Pipeline Protests : Resource Development Challenges Indigenous Rights in B.C April 2020

Summary: In early 2020, Coastal GasLink started work on a 670-kilometre, multi-billion dollar pipeline project designed to move natural gas from the B.C Interior to the West Coast. That pipeline goes through the traditional territory of the Wet'suwet'en people. The company claimed it had authority from both the province and 20 First Nations band councils, including five Wet'suwet'en Nation band councils. Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, however, say they are the decision makers on natural resources on their lands and were not consulted. Supporters of the hereditary chiefs shut down rail lines and staged large solidarity protests in numerous cities across Canada. This story looks at the unfolding of recent events, and it also looks back to the landmark Delgamuukw case in 1997 that a precedent for how treaty rights are understood in Canadian courts.