# Modern-Day Bead Trading: How the Fossil Fuel Industry Co-opts Indigenous Protest in Canada

An episode of [Drilled](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1439735906), 5 Dec 2023, 42 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/SxlTEPDY7xDg35RXkASs/pdrl.fm/3e5572/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/9a7ab5ee-ce11-48ff-a544-b3ec00ea9b1e/ca0161bd-9843-47b6-9fbf-b3ec00eefbe5/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=7f82f371-6316-4ea6-a108-b3ec00ea9b2d

Reporter Martha Troian brings us to Canada, where the Wet'suwet'en people have been fighting for years against a gas pipeline they never authorized on their territory and examines how fossil fuel companies employ "redwashing" to manipulate public perception. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:07] Speaker 1: A few hours before sunrise on November nineteenth, twenty twenty one,
[0:11] Speaker 1: a small weasel entered a log cabin in a place
[0:13] Speaker 1: called Coyote Camp, a resistant camp on the Wassowotan Territory
[0:18] Speaker 1: and what is now called British Columbia is started to
[0:22] Speaker 1: crawl around the land defenders sleeping inside. One of the
[0:25] Speaker 1: land defenders looked at the weasel and took it as
[0:28] Speaker 1: a warning.
[0:30] Speaker 2: How do you side, Jasie Alex Stadney. I am a
[0:33] Speaker 2: Witsuitan land defender, also the daughter of Chief Foss who
[0:37] Speaker 2: is the head chief of Cassia House on Gidemden Territory.
[0:41] Speaker 1: Jocelyn Alex Sadney has been arrested twice on her own territory.
[0:46] Speaker 2: My first arrest was during Coyote Camp back in twenty
[0:49] Speaker 2: twenty one for defending our watinqua Our River from being
[0:55] Speaker 2: drilled under. I also had a cabin on the so
[0:58] Speaker 2: called drill pad site occupied. I did it for up
[1:00] Speaker 2: to fifty six days. That day, November nineteenth, there were
[1:07] Speaker 2: three others in the cabin with me, so that very morning,
[1:12] Speaker 2: it was like five six in the morning, a weasel
[1:15] Speaker 2: came in and it started like like crawling on us,
[1:23] Speaker 2: like crawling on my friends and like just getting right
[1:25] Speaker 2: near us, and so I took that as a sign,
[1:30] Speaker 2: like as a warning that they were coming. And sure enough,
[1:40] Speaker 2: after that happened, we started wearing the machinery and there
[1:46] Speaker 2: were a hellies flying and okay, so we started seeing
[1:57] Speaker 2: them like dropping down take teams so of ERTs, which
[2:01] Speaker 2: are the emergency response teams, and there there was like
[2:06] Speaker 2: three of them that like three groups that got dropped,
[2:10] Speaker 2: and that was when they started surrounding Piote camp and
[2:15] Speaker 2: there were at least like ten RCMP also with ten ERTs,
[2:24] Speaker 2: and so they started coming down the hill. They started
[2:28] Speaker 2: like dispersing and like getting into positions, and we noticed
[2:33] Speaker 2: that there were already two snipers on us and they
[2:37] Speaker 2: were right behind the bulldozer and they also had a
[2:40] Speaker 2: painine with them, and so they started surrounding the cabin.
[2:46] Speaker 2: They came up to the door and they started telling
[2:51] Speaker 2: us that we weren't following so called Canadian law and
[2:56] Speaker 2: that we had to come out and like just comply
[2:58] Speaker 2: with them. But then I told them who I was, Like,
[3:02] Speaker 2: I'm the daughter of Chief Loss and you're not welcome here.
[3:06] Speaker 2: Told them that they needed a warrant and they were
[3:08] Speaker 2: trespassing on with suitan territory. And so that went on
[3:15] Speaker 2: for like at least twenty minutes, and then that's when
[3:19] Speaker 2: they started the forest entry. They got an ax and
[3:27] Speaker 2: started breaking down the door. Once that happened, the door
[3:32] Speaker 2: got busted down and we were all on our knees
[3:36] Speaker 2: with our hands up and saying that we were unarmed,
[3:41] Speaker 2: and so they had their snipers on us. They had
[3:44] Speaker 2: the canines at the door, just barking and growling, and yeah,
[3:50] Speaker 2: that's when we got arrested.
[3:55] Speaker 1: According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a force known
[3:58] Speaker 1: as the RCP, arrests were made because the land defenders
[4:02] Speaker 1: such as Sadney, were blocking work on the Coastal gas Link,
[4:06] Speaker 1: a fourteen and a half billion dollar gas pipeline under
[4:09] Speaker 1: construction in northwest BC. The company behind Coastal gas Link
[4:14] Speaker 1: is TC Energy, a multi billion dollar Calgary based pipeline
[4:17] Speaker 1: company which earlier tried to build the Keystone Excel Tarzan's
[4:22] Speaker 1: pipeline in the US. In December twenty nineteen, Colberg, Craves
[4:27] Speaker 1: and Roberts and Company, also known as KKR, an American
[4:31] Speaker 1: global investment company, acquired a sixty five percent equity interest
[4:36] Speaker 1: in the Coastal Gaslink pipeline project from TC Energy. This
[4:40] Speaker 1: pipeline runs through the traditional territory of the Wasotan people,
[4:45] Speaker 1: whose ancestors have lived in this area for thousands of
[4:48] Speaker 1: years and never formally seated or surrendered their territories to
[4:52] Speaker 1: the federal government. Sadney says she was there protecting her
[4:56] Speaker 1: traditional territory and to stop the drilling beneath the Moors
[4:59] Speaker 1: River also known as the wazen Quah River. It's been
[5:03] Speaker 1: an ongoing battle between hereditary Watsoitan chiefs and Coastal Gas
[5:08] Speaker 1: Link for years.
