Yukon NDP calls for respect of UNDRIP, withdrawal of RCMP from Wet’suwet’en territory

WHITEHORSE, November 25, 2021 – Yukon NDP leader Kate White introduced a motion in the Legislature today calling for the withdrawal of the RCMP from Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia.

The motion reads “that it is the opinion of this House that the Government of British Columbia should honour the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by intervening in the ongoing incursion and occupation of Wet’suwet’en territory by Coastal Gas Link work crews and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.”

“We support the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs in their assertion of indigenous rights and title to their unceded territories. The BC Government needs to respect those rights, and its commitment to free, prior and informed consent through UNDRIP. That means withdrawing the RCMP from their lands and releasing those who were unjustly arrested for asserting their rights” said White.

The situation in Wet’suwet’in territory is deeply troubling. The arrests of journalists, elders and land defenders on sovereign and unceded Wet’suwet’in territory need to be condemned in the strongest terms.