This morning members of Rising Tide Toronto delivered letters of trespass to the top institutional investors of Chevron, while hosting impromptu "educational sessions" outside their offices. This was done in solidarity with actions taking place on Saturday March 30th, as cities across the country answer the Unist'ot'en’s call for actions against Chevron and those that finance their fracking projects. The grassroots Wet’suwet’en, especially the Unist’ot’en and Likhts’amisyu clans have repeatedly told PTP officials in meetings and face-to-face encounters that they will not tolerate any pipelines through their territories. The Unist'ot'en drafted trespass letters to inform investors that they are "equally responsible and accountable for any trespasses and violations carried out on Wet’suwet’en yintah (territory)." Protesters walked the "financial walk of shame" targeting Vanguard Group, Capital Group, and State Street Corporation hoping to alert these investors that the Pacific Trails Pipeline is fraught with risk and illegality.
Chevron is the new corporate face of the Pacific Trail Pipeline project, having recently become 50/50 partners with Apache to build a fracked gas pipeline across 500 kilometres of largely unceded land, from Summit Lake to LNG plants planned for Kitimat.
Everywhere they operate, Chevron exploits land and people for money, often through the use of force and without taking responsibility for the consequences.
“If Chevron tries to install unsanctioned pipelines through unceded lands they will meet complete and utter defeat”, said Freda Huson of the Unist'ot’en Clan. “We will resist all of their plans. We act to protect our lands, and the climate stability of the whole planet.”
A previous call for action in support of the Unist’ot’en resulted in rallies in 20 cities across North America on November 27th 2012. Shortly after, former PTP co-owners EOG and Encana divested from the project. Interestingly, RBC acted as the exclusive financial advisor to EOG and Encana during a deal which saw Chevron assume 50% ownership of the Pacific Trail Pipeline and Kitimat LNG.
"Today we visited Chevron's investors to let them know that the Pacific Trail Pipeline isn't going to happen," said Taylor Flook, a member of Rising Tide Toronto. "The Unist'ot’en are mounting a determined resistance against incursions onto their territory, and a space is being carved out where we can change the course of Canada’s energy future."
Read Chevron fact sheet.
Read the letter to Chevron from the Unist'ot'en clan.