[5:10] Speaker 2: So right now currently they did drill under the river,
[5:14] Speaker 2: which is extremely heartbreaking. After that happened, we were incarcerated
[5:21] Speaker 2: for four nights and five days. We were brought to
[5:26] Speaker 2: like seven different jail cells to courts, but that judge
[5:32] Speaker 2: was all like, we don't have time for you, so
[5:35] Speaker 2: we're going to take you up to prison, and so
[5:37] Speaker 2: we got brought up there. They kept us in for
[5:41] Speaker 2: the night and we had court in the morning, and
[5:45] Speaker 2: so they made up these conditions for us, and one
[5:50] Speaker 2: of those conditions is for us to not return to
[5:53] Speaker 2: our territory. They gave us the conditions well, we were
[5:57] Speaker 2: in the holding cell and said that if we sign it,
[6:02] Speaker 2: we get released, and if we didn't sign it, we
[6:05] Speaker 2: would have still been in persuted.
[6:12] Speaker 1: She agreed to their conditions and got released. By the
[6:15] Speaker 1: time she got out, her cabin had been burned to
[6:17] Speaker 1: the ground. She blamed the RCMP, but said the RCNP
[6:22] Speaker 1: accused the land Defenders who started bonfires just before the raid.
[6:26] Speaker 1: Sadney wondered why would they start bonfires so close to
[6:29] Speaker 1: their own cabins. This was the third raid since twenty nineteen.
[6:35] Speaker 1: Since established in the camp, the land Defenders have faced
[6:38] Speaker 1: court ordered injunctions, invariably followed by heavy handed police tactics,
[6:44] Speaker 1: including heavily armed swat teams and canine units, only to
[6:47] Speaker 1: see the corporations they're fighting engage in what they call
[6:51] Speaker 1: red washing and nearby communities. So what sowug In chiefs
[6:55] Speaker 1: and land defenders are so opposed to fossil fuel expansion
[6:59] Speaker 1: because of the potentially severe impacts on their drinking water,
[7:02] Speaker 1: wild salmon, and the global climate. It's a controversial project
[7:07] Speaker 1: that hereditary whatsoochin chiefs never agree to.
[7:11] Speaker 3: My name is Christatnik. I am a citizen of the
[7:15] Speaker 3: Vantagwich in First Nation from the community of Old Crow, Yukon.
[7:19] Speaker 3: Our territory is situated in the North Yukon. I am
[7:23] Speaker 3: a lawyer by training. I practice in the area of
[7:26] Speaker 3: Aboriginal law, and in that work I work exclusively with
[7:31] Speaker 3: Indigenous peoples, primarily those whose territories are in what is
[7:36] Speaker 3: now British Columbia and Yukon, on issues of title rights
[7:41] Speaker 3: and self determination.
[7:43] Speaker 1: Statnik has worked on various issues with the Risootan, including
[7:47] Speaker 1: the Coastal Gaslink project.
[7:49] Speaker 3: In the Coastal gas Link case, we see this major
[7:53] Speaker 3: pipeline passing through the Wsootan territory. Several individual house groups
[8:00] Speaker 3: within the Watsota Nation own specific territories that the pipeline traverses,
[8:07] Speaker 3: and those houses, through their own governance system, did not
[8:11] Speaker 3: consent to the pipeline, and through their system, actually made
[8:14] Speaker 3: a decision to not consent to any pipelines through that
[8:19] Speaker 3: corridor due to their concerns about the impacts on things
[8:23] Speaker 3: like the watershed and the health of their people. And
[8:27] Speaker 3: that was essentially ignored and continues to be ignored as
[8:31] Speaker 3: if it doesn't exist, and as if that decision wasn't made.
[8:36] Speaker 1: The refusal to acknowledge that decision prompted ongoing opposition to
[8:40] Speaker 1: the coastal gas link that became impossible to ignore. That
[8:44] Speaker 1: story is coming up after this quick break. I'm Martha
[8:48] Speaker 1: Troy in Canada and this is drilled the real free
[8:51] Speaker 1: speech threat with Sowerton. Hereditary leaders and other members of
[9:10] Speaker 1: the First Nation had for years occupied a series of
[9:13] Speaker 1: camps along the pipeline's proposed route. As a way to
[9:17] Speaker 1: remove the camps, TC Energy applied for an injunction from
[9:21] Speaker 1: BC Supreme Court.
[9:23] Speaker 3: The company relying on permits that had been issued by
[9:29] Speaker 3: the provincial government of PC saying yes, you can go
[9:33] Speaker 3: ahead and build this pipeline subject to these conditions. They
[9:37] Speaker 3: said that gives us the legal right to build this
[9:40] Speaker 3: pipeline and these individuals are blocking or impeding our ability
[9:47] Speaker 3: to do this work authorized under provincial law, and therefore, Court,
[9:52] Speaker 3: we want you to issue an order against these individuals
[9:56] Speaker 3: saying that they can't impede construction or they will be
[10:01] Speaker 3: arrested and face criminal contempt.
[10:04] Speaker 1: Potentially, there was sootan argue that those permits were invalid
[10:11] Speaker 1: because the hereditary chiefs governing those territories had said no
[10:15] Speaker 1: to the Coastal gassing project. Although there was Sotin have
[10:18] Speaker 1: never negotiated treaty with the Canadian government. They have also
[10:22] Speaker 1: never seated their territory.
