 and welcome everybody. We are really excited to be hosting this webinar today. As Ann said, my name is Karen Mahon and I'm with stand.Earth, formerly Forest Ethics. We're an NGO that works on climate and forests and we stand for the people and places we love. That's what our work in the world is. And in that vein, we're very honored to be hosting this webinar today with my colleagues that you see on the screen. We are discussing the indigenous resistance to tankers and pipelines, which I think we're all inspired by and excited about. In fact, we've had over a thousand people who RSVP to this webinar from across North America. So we're a big group having this conversation today, which is I think a really great development. Our first panelist will be Ariel Derringer. Ariel is with the Athabasca Chippewan First Nation and she is a founder of indigenous climate action. Here we hear from Ariel. We'll hear from Clayton Thomas Mueller. Clayton is a member of the Matthias Cologne Nation. He's joining us from Winnipeg and he is one of the leaders of 350.org in Canada. And last but certainly not least, we are thrilled to be joined by Chief Bob Chamberlain, who is the Vice President of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. So thank you all so much, our panelists, for joining us today, taking time out of their busy schedules. We very much appreciate it and we're really looking forward to hear what you have to say. So I've asked the panelists to speak on whichever aspect of the indigenous movement against tankers and pipelines they feel most called to, but in particular, how do they see the moment now? How do they see the movement now? And how can people engage and support? So we'll turn over to Ariel to start. Well, great. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. And thank you for having me here today. My name is Ariel Tsakwe-Daranje and I'm a member of the Athabasca Chippewan First Nation. And I'm really happy to be a part of this call today because I think when we talk about resistance to tankers and pipelines, we have to start talking about the source and the fact that there is resistance, indigenous resistance to the expansion of Alberta's tar sands, the very oil that would be pumped through the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline and into tankers off the coast of British Columbia. And we can't disconnect the two and we have to really coalesce our movements together, not just as indigenous peoples, but within the environmental movement. And, you know, we've seen through the last 10 years I've been working on this campaign and it's different for me. You know, as an indigenous person, this isn't a campaign that I'm picking and choosing to work on, but it is an intrinsic part of my identity. I don't feel as though I have a choice, but to do this work because of the impacts that these activities, extractive industries and the associated infrastructure have on the rights and title and the survival of the rights and title and culture of my people. So over the last 10 years, we've seen a lot of different movements sort of come together and support indigenous resistance, but not so much as we've seen in the last five years. And I think that's largely because we've seen this resurgence of indigenous peoples within the public and political sphere, not only reclaiming spaces in decision-making processes, but reclaiming spaces in society as decision makers for our lands and territory. With the introduction of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People in 2007, I think that was one of the spearheading moments for indigenous peoples to come and reclaim those spaces in society, whether it was in Canada, the United States, you know, Norway, Philippines or so on and so forth. There has been a global resurgence of indigenous peoples reclaiming our spaces as sovereign people and reclaiming our right to self-determination, because when you really look at it, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has a foundation of self-determination. Our communities have been given recognition of our right to self-determination. And while Canada was not a signatory or an endorser of UN DRIP until 2012, we were still pushing for that, and I really think that's been a part of it. And I think that we can't ignore that because one of the tenets of UN DRIP is free, prior and informed consent. And that's what a lot of this is about. Indigenous resistance to tankers and pipelines is about indigenous peoples putting forward their right to free, prior and informed consent. But over the course of the last decade, what we've seen is while we challenge and we extinguish one pipeline, as we saw with the Northern Gateway Pipeline, a huge victory. A victory completely built on the premise of indigenous resistance, not completely, but the foundations of the legal challenges of the Northern Gateway Pipeline. And the reason why it was denied was because of the infringements on indigenous peoples' rights, as described in Canadian law, but also international law, including UN DRIP. But what we're seeing is new proposals or the resurgence of old proposals like Kinder Morgan, Keystone XL, which just last week Trudeau or not Trudeau, Trump revived that pipeline with Trudeau applauding him along the way. And we can't allow our prime minister to parrot President Trump's climate and indigenous rights denialism. We have to move towards a place where we are pushing back on our governments to meet the commitments that they made, not just within the Paris Accord, but to the implementation of UN DRIP. We have to achieve climate stabilization, not just for the global, you know, atmosphere, but for the protection of the rights of indigenous folks. Our culture, our identities, and who we are wholly is wrapped up and bound together with the protection of the environment and the climate. Indigenous peoples are the first to feel the impacts of climate change because of our direct relationships with the lands. And that is why it is so critical that indigenous peoples, indigenous voice, indigenous rights are at the forefront of the resistance to pipelines, to tanker traffic, and also the expansion of Alberta's tar sands. The oil that flows through these pipelines is being extracted from lands and territories of indigenous peoples who have been forced into economic hostage situations and putting communities in positions having to choose between protecting their rights and culture and identity or putting food on the table and roofs over their heads. This is unacceptable. We're