It would be impossible to have a “core contractors” section without mentioning The State – something that corporations heavily rely on to surveil and criminalize land defenders and accomplices. Judicial systems and policing in Canada – and even Canada itself – play a huge role in the destruction of land and water.
The Courts grant and order the enforcement of injunctions on behalf of private industry – or in the case of the TMX pipeline – canada itself. Yet, the canadian law system is something that has been in effect for much less time than Indigenous governance systems, or the land and water being protected. It is a product of colonization, and the removal of territories and rights and culture and children through force and trickery.
It is a system that further colonization, and serves only the colonial state and it’s benefactors (settlers).
Canadian law has no jurisdiction over Indigenous people or their traditional laws.
Yet the likes of Justice Kenneth Affleck, Justice Marguerite Church, and Justice Harper have all ignorantly allowed injunctions against Indigenous land defenders resisting the TMX pipeline, the CGL pipeline, and the development of Mckenzie meadows.
Harper, in particular, attempted not only to force Indigenous people from their own territories in order to participate in an injunction hearing but effectively gagged a spokesperson trying to submit a legal argument and denied Six Nations the right to defend themselves.
Once the colonial courts make decisions, it is the police throughout Turtle Island who strive to surveil, harass, and criminalize land defenders. Police serve as an arm of the state, often using their job as an excuse to commit violence and outright war crimes against Indigenous Nations and their accomplices.
We’ve seen the differences in the ways the state mobilized against Indigenous people and their sympathizers. We’ev seen it with the RCMP’s raid on the Wet’suwet’en, as well as the Mi’kmaw who resisted Alton Gas with the milirary. We’ve seen provincial police like the OPP or SQ do similarly with the Mohawk people of Kanesatake, Tyendinaga, and Six Nations. And we’ve seen municipal police criminalize acts of solidarity, heavily surveil individuals, as well as disrupt networks and actions.
Bottom line: if you’re serious about defending the land and water, you need to be just as serious in resisting the state.