[10:26] Speaker 3: And so they went to the court and took this step,
[10:29] Speaker 3: and of course the Wsotan as a nation, having in
[10:33] Speaker 3: nineteen ninety seven already went to the Supreme Court of
[10:37] Speaker 3: Canada after over twenty years of litigating trying to get
[10:43] Speaker 3: proof from the court saying yes, you do have ownership
[10:47] Speaker 3: and jurisdiction over this land, even though they've tooken that
[10:51] Speaker 3: significant step in the court in that case kind of
[10:54] Speaker 3: met them halfway and said, well, we don't have enough
[10:57] Speaker 3: here to say that you have title to a specific,
[11:01] Speaker 3: defined area, but we have enough here to say that
[11:05] Speaker 3: for sure, you guys don't have a treaty and you've
[11:08] Speaker 3: never had your rights extinguished by any government, and these
[11:13] Speaker 3: rights are now constitutionally protected. And so it was a
[11:16] Speaker 3: bit of a halfway measure, but significantly it left that
[11:21] Speaker 3: conclusion that what's sotin title and rights are still existing.
[11:25] Speaker 3: They've never been extinguished. And so when it came to
[11:28] Speaker 3: this injunction proceeding that what's Olotans sought to raise the
[11:32] Speaker 3: fact that they do have title that's never been relinquished,
[11:36] Speaker 3: that they still have jurisdiction and the right to make
[11:39] Speaker 3: decisions about how it's used, and that they did implement
[11:43] Speaker 3: that in this case and said no, and that the
[11:46] Speaker 3: court should consider that on whether this project is even
[11:51] Speaker 3: properly authorized, whether the company should get the injunction or not.
[11:57] Speaker 3: And unfortunately but is quite common in these types of
[12:00] Speaker 3: injunction proceedings, the court in this case, the BC Supreme
[12:04] Speaker 3: Court said that they would give the injunction to the
[12:08] Speaker 3: company and that the injunction preceeding itself wasn't the type
[12:13] Speaker 3: of forum or place where the court could really resolve
[12:19] Speaker 3: these title questions and so more or less buried their
[12:22] Speaker 3: head in this end as if they don't exist.
[12:27] Speaker 1: That's important because the court not only effectively criminalized the
[12:31] Speaker 1: with SOOTIN who were trying to enforce their own decision
[12:34] Speaker 1: on their own territory, but also because once that injunction
[12:38] Speaker 1: was granted, it authorized the RCNP to enforce it.
[12:49] Speaker 3: With that injunction order that the company is obtained, it
[12:55] Speaker 3: does include an order that empowers the RCMP to enforce
[13:00] Speaker 3: that injunction. It does give them completely broad discretion about
[13:07] Speaker 3: how and when they enforced that.
[13:08] Speaker 1: Injunction corporations in Canada are using court ordered injunctions with
[13:13] Speaker 1: increasing frequency. According to the Yellowhead Institution, an Indigenous led
[13:18] Speaker 1: think tank at the Toronto Metropolitan University. In their twenty
[13:24] Speaker 1: nineteen report land Back, a Yellowhead Institute red paper, the
[13:28] Speaker 1: Institute found that of one hundred injunctions filed between nineteen
[13:31] Speaker 1: seventy four and twenty nineteen, on behalf of companies and governments,
[13:36] Speaker 1: eighty one to ninety one percent were granted. However, during
[13:40] Speaker 1: that same time period, just nineteen percent of injunctions were
[13:44] Speaker 1: granted to Indigenous applicants. In the case of the Westsootin,
[13:48] Speaker 1: the injunction granted to TC Energy gave police the legal
[13:51] Speaker 1: authority to raid the protest camps and, according to documents
[13:55] Speaker 1: later shared with reporters, the authorization to shoot Indigenous land
[14:00] Speaker 1: defenders if necessary. This work was carried out by the
[14:07] Speaker 1: Community Industry Response Group or SERG and RCNP unit created
[14:12] Speaker 1: specifically to police energy industry incidents or protests against pipeline projects.
[14:21] Speaker 1: Raids have been described as a troubling pattern of police
[14:24] Speaker 1: intimidation towards peaceful land defenders. According to the Union of
[14:28] Speaker 1: BC Indian Chiefs, an organization that advocates for Indigenous rights.
[14:34] Speaker 4: I am Chief Nomox.
[14:36] Speaker 5: I am our hereditary chief of the tai Yu Clan
[14:38] Speaker 5: of the Whitsulton Nation.
[14:40] Speaker 1: Speaking against these arrests. Hereditary Chief Nemox is another person
[14:45] Speaker 1: committed to defending his territory against the Coastal Gas Link pipeline.
[14:49] Speaker 5: We are not elected officials, and names I carry are
[14:53] Speaker 5: thousands of years old, and we are the authority as
[14:56] Speaker 5: we have never seated or surrendered, nor assigned a tree
[15:00] Speaker 5: on our entire twenty two thousand square kilometers. If you
[15:04] Speaker 5: think about United Nations Declaration on Rates of Indigenous People
[15:08] Speaker 5: free priorn informed consent, that's not happened with us because
[15:12] Speaker 5: we told them from day one this proposed pipeline owned
[15:16] Speaker 5: by TGL, TC Energy and KKR. We said no from
[15:21] Speaker 5: day one. We even gave them an alternate group to
[15:24] Speaker 5: some areas that were already damaged because by law we
[15:27] Speaker 5: have to be reasonable.
[15:29] Speaker 4: So we did that and they still went ahead.
[15:35] Speaker 1: But there's a dispute between bc BAN elected Indigenous leaders
[15:38] Speaker 1: and hereditary chiefs. Elected or BAN chiefs and councils were
[15:42] Speaker 1: created under the Indian Act of eighteen seventy six and
[15:46] Speaker 1: are officially recognized by the Canadian government, whereas hereditary chiefs
[15:50] Speaker 1: or traditional governments inherit the title territory or land, their
[15:55] Speaker 1: governance system predates colonial laws.
[15:58] Speaker 5: The reserve system was created by Canada to remove us
[16:02] Speaker 5: from the land and our territories so they could have
[16:06] Speaker 5: access to resources, and so they put them on many
[16:09] Speaker 5: school pieces of land. And when you have a band
[16:13] Speaker 5: elect system of chief and council, they only have jurisdiction
[16:17] Speaker 5: within the boundaries of that reserve, the same as a municipality.
[16:22] Speaker 5: With us the hereditary chiefs, we have the jurisdiction and
[16:26] Speaker 5: authority on the entire twenty two thousand square kilometers of
[16:29] Speaker 5: our land, and that is through our house groups are
[16:32] Speaker 5: clans and the people themselves.
[16:35] Speaker 1: Today twenty bands have signed impact benefit agreements. An impact
[16:40] Speaker 1: benefit agreement is an agreement made between indigenous people or
[16:44] Speaker 1: an impacted community and project developers to share projected financial
[16:48] Speaker 1: benefits and other commitments. It is unknown how many Indigenous
[16:53] Speaker 1: communities declined and benefit agreement with TC Energy. The time
[17:00] Speaker 1: that TC Energy was out selling benefit agreements to First
[17:03] Speaker 1: Nation communities, the British Columbia government began making six figure
[17:07] Speaker 1: financial contributions to a new advocacy group called the First
[17:12] Speaker 1: Nation's LNG Alliance, composed of Indigenous leaders in favor of
[17:17] Speaker 1: gas expansion. That group in turn formed a research partnership
[17:22] Speaker 1: with a conservative think tank called the McDonald Laurier Institute,
[17:27] Speaker 1: which also became an outspoken advocate for Coastal Gaslink. The
[17:33] Speaker 1: McDonald Laurier Institute is a member of the Outlets Network,
[17:37] Speaker 1: a global network of think tanks we covered in an
[17:40] Speaker 1: earlier episode, and some of the strategies it developed in
[17:44] Speaker 1: Canada have now spread elsewhere in the world. As early
[17:49] Speaker 1: as twenty twelve, in response to the national idleno More
[17:52] Speaker 1: protests advocating for First Nation sovereignty and rights in Canada,
[17:57] Speaker 1: the McDonald Laurier Institute began publishing papers about how to
[18:02] Speaker 1: neutralize First Nation's opposition to resource projects. To deal with
[18:07] Speaker 1: this problem, the group recommended various approaches, including bringing First
[18:11] Speaker 1: Nation leaders on board as advocates of extractive projects and
[18:16] Speaker 1: criminalizing those who were interested. Over time, the MacDonald Laurier
[18:21] Speaker 1: Institute became a bridge builder between governments hoping to entice
[18:25] Speaker 1: natural resources investment in pro industry Indigenous leaders seeking new
[18:30] Speaker 1: revenue streams for their communities. One of its strategy documents reads.
[18:35] Speaker 1: Many elected officials now depend on the relationship that MLI
[18:40] Speaker 1: has built with the Aboriginal community. This connection provides credibility
[18:45] Speaker 1: and support needed to battle opponents. They became a trusted
[18:50] Speaker 1: media source on Indigenous issues in Canada. To Meanwhile, First
[18:55] Speaker 1: Nations opponents to the pipeline have been increasingly criminalized. In Alberta,
[19:00] Speaker 1: which houses Canada's largest deposits of oil sands, Then Premier
[19:04] Speaker 1: Jason Kenny accused pipeline protesters of scaring away oil and
[19:08] Speaker 1: gas investors by creating the appearance of anarchy. In June
[19:13] Speaker 1: twenty twenty, his government passed a new law prohibiting protests
[19:17] Speaker 1: that interfere with highways, railways, oil sands operations and other
[19:21] Speaker 1: essential infrastructure, with fines as high as twenty five thousand
[19:25] Speaker 1: dollars and jail sentences of six months. Law professors and
[19:30] Speaker 1: civil liberties experts in the province called it an unjustifiable
[19:34] Speaker 1: violation of fundamental rights and freedoms. In twenty twenty one,
[19:38] Speaker 1: Kenny launched investigations into what he called an anti Alberta
[19:42] Speaker 1: energy campaigns, accusing environmental organizations of working on behalf of
[19:47] Speaker 1: foreign governments. It's one of the several talking points that
[19:50] Speaker 1: Kenny has parroted from Canada's outlets network think tanks, all
[19:55] Speaker 1: of which were originally funded by the oil and gas industry.
[19:59] Speaker 1: Here's Christa again.
[20:01] Speaker 3: I think not surprising given sort of the political leanings
[20:06] Speaker 3: of that provincial government that they took. I would say,
[20:10] Speaker 3: the significant step to legislate and pass a law that
[20:16] Speaker 3: essentially criminalizes in the case where it's Indigenous people exercising
[20:22] Speaker 3: constitutionally protected rights, it criminalizes them for doing that, of course,
[20:27] Speaker 3: but also potentially infringes on rights and freedoms of other Canadians.
[20:33] Speaker 1: Statnik says the use of legislation and injunctions against Indigenous
[20:37] Speaker 1: people are a form of what's called slap lawsuits slap
[20:41] Speaker 1: standing for a strategic lawsuit against public participation.
[20:45] Speaker 3: This is a thing or a phenomenon, I would say, globally,
[20:49] Speaker 3: where you have powerful governments or corporations who essentially use
[20:55] Speaker 3: the law and lawsuits to tie people up in court,
[20:59] Speaker 3: to tie them up in legal jeopardy, to have all
[21:03] Speaker 3: sorts of things hanging over their head, from police action
[21:07] Speaker 3: to criminal charges to even civil lawsuits seeking at times
[21:12] Speaker 3: hundreds of millions of damages against an individual.
[21:16] Speaker 1: Such a case rose in the Gitson territory, where the
[21:19] Speaker 1: Canadian National Railway or c in Rail, sued one of
[21:23] Speaker 1: the chiefs for blocking rail traffic for two days in
[21:26] Speaker 1: twenty twenty. Staatenik says, even though CEE and Rail didn't
[21:29] Speaker 1: proceed with their lawsuit, the damage was done.
[21:32] Speaker 3: The fact that they filed one, and there's the threat
[21:35] Speaker 3: of it really works in a similar way to seek
[21:39] Speaker 3: to intimidate folks or disincentivize them from continuing to speak
[21:44] Speaker 3: up in opposition to projects. So both of those pieces
[21:48] Speaker 3: of legislation and how they i would say weaponized against
[21:52] Speaker 3: indigenous peoples are you know, I'd say both draconian and
[21:56] Speaker 3: both problematic.
[21:57] Speaker 1: For Staatenik, these lasting impacts are worrisome and only point
[22:02] Speaker 1: to the colonial problem we have here in what is
[22:04] Speaker 1: now called Canada.
[22:06] Speaker 3: It's concerning in Canada in terms of like leverage or
[22:12] Speaker 3: like strength of legal position. There's probably no one in
[22:17] Speaker 3: Canada with a stronger position than the Getsent and Whatsotan.
[22:24] Speaker 3: And if this can happen to them on their territory,
[22:31] Speaker 3: you know, and essentially be sanctioned by Canadian law and governments,
[22:38] Speaker 3: then it could happen essentially anywhere, right, And I think
[22:42] Speaker 3: that's a really important part of it is, you know,
[22:45] Speaker 3: we need to pay attention.
[22:48] Speaker 1: Despite all of the raids in Mesootan Territory, TC Energy
[22:52] Speaker 1: maintains that it is committed to reconciliation. The government in
[22:56] Speaker 1: Canada has repeatedly proclaimed the importance of a meaningful relationship
[23:01] Speaker 1: with Indigenous people, one that is based on a non
[23:04] Speaker 1: adversarial approach, a true nation to nation relationship with First
[23:09] Speaker 1: Nations peoples, but some say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is
[23:14] Speaker 1: too close for comfort with oil and gas companies. In
[23:17] Speaker 1: March twenty twenty one, TC Energy released its Reconciliation Action
[23:22] Speaker 1: Plan Report. The company claims it has an unwavering commitment
[23:26] Speaker 1: to reconciliation. In their fifteen page report, TC Energy lays
[23:31] Speaker 1: out six commitments for reconciliation. To develop a Reconciliation Advisory Council,
[23:37] Speaker 1: to provide training to their board of directors, to implement
[23:40] Speaker 1: corporate wide cultural training, to invest in Indigenous communities, to
[23:45] Speaker 1: set indigenous contracting targets, and lastly, to develop a framework
[23:50] Speaker 1: to identify project equity opportunities with Indigenous groups. Around the
[23:55] Speaker 1: same time that TC Energy was rolling out its Reconciliation
[23:59] Speaker 1: Action Plan. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed how there
[24:03] Speaker 1: is no relationship more important to the government in Canada
[24:06] Speaker 1: than on it has with Indigenous people. With a new
[24:10] Speaker 1: federal budget announced, the Liberal government promised to spend more
[24:14] Speaker 1: than eighteen billion dollars over the next five years to
[24:17] Speaker 1: close the socioeconomic gap between Indigenous and non Indigenous peoples
[24:22] Speaker 1: and to write any historic wrongs. Here's Finance Minister Christia
[24:27] Speaker 1: Freeland on that commitment.
[24:29] Speaker 6: Our government has made progress in writing the historic wrongs
[24:34] Speaker 6: in Canada's relationship with Indigenous peoples, but we still have
[24:39] Speaker 6: a lot of work ahead.
[24:41] Speaker 1: At an update to their reconciliation report. In November twenty
[24:44] Speaker 1: twenty two, TC Energy announced its inaugural Indigenous Advisory Council members,
[24:51] Speaker 1: even before any reconciliation reports, TC Energy has been working
[24:55] Speaker 1: with Indigenous peoples for quite some time with their purse
[24:58] Speaker 1: strings in hand.
[25:00] Speaker 7: You do come from a long line of strong, powerful leaders, warriors,
[25:05] Speaker 7: ancestors who have shown their resilience and their ability to
[25:10] Speaker 7: overcome obstacles.
[25:12] Speaker 1: TC energy social platforms are saturated with short videos such
[25:16] Speaker 1: as this one highlighting the company's accomplishments and indispensable presence
[25:21] Speaker 1: in Indigenous communities. TC Energy's website touts how the company
[25:26] Speaker 1: has been working with Indigenous peoples for more than forty years.
[25:30] Speaker 1: The website lists business, employment and training opportunities, and even
[25:34] Speaker 1: their renewed reconciliation goals, and all the buzzwords and phrases
[25:38] Speaker 1: are sprinkled throughout their site Distinct relationship with the Land,
[25:43] Speaker 1: respect Trust, Unique Governance, multi generational. Since nineteen eighty two,
[25:52] Speaker 1: TC Energy has provided an annual scholarship program to Indigenous students.
[25:58] Speaker 1: Most recently. The company site how it has invested five
[26:01] Speaker 1: and a half million dollars to support Indigenous partners and
[26:04] Speaker 1: students across North America in twenty twenty two. When it
[26:10] Speaker 1: comes to Indigenous culture, TC energy has funded everything from
[26:14] Speaker 1: sun dances, powows, Meyti festivals, language and elder programs to
[26:19] Speaker 1: species protection initiatives. Satina Nation near Calgary, Alberta is just
[26:24] Speaker 1: one nation benefiting from these investments and a large headdress
[26:29] Speaker 1: and ribbonskirt. Then Vice president Tracy Robinson of Canadian Natural
[26:33] Speaker 1: Gas Pipelines and Coastal Gas Link spoke to a group
[26:37] Speaker 1: at the signing of a new relationship agreement with the
[26:40] Speaker 1: Satina Nation in spring twenty twenty one.
