The group was protesting the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, a natural gas project that stretches across the province. Now, a group of roughly 200 Canadian musicians, including members of Arcade Fire, Destroyer, and U.S. Girls, have published an open letter in support of the protestors.
“As musicians, we know a PR campaign when we see one,” the letter reads. “Since 2015 Justin Trudeau has promoted a message of Truth and Reconciliation and professed the goal of building meaningful nation-to-nation relationships, but his government’s actions don’t align. Meaningful nation-to-nation relationships are not made at gunpoint.”
“We recognize the pattern of the RCMP’s role in expanding Canadian influence over Indigenous peoples’ land for the purpose of resource extraction,” the letter continues. “We are horrified by the violence of last week and the RCMP’s continued harassment of your people, and troubled by the exclusion zones erected to keep the press from reporting and Wet’suwet’en citizens from returning to their homes.”
The letter follows the UN’s recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which determined that action on global warming must be taken in the next 12 years to avoid rising global temperatures. Read the group’s full statement here.
