Dear Premier Horgan and Prime Minister Trudeau,
We are writing because we are appalled at the violence being unleashed on the Wet’suwet’en people who are living on their traditional unceded lands and attempting to protect them from the destruction caused by an unwanted gas pipeline through their territory.
In our view the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) which your government has adopted clearly states that consent must be given for resource projects on indigenous lands. The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs do not consent.
ClimateFast is a citizens initiative based on the knowledge that we must act on climate – fast. There is no time to waste building further fossil fuel infrastructure. All our resources must now be used for the immediate transition to a renewable energy economy. We need to make use of conservation, efficiency, and natural ways to draw carbon down so that we may pass on to our children a living planet, with a habitable climate. At the moment we are on track to 3 degrees or higher increase in global average temperatures, which is not livable. We need to act on climate -now – to prevent this unthinkable future from becoming our children’s reality.
The Indigenous people of this land have shared their wisdom with us. Water is indeed life. And we must think seven generations ahead when we make decisions today – because the impact will be there for the current generation of children growing up today – and for those generations coming.
We need to be building the economy of the future -now – not clinging to the economy of the past. And we must do so while respecting the right of Indigenous nations to say ‘no’.
We call on you to stop the invasion of the Wet’suwet’en territory – now.
Sincerely,
Lyn Adamson
Co-Chair, ClimateFast
(lyn@climatefast.ca)
c/o 60 Lowther Ave. Toronto
M5R 1C7