[26:44] Speaker 8: As I speak today on behalf of our team in
[26:46] Speaker 8: TC Energy, we know we have so much to learn,
[26:49] Speaker 8: and we thank you for being our teachers in this
[26:52] Speaker 8: and for.
[26:53] Speaker 1: Taking us on this journey.
[26:54] Speaker 8: We will become better and better by sharing time with you.
[27:01] Speaker 1: The agreement was written on a buffalo hide in both
[27:04] Speaker 1: the Satina and English languages and gifted to TC Energy.
[27:08] Speaker 1: As for Chief Nemox, he feels these jobs and handouts
[27:11] Speaker 1: are either short term or menial compared to the value
[27:14] Speaker 1: of these projects and companies. Nimock said he's not mad
[27:18] Speaker 1: at people for taking these incentives. It's about the process
[27:21] Speaker 1: itself and those who are directing it.
[27:23] Speaker 4: That's all bribe money.
[27:25] Speaker 5: If you talk about millions of dollars, that's pretty minute skill.
[27:28] Speaker 5: If you think about the kiddamant LNG plant, which is
[27:32] Speaker 5: where this proposed pipeline is to go, that's forty billion dollars,
[27:36] Speaker 5: and they throw out minuscule amounts, as he stated, and
[27:40] Speaker 5: even the project here that has going through our territory
[27:43] Speaker 5: is at twenty three billion.
[27:46] Speaker 1: All of these actions are nothing more than cheap opportunities
[27:49] Speaker 1: for industries. To appear as benevolent. According to activists and
[27:53] Speaker 1: writer Clayton Thomas.
[27:54] Speaker 9: Muellers Dance, my name is Clayton Thomas Mueller. I'm a
[27:59] Speaker 9: tree men from Pagoda Wogan Crenation Treaty six Territory, but
[28:04] Speaker 9: i live here in the City of Winnipeg in Treaty
[28:06] Speaker 9: one Territory. Red wash or red washing is you know,
[28:12] Speaker 9: unfortunately a super common and you know, actually the practice
[28:18] Speaker 9: has been increasing dramatically in recent years. And essentially it's
[28:25] Speaker 9: the corporate sponsorship of indigenous cultural, artistic or education institutions
[28:34] Speaker 9: to paint extractive industries or you know, like make oil
[28:38] Speaker 9: or mining, forestry, fisheries corporations or hydro you know, to
[28:45] Speaker 9: kind of paint them as benevolent or good neighbors or
[28:50] Speaker 9: an essential or you know, non replaceable part of our economy.
[28:56] Speaker 9: And essentially, you know, this practice is kind of a
[29:00] Speaker 9: version of modern day bed trading or you know, smallpox
[29:06] Speaker 9: blankets trading. You know, that's utilized by these companies here
[29:11] Speaker 9: in the Canadian economy and across the world actually in
[29:15] Speaker 9: economies where indigenous peoples reside under the occupation of settler
[29:20] Speaker 9: colonial states, so that these companies can acquire social license
[29:24] Speaker 9: to continue to operate as business as usual.
[29:29] Speaker 1: Even though these redwashing strategies are becoming more sophisticated, Thomas
[29:34] Speaker 1: Mueller says these companies are also facing more scrutiny than
[29:37] Speaker 1: ever before because Indigenous peoples are becoming more literate about
[29:42] Speaker 1: extractive industries and risks and threats they pose.
[29:47] Speaker 9: These companies are the very companies that are committing industrial
[29:52] Speaker 9: genocide on Indigenous peoples and that are directly in conflict
[29:56] Speaker 9: in breaking Section thirty five Canadian Constans institution and interrupting
[30:02] Speaker 9: our ability to hunt, fish and trap in our traditional territories.
[30:06] Speaker 9: And you know, these Section thirty five rights are not
[30:10] Speaker 9: just protected by the Canadian Constitution, but they're protected by treaties.
[30:14] Speaker 9: They're protected by international legal instruments like the UN Declaration
[30:18] Speaker 9: on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And these are supposed
[30:20] Speaker 9: to be inherent rights. But every day here in the
[30:25] Speaker 9: Canadian economy, we see corporations running roughshot over them and
[30:29] Speaker 9: working in collusion with provincial and territorial governments to do so.
[30:33] Speaker 9: And all the while the federal government is turning a
[30:36] Speaker 9: blind eye and the liability around whose jurisdiction it is
[30:40] Speaker 9: to deal with Indigenous peoples and their grievances. The buck
[30:44] Speaker 9: is passed back and forth, and the burden of proof
[30:46] Speaker 9: in the Canadian colonial courts, of course falls on Indigenous
[30:50] Speaker 9: peoples and corporations all the while continue to dole out
[30:55] Speaker 9: these little sums of money. And you know, they show
[30:57] Speaker 9: up at our community barbecues with their flashlights that have
[31:01] Speaker 9: the corporate logos. They show up at our schools and
[31:05] Speaker 9: donate schools supplies to our students.
[31:08] Speaker 1: How should a community deal with these dollouts? Is there
[31:10] Speaker 1: a solution to all of this?
[31:12] Speaker 9: I think the solution is that Canada has a fiduciary
[31:16] Speaker 9: legal obligation to recognize and respect and adhere to the
[31:22] Speaker 9: sovereignty and self determination of each individual. First Nation Canada's
[31:27] Speaker 9: indigenous peoples are not a monolith.
[31:29] Speaker 4: We're very, very diverse.
[31:31] Speaker 9: We have greedy capitalists First Nation peoples, even leaders in
[31:35] Speaker 9: our communities who are super pro profit even in the
[31:39] Speaker 9: wake of the global climate crisis, in the wake of
[31:44] Speaker 9: the violence that boomtown economies extractive industries bring into our
[31:49] Speaker 9: communities in the form of murdered and missing Indigenous women
[31:53] Speaker 9: and girls. But the fact of the matter is that
[31:56] Speaker 9: what we need to be doing is having for and
[32:01] Speaker 9: conversation and informed debate so that Indigenous nations across Canada,
[32:07] Speaker 9: whether they're Inuit meets he r First nations, can make
[32:10] Speaker 9: informed decisions.
[32:12] Speaker 1: What kind of impact does red washing make in Indigenous communities?
[32:16] Speaker 1: Is this helping or hindering? Are these funds being put
[32:19] Speaker 1: to good use? Is that what matters? Or is it
[32:22] Speaker 1: just pitting Indigenous peoples against one another. We asked an
[32:27] Speaker 1: expert who research impact benefit agreements about red washing and
[32:31] Speaker 1: how Indigenous communities are impacted by it.
[32:34] Speaker 10: My name is cliff Atleo Junior.
[32:36] Speaker 11: I'm an assistant professor in the School of Resource and
[32:39] Speaker 11: Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.
[32:44] Speaker 11: I'm New Channels on my father's side from the community
[32:47] Speaker 11: of a house It which is on the west coast
[32:49] Speaker 11: of Vancouver Island, and I'm Timshan on my mother's side
[32:52] Speaker 11: from a community called Kitselas. One of the things that
[32:57] Speaker 11: I I guess I learned was not to sort of
[33:01] Speaker 11: blanket judge any community for decisions they felt like they
[33:04] Speaker 11: had to make. The overall sort of economic aspect of
[33:08] Speaker 11: settler colonialism has more often than not destroyed lots of
[33:13] Speaker 11: our traditional livelihoods. Some have been able to adapt. West
[33:17] Speaker 11: Coast communities, for example, were able to participate in commercial
[33:20] Speaker 11: fishing for most of the twentieth century. We saw a
[33:23] Speaker 11: big decline in that. And so you have communities with
[33:26] Speaker 11: few economic options that have you know, first of all,
[33:33] Speaker 11: you know, more than half of their people have to
[33:34] Speaker 11: leave home, they go to town to.
[33:37] Speaker 10: Go to school or get a job.
[33:38] Speaker 11: But also, like I said, they're sort of traditional ways
[33:42] Speaker 11: of living have been severely limited, and so they become
[33:45] Speaker 11: out of a necessity having to think about these more
[33:49] Speaker 11: resource extractive intensive industries or transportation of oil, for example,
[33:54] Speaker 11: in terms of pipelines. So they're kind of really between
[33:58] Speaker 11: a rock and a hard place.
[34:00] Speaker 1: Al Leo also sees this through the lens of corporate personhood.
[34:04] Speaker 11: I always come back to this idea that a corporation,
[34:07] Speaker 11: you know, in Western law, is a person.
[34:12] Speaker 10: It's a legal entity.
[34:15] Speaker 11: And you might recall there was a documentary like quite
[34:17] Speaker 11: a while ago, twenty years or more ago, called The Corporation,
[34:20] Speaker 11: and it was based on a book and they were
[34:23] Speaker 11: comparing corporations to psychopaths.
[34:25] Speaker 10: And if you take various criteria.
[34:30] Speaker 11: To determine you know, whether an entity is psychopathic or
[34:34] Speaker 11: you know, lacking empathy, whole list of criteria. It's really
[34:39] Speaker 11: easy to see corporations falling into that. Their number one
[34:42] Speaker 11: priority is to return maximum profit. And when you come
[34:45] Speaker 11: at it from that perspective, I think in some ways
[34:49] Speaker 11: these corporations don't like I don't think they care, like
[34:54] Speaker 11: they're that structurally they're unable to care what the right.
[34:57] Speaker 10: Thing to do is.
[35:03] Speaker 1: The latest raid on Wassotin protest camps happened in spring
[35:07] Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, with five more arrests, mostly Indigenous women,
[35:12] Speaker 1: Sadney being one of them. All of them were released
[35:15] Speaker 1: without charges the following day. Still, TC Energy sees itself
[35:20] Speaker 1: as the victim of violence, citing a twenty twenty two
[35:24] Speaker 1: nighttime attack on coastal gasleak equipment that reportedly caused twenty
[35:28] Speaker 1: million in damage and which is still under investigation by
[35:31] Speaker 1: the RCMP. A TC Energy spokesperson told my colleague Jeff Denbihy,
[35:37] Speaker 1: we have experienced unlawful and dangerous activities, including acts of
[35:41] Speaker 1: violence by anarchists that have put people, property, and the
[35:45] Speaker 1: environment at risk. In January twenty twenty three, TC Energy
[35:50] Speaker 1: claims to have a majority of the Coastal ghas leak
[35:52] Speaker 1: project done, and says the pipeline could start transporting gas
[35:56] Speaker 1: later this year. The LNG Canada expert term in Kiddimat
[36:01] Speaker 1: is expected to be operational by twenty twenty five. This
[36:04] Speaker 1: is all being marketed to foreign investors as a triumph
[36:08] Speaker 1: for indigenous self determination, even as more than a dozen people,
[36:12] Speaker 1: most of them First Nations, face criminal charges for protesting
[36:16] Speaker 1: the pipeline. Chief Demos doesn't think TC Energy is as
[36:20] Speaker 1: far along with the Coastal gasling project as they say
[36:23] Speaker 1: they are. His goal is to make his presence known,
[36:27] Speaker 1: even if that means confronting the belly of the beast.
[36:30] Speaker 1: Colboy Cravers, Roberts and Company or KKR, which he recently visited.
[36:36] Speaker 5: Will never support it, will always go against it. They
[36:39] Speaker 5: can make claims that it is ninety plus percent on
[36:43] Speaker 5: the ground, but they've never built a pipeline in this
[36:46] Speaker 5: type of train and they've never taken on.
[36:49] Speaker 4: People with such support as we do.
[36:51] Speaker 5: I was in New York, we letter rally, I speak
[36:54] Speaker 5: at the UN, we have Amnesty International. We challenge him
[36:58] Speaker 5: at every point.
[37:00] Speaker 1: As for their latest work, what we know so far
[37:03] Speaker 1: is that TC Energy is looking to transfer ownership of
[37:06] Speaker 1: its Nova Gas Transmission Limited system. Nova Gas is a
[37:09] Speaker 1: wholly owned subsidiary of TC Energy. Analysts say that this
[37:14] Speaker 1: might be a way for TC to pay down its debt.
[37:18] Speaker 1: In its application to the Canadian Energy Regulator, the company wrote,
[37:22] Speaker 1: transfer ownership is to facilitate potential future minority ownership of
[37:27] Speaker 1: the system, including possible participation from indigenous groups. We were
[37:32] Speaker 1: hoping to ask TC Energy a series of questions for
[37:35] Speaker 1: this episode. I contacted them by email and telephone, but
[37:39] Speaker 1: I didn't get too far. TC Energy, you speaking maybe okay?
[37:45] Speaker 12: Well, thank you for calling TC energy Media relations line
[37:49] Speaker 12: for service in English press one.
[37:55] Speaker 1: Hi, can I get media relations.
[37:58] Speaker 2: Hi?
[37:59] Speaker 1: I'm calling from Drilled Media and my name is Martha Tryan.
[38:04] Speaker 1: I did send a media inquiry by email, and I
[38:10] Speaker 1: was hoping to send at least a couple of questions
[38:13] Speaker 1: your way for a podcast episode, So if someone could
[38:18] Speaker 1: just get back to me. I did see the links
[38:21] Speaker 1: that you sent to us, but I'm hoping to actually
[38:23] Speaker 1: get a response, like a response to some questions. My
[38:30] Speaker 1: colleague Jeff Dunbecky received an email statement from TC Energy.
[38:34] Speaker 1: They wrote, at this time, we are focused on safely
[38:37] Speaker 1: completing construction to deliver lasting benefits for Indigenous and local
[38:42] Speaker 1: communities BC and Canada for decades to come.
[38:47] Speaker 5: Everything is at stake and you got to remember that.
[38:50] Speaker 5: We know what our parents and grandparents said. We know
[38:53] Speaker 5: why there was a Dolga Mocco stay away court case,
[38:56] Speaker 5: and we know the rhetoric that comes from elected officials
[39:00] Speaker 5: are stirred by industry.
[39:02] Speaker 1: Now, Max says, the BC government never upheld the Declaration
[39:05] Speaker 1: on the Rights of Indigenous People's Act and they need
[39:08] Speaker 1: to be held accountable.
[39:10] Speaker 5: That's exactly what has happened. They're not being held they're
[39:14] Speaker 5: not keeps in our word, and they're supporting projects such
[39:17] Speaker 5: as this which are adding to the climate change in
[39:20] Speaker 5: this entire planet. And yet they do it what for
[39:24] Speaker 5: many school amount of money. There is no future thinking
[39:27] Speaker 5: in this. And we as What's Holton, as the hereditary Chiefe,
[39:30] Speaker 5: we do for the betterment the wall.
[39:32] Speaker 4: It's not just for the What's Houltan. Everything we do
[39:35] Speaker 4: affects the planet. We need to work together to stop
[39:39] Speaker 4: these things. We are What's Holten.
[39:40] Speaker 5: But we know that Indigenous people around the world we
[39:45] Speaker 5: have the same laws. They all come from the ground.
[39:48] Speaker 5: The land here, the war, the planets, and medicine. That's
[39:51] Speaker 5: where our law comes from. That is what we have
[39:54] Speaker 5: in common.
[39:58] Speaker 1: As for Jocelyn, Alec said she doesn't have any plans
[40:01] Speaker 1: to give up the fight anytime soon.
[40:04] Speaker 2: With my second arrest, after we got released, we immediately
[40:08] Speaker 2: came back up. They're like, no way and how that
[40:12] Speaker 2: they're going to keep us away? Keep me away with
[40:15] Speaker 2: suetan woman on her own territory.
[40:19] Speaker 12: Huge thanks to Martha Trojan for bringing us this episode.
[40:23] Speaker 12: Martha reported, wrote and hosted Today. She's proudly from Laksul
[40:27] Speaker 12: First Nation and Wabascang First Nation in northwestern Ontario.
[40:32] Speaker 1: Our senior editor for the series is Eline Brown.
[40:36] Speaker 13: Sarah Ventry and Martin Saltz Austweak are senior producers. Sound
[40:40] Speaker 13: design and scoring also by Martin Saltz Austweek, who composed
[40:44] Speaker 13: much of the music in this episode.
[40:46] Speaker 1: Additional reporting by Jeff Dunbickie, Mixing and mastering by Peter Duff.
[40:51] Speaker 12: Our theme song is Bird in the Hand by a Forenown.
[40:55] Speaker 13: Fact checking by Wood and Jan.
[40:57] Speaker 12: Our First Amendment attorney is James Wheaton.
[41:00] Speaker 1: Our artwork was created by Matt Fleming. The show was
[41:03] Speaker 1: created by Amy Westerveldt first story related to this episode
[41:07] Speaker 1: from reporter Jeff Dumbickie. Head to our website at Drilled
[41:11] Speaker 1: dot Media.
[41:13] Speaker 13: You can also sign up for our newsletter there.
[41:15] Speaker 1: It's never more than a ten minute read, and people
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[41:22] Speaker 12: If you'd like to support our work, please leave us
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[41:26] Speaker 1: It really helps us to find new listeners.
[41:29] Speaker 13: Upgrade to a paid newsletter or podcast subscription for access
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[41:36] Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.

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