Indigenous communities organize grassroots resistance to oil and gas corporations – McGill Daily
“I come with a lot of memory of facts of the industries that are threatening our lands, but also potential ideas to create something in their place, to create a better world.” Mel Bazil introduced himself to the community at the Native Friendship Centre following traditional indigenous protocol, asking permission to come speak and detailing what his contributions would be. Bazil, a Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en organizer and anarchist, came to discuss Indigenous resistance to pipeline projects as part of the May installment of Under the Weather, a monthly lecture series on climate change hosted by campus-community radio station CKUT. The broadcast also featured a performance by the Buffalo Hat Singers, a contemporary pow-wow group.
In his talk, Bazil explored the roles of overconsumption and capitalism in the destruction of the environment. He emphasized that it is these factors that lie at the root of oil and gas expansion, and that these issues must be dealt with in order to permanently stop pipeline projects.
“We could stop hundreds of pipelines, […]” said Bazil in his speech, “but if we do not stop the main pipeline that is overconsumption, if we do not stop that main pipeline around the planet, we will have to stop thousands more pipelines here.”
