Toronto Wet’suwet’en Solidarity March

February 22, 2020. The sun was brilliant, the slogans and posters striking, the round dance in the heart of Canada’s financial district, the 6 concentric circles of the real Canadians, those who honour Canada’s First Nations, made February 22, 2020 a historic occasion. The largest show of native solidarity in Canada’s history, the day was celebrated across the country. Here are a few memories courtesy of my cell phone.

And here’s my take on Presstv. I’m on at 3:30.

Not only is it obscene to dig up and export our precious natural resources, but this particular pipeline is doubly odious. It is to export FRACKED gas. That means pounding the priceless lands in the Rockies, effectively bludgeoning Mother Nature, raping her to squeeze the last gasp of poisonous gas, so we can heat up her up even faster.

Passing around the burning sage at Queens Park

The demonstrators were/are young, newly ‘energized’, using our renewable ‘energy’ without any pollution. We sense that time is short, that Mother Earth’s human children look evil these days, that we have a moral duty to protest, to stop this ‘Coastal GasLink’ pipeline, to stop all pipelines.

Passing the memorial to Canadians who died in the Boer War; i.e. , for Apartheid

 

 

GasLink snake in the grass

 

I love the homemade, heartfelt cardboard posters best.

Passing our halls of justice

 

Dancing round East, South, West, and North (black, red, yellow, white)

Long live Mother Earth! Long live the Wet’suwet’en!

• Photos by Eric Walberg

Eric Walberg is a journalist who worked in Uzbekistan and is now writing for Al-Ahram Weekly in Cairo. He is the author of From Postmodernism to Postsecularism and Postmodern Imperialism. His most recent book is Islamic Resistance to Imperialism. Read other articles by Eric, or visit Eric's website.