Climate Emergency Town Hall puts ‘all eyes on Wetʼsuwetʼen’

On Thursday November 25, Climate Justice UBC brought a group of activist leaders together for a Climate Emergency Town Hall to process the overlapping climate emergencies BC has faced in the past six months.

From fires, to floods, to RCMP brutality toward Wetʼsuwetʼen land defenders, speakers outlined the scale of the climate emergency and suggested strategies to address it.

In the wake of COP26, which Indigenous land defender Chief Ninawá Huni Kui described as “extremely disappointing,” the panelists discussed how activists worldwide continue to combat the climate emergency.

Chief Ninawá described how most international agreements to reduce global emissions are not binding, and rely on market-based solutions rather than on regulating the fossil fuel industry.

“What we’re hearing from the front lines is that those plans are full of loopholes you can drive a pipeline through,” responded moderator and documentary filmmaker Avi Lewis.

Indigenous voices ‘to the forefront’

A banner in front of the panelists who attended in-person — UBC Professor of Climate Justice Naomi Klein, documentary filmmaker Avi Lewis, Sierra Club BC Climate Justice lead Anjali Appadurai and Chief Ninawá Huni Kui — read “All eyes on Wetʼsuwetʼen.”

The panel’s climate justice conversation centred Indigenous sovereignty in the face of state violence and climate crisis.

“Physical helicopters — precious resources — are being sent to enforce on Wet'suwet'en land instead of aiding the flood victims in BC,” said Appadurai.

Indigenous journalist Brandi Morin Zoomed in to the panel to describe her experience reporting on Wetʼsuwetʼen.

“I felt like I was being smuggled in,” said Morin. “The RCMP had checkpoints all over the place. And it’s next to this last-of-its-kind river system in the world, that the land defenders are fighting to protect.”

Indigenous land defender Kanahus Manuel also Zoomed in, from unceded Secwepemc territory, where the Tiny House Warriors are standing against the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

She described how Coastal Gas Link uses BC Supreme Court injunctions as a “legal billy club” to supersede Indigenous land rights.

“The Canadian federal government needs to put the crisis over infrastructure as first priority, not these injunctions to Coastal Gaslink,” said Manuel, referring to BC’s flooded highways.

The panel emphasized that this issue is not confined to BC. Chief Ninawá, hereditary chief and elected representative of the Indigenous Federation of Huni Kui in the Amazon, travelled to Vancouver to participate on the panel as a visiting scholar. Representing 118 villages and 16,000 people, he has been an active land defender for decades.

Like at Wetʼsuwetʼen, Brazilian land defenders face devastating state violence from multinational corporations, which profit off of burning the Indigenous rainforest for agriculture and cattle-ranching.

“We are also fight in our territory against predatory enterprise,” said Chief Ninawá. “We fight against the logging companies and mining companies. I am here in solidarity.”

What students can do to act

Every speaker acknowledged the pervasive climate grief.

Professor of Climate Justice Naomi Klein emphasized that to combat anxiety, people can organize — whether that be at Fairy Creek, at UBC, or through political advocacy.

In response to a question about the role of federal governance in activism, Appadurai spoke on the limits of putting faith in electoral politics. Appadurai ran as an NDP Candidate in Vancouver Granville in the September federal election.

Appadurai and Lewis agreed that transformatively reducing fossil fuels requires the power of the state, necessitating a push from the inside. Chief Ninawá added that land defenders who work outside the state apparatus are just as crucial.

Journalist Kai Nagata and land defender Kanahus Manuel both advocated escalating direct action.

“The actions we need are to hit any part of the finance apparatus: Wall Street, any credit company,” said Manuel. “Statutory decision makers signing off on those agreements, signing off on our genocide. They have faces and they have addresses.”

For actions even closer to home, Climate Justice UBC (CJUBC) speaker Yasmina Seifeddine plugged CJUBC’s new reinvestment campaign. The club is asking UBC to reinvest the ten per cent of its divestment funds into the community: “affordable housing, community-owned renewable energy, and more.”

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