supposed to be a first world country that recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples, and yet we are literally selling out those rights for dirty oil that not only destroys the culture and identity of those at ground zero, but poses huge risks to the communities that live along the extraction routes and live within the coast on the coastal lines of tanker routes. These are unacceptable behaviors. We should be moving in the opposite direction that we're currently moving in. And so I just want to say that while the focus is great in British Columbia that we have to be coast protectors, that we have to stop these pipelines and tankers from ever being approved. We can't lose sight of the fact that there are larger structural issues that need to be targeted as well, like the things that have allowed these projects to even be proposed in the first place. What is allowing corporations and our governments to support these corporations to put forward these projects that not only take us in the wrong direction of addressing climate change, but obstruct, degrade, erode, and abrogate the indigenous rights of the communities at ground zero and along the infrastructure. So I really hope that we can continue to not only support the indigenous struggles of those fighting tankers and pipelines, but that we can support the movement to integrate full recognition and implementation of the rights of indigenous people as they, as they're written within the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, written in treaty and written in Canadian Constitution because if we can't get to that point, we're going to continue to see more and more projects pop up, whether it's in mine, territory's backyard or in the backyard of British Columbians via pipelines and tanker traffic. And indigenous peoples need the support and the capacity to be able to continue putting forward these struggles, whether it's in the legal systems, whether it's on the streets, or whether it's in a communications campaign that supports the recognition of indigenous peoples to continue the struggle. Thank you, Masichu. There we go. Thanks, Ariel. That was really helpful in terms of the framing, I think, of the resistance from, obviously, there's the front line on the ground issues in the communities all the way through to the global climate impacts, but to really understand it as our continued fossil fuel exploration, as I think you said, selling the indigenous, selling basically indigenous rights. I think that is a really powerful frame. Thank you so much for putting that in that conversation. Next, we get to hear from Clayton Thomas Mueller of 350.org. Clayton. Hey, what's up, everybody? I'm super, super stoked to be here on today's webinar. I want to give a big shout to STAND, Coast Protectors for the coast, everybody out there in BC who is doing the critical work necessary to protect the watersheds, the thousands and thousands of rivers, tributaries and streams that support the sacred salmon runs of so many indigenous nations in those beautiful territories. Thank you so much for the work that you're doing. I also wanted to acknowledge the passing of Master Carver Bo Dick. I met Bo when he came to the capital city of Canada, these lands they call Canada, with Guja from Paitagwai, when they did the Copper Shaming, Copper Shield Shaming Ceremony, that I really believe was one of the main things that knocked Harper off of his throne. And so I just want to acknowledge Bo's family and all those people that believed in Bo's work and everybody touched by his expressions as a Master Carver in a good way. As mentioned by Karen, I work for 350.org, we're a global climate organization, you know, and our job is to usher in the zero carbon economy, you know, for Mother Earth through ending the era of big oil. You know, there's a common quote that I hear, we didn't leave the Stone Age as members of the five fingered nation, you know, as humanity for lack of stones. And the same thing can be said about the fossil fuel era. You know, interestingly enough, you know, this this webinar is happening during the year that the settler colonial state of Canada celebrating its 150th year of confederation of colonization. And many, many indigenous peoples from coast to coast to coast are organizing and responding to 150 years of what they say, what we say, you know, is is is occupation, you know, of our traditional territories. You know, I think, I think the late art manual, another great movement leader who just recently passed there in BC, said it best, he said, you know, we got to stop, we got to stop asking the guys who stole our land for permission. You know, and, and I think that that's definitely true. Here in Canada, I think post Harper, you know, with the with the election of the majority liberal government federally, you know, I think there was a huge sigh of relief. A lot of people felt that the liberals would show up in big ways. There was a lot of rhetoric on the campaign trail, including in British Columbia, you know, Justin Trudeau said that he would hold accountable, you know, the flawed NEB process, he would, you know, do, you know, he would show leadership on the kind of Morgan issue. And, you know, a year later, there he was approving the kind of Morgan pipeline against the wishes of, you know, mayor of Toronto, of Burnaby, other mayors along the route of wet right away against a multiplicity of First Nations being led by the Tislewa Tooth Nation. You know, the list goes on and on. And we see, you know, that economically, on paper that Trudeau is quite simply a handsome Harper, that, you know, he still prescribes to the same neoliberal free market theories of economy. And we still have one hell of a fight on our hands here in Canada, in terms of, you know, us collectively pressuring this government to, you know, pass a sane and just climate policy, because the current, you know, conversation around the Canadian Climate Action Plan is lacking significantly. And the contradictions of our Prime Minister, you know, in terms of the commitment he made at the Paris Climate Summit to a 1.5 degree target, while domestic policy decisions around pipelines are certainly taking us far, far, far away from ever being able to achieve our international Paris climate targets. And secondarily, you know, our Prime Minister was elected with record numbers of First Nations people showing up to the ballot box on Election Day because of the promises that he had made around the murder and missing Indigenous women and