Trimming the pomp given the circumstance: Protests cancel ceremony ahead of Throne Speech

VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – As the province’s elected officials ready for Tuesday’s Speech from the Throne, there is a cloud hanging over the Legislature in Victoria.

A protest camp, on the front steps and lawn, has already impacted some ceremonies planned for the day, as activists stand in support of Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders who oppose an LNG pipeline through north central B.C.

The large group has been camped out in front of the Legislature for days, as fellow supporters across the country shut down rail lines, ports, and bridges.

Day 4 of Indigenous Youth for Wet’suwet’en occupation of B.C. Legislature! Overnight there was round dance, drum groups, and traditional tattoo practitioners giving tattoos to an elder. This is how we resist, by demonstrating the love and power of our ancestors. pic.twitter.com/yinZmqRYVA

— Ta’Kaiya (@salishdropout) February 9, 2020

As a result of the encampment, the provincial government has also been forced to cancel the ceremonial Inspection of the Guard of Honour by the lieutenant governor.

Premier John Horgan has been the target of much of the protesters’ anger. They want him and other high-level ministers to meet face-to-face with hereditary chiefs who have been vocal about their opposition to the 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink line, which is being built through the Wet’suwet’en territory.

“We have been a government that ran on reconciliation, that ran on delivering the UN declaration here in British Columbia and we’ve been able to achieve that. But this issue speaks to the complexity of hereditary versus elected leadership,” he said on Monday.

Elected Wet’suwet’en band councillors have approved the project and some Wet’suwet’en individuals, including other hereditary chiefs, have come out in support of the pipeline saying the Unist’ot’en “land defenders” do not represent them anymore than the land defenders feel represented by elected band councillors.

Raids complete in north

On Thursday, the RCMP began enforcing an injunction in order to allow construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline to proceed. Police have since arrested more than two dozen people in north central B.C. who are opposing the pipeline. Demonstrations across the country began the same day and included blockades at the entrances of Metro Vancouver ports.

More than 50 people were arrested on Monday by police enforcing a court order, granted to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, forcing protesters to leave.

Meanwhile, protesters and Wet’suwet’en supporters are planning on holding their own ceremony outside the building. It’s unclear what else they are planning as far as disrupting legislators trying to access the building but security has been increased.

“We’re not protesters, we’re land defenders,” Morgan Mowatt, who spoke for the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said. “We are calling for the provincial and federal governments to stop the invasion on the Wet’suwet’en Nation and also to uphold [The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People].”

Speech will go on

While protesters will force Janet Austin’s entrance into the Legislature to be a much more low key affair, there aren’t expected to be any surprises in the speech itself.

Instead, the province is touting affordable achievements, like cutting MSP and bridge tolls, adding child care and urgent health care spaces, and laying out the recently-announced centrepiece — that of the impending changes at ICBC to a “no-fault”-type system, which are expected to save British Columbians an average of $400 a year.

The speech is expected to take place at 2:15 p.m.

-With files from Paul James and Lisa Steacy