Protests supporting Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs against pipeline held on Albert Street

Traffic was blocked for about an hour at several spots along Albert Street on Saturday night, as a protest was held in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs in British Columbia who oppose the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

The project has the support of elected councils established under the Indian Act but would run through unceded territory. As opponents block off access to it, RCMP have been enforcing an injunction against the hereditary chiefs.

“It’s about the pipelines but it’s even bigger than that. It’s about human rights. You can’t force a pipeline through a territory of a people that don’t want it,” said organizer Wendy Lynn Lerat earlier in the day.

“If it was going through Regina here and was going to go through an area that was a very well-protected area here in the city, there would be an uproar. It would be stopped right away. But because it’s going through Indigenous territories, they turn a blind eye.”

The protest started at about 6 p.m., with about 100 people holding a round dance on Albert Street just off Speaker’s Corner.

Police had closed traffic between Regina Avenue and College Avenue, which kept vehicles at a distance from the protest.

Demonstrators then marched north, escorted by police, to block the intersection at 14th Avenue, chanting phrases like, “consultation is not consent,” “no more pipelines,” and “water is sacred.”

“Anytime when you do a protest like this, the whole purpose of it is to cause discomfort, to cause inconvenience. Because when you’re doing that and you’re right in the face of the public, they can get mad at you, they can hate you but they see you,” said Lerat.

A round dance on Albert Street during an anti-pipeline protest in Regina on Feb. 15. (Joseph Ho/980 CJME)

Lerat said police prevented them from accomplishing that, although conceding the traffic restrictions could well have been for their protection, after a car drove into a similar rally the week before.

There were some drivers who were sympathetic to the cause.

“Because it’s their land. For Indigenous people, land is more than just land. It’s their whole culture, religion, everything. We came here, trying to build s—t on their land. That’s f—ked up. I’m O.K. with this protest. Respectable cause,” said Baasil Nadeem, who had pulled over to see what was going on.

Others, less so. One driver at 14th Avenue blared his horn at the group before making a u-turn.

Elsewhere in the country, protesters have blocked rail lines and staged sit-ins at politicians’ offices — actions that turned off another driver.

“The illegal blockades and the things that they’re doing? Totally out of line,” he said.

“Because they have no respect for the rule of law. They’re blocking me on the street here now.”

Lerat said blockades are the only way to get people’s attention.

“Any major movement, the only way it has ever worked is to create spaces where we’re making people uncomfortable. Otherwise no one listens. Everyone’s happy sitting in front of their T.V., pretending nothing is going on,” she said.

With files from Joseph Ho and Canadian Press