal Gas Link and the RCMP continue their assault on the Wet’suwet’en people.

Hamilton: Shutdown at TransCanada Facility in Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Peoples

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Anonymous Submission to North Shore Counter-Info.

Occupied Dish with One Spoon Territory Hamilton, ON

As of approximately 9am on Monday January 14th, a group entered & shut down a TransCanada (Now TC-Energy) facility in what is Dish with One Spoon Territory, known as Hamilton, ON. The facility, located at 1020 Rymal Road East, is a compressor station for the “Chippewa” line, which imports natural gas from the Appalachia region and directs it East beyond Tkaronto, as well as West toward the Empress connection which fuels tarsands operations in Northern Alberta.

The action is being done in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en peoples at Unist’ot’en & the Gidumt’en checkpoint, who were violently attacked and arrested on their own unceded homelands by police one week ago. In response to the armed violence and fourteen arrests, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have temporarily allowed TC-Energy workers onto the territory to begin field survey work, but assert there will be no pipelines built.

The group taking actions acknowledges itself as a mostly-settler and white-passing group; one that sees silence and inaction in these moments as complicity, and who see their responsibility as settlers to challenge and dismantle the harmful systems their ancestors have enacted.

They also want to remind our allies and comrades that compliance under duress is not consent.

As allies, settlers, or visitors we don’t get to pass judgement on the decisions of hereditary chiefs because we like to think or pretend that we would do otherwise; we only get to decide what our response will be.

Will we bare silent witness and allow it to happen? Or will we direct our anger and grief towards those responsible, and help shut this project down?

The state happens to think we’ll do the former: that we’re not highly functional. And we’re not, so long as we’re enacting our displaced disappointment onto those facing down armed violence.

But we say otherwise: shut it all down.

Organize. Mobilize. Show up.

You want something to happen – get out there and make it happen.

We’ve had the roads, the ports, the highways. Today we have the infrastructure.

What tomorrow is, only you know.

#WetsuwetenStrong #TheTimeIsNow #ShutDownCanada

Kingston: Actions Continue in Support of Wet’suwet’en Camps

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As #ShutDownCanada actions continue to happen across the country in support of the Wet’suwet’en camps attacked by the RCMP on Monday, anti-colonial networks in Katarokwi/Kingston are activated and trying to maintain pressure on the government and corporate interests behind the Coastal GasLink project. Here is a brief timeline of actions here over the past week.

Tuesday Jan 8th: International Day of Action

As previously reported, a small group blocked Royal Bank, slowed traffic on Princess Street, and flyered motorists as part of the International Call To Action put out by the Gidumt’en Access Point.

Friday Jan 11th: John A MacDonald’s Birthday

January 11th holds a lot of significance here in Kingston, as it is the birthday of John A MacDonald, Canada’s “father of Confederation” and first Prime Minister. As if that wasn’t bad enough, John A was also directly involved in numerous genocidal campaigns carried out against indigenous people including starvation policies, the residential school system, the violent suppression of several indigenous rebellions, and the expansion of the colonial project west with construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the establishment of the Northwest Mounted Police (now the RCMP). The connection to ongoing colonial expansion to feed extractive capitalism and its violent backing by the Canadian State is a clear and direct continuation of John A’s policies.

In recent years, his legacy has been increasingly attacked by indigenous groups, anti-colonial activists and anarchists. Kingston was John A’s stomping grounds here in Turtle Island, and he is commemorated by local government, nationalists and the tourist industry. Their favourite holiday used to be January 11th where they would come together at the John A statue in City Park and “toast the old chieftain”. But since 2013, an annual mix of rowdy protest and targeted vandalism has effectively ended the public birthday celebrations, and started to contest the more broadly popular Canada Day parade.

Two John A actions happened this year in Kingston. Members of Idle No More made a banner and took photos at several locations around town. Separately, someone vandalized the John A commemorative train at City Hall with graffiti reading “when justice fails, block the rails #shutdowncanada”.

This year we were treated to a special birthday celebration, when we heard about multiple rolling roadblocks organized by Haudenosaunee communities along the province’s busiest highways to “show solidarity with our brothers and sisters out west”, including one convoy that took the 401 at ~50km/h from Akwesasne Mohawk Territory to Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, passing by Kingston and causing massive disruptions. Our timing was a bit off, but some folks were able to rush to an overpass and drop a banner reading “CANADA IS LAND THEFT” to show support for the convoy as they passed by, which by all accounts was warmly received.

Saturday Jan 12th: “Stand With Unist’ot’en” Demonstration

Saturday’s demo was the first action this week publicly called for in advance, and about 150 people showed up which for Kingston is a great turnout. People rallied in Confederation Basin and heard from Bob Lovelace, retired chief of the Ardoch Algonquins and land defender, about the importance of Unist’ot’en to our movement and why we must turn up the heat and defend it. The demo then took Ontario Street and marched around downtown, holding the intersections outside a Shell gas station and the Royal Bank of Canada while speakers from Idle No More addressed the crowd about the situation. Considering it was -20 degrees out and the cops were making half-assed attempts to persuade the crowd to leave the street, everyone did a great job of sticking together, stopping traffic and keeping each other safe. A short video of the event published on Idle No More’s Facebook page can be viewed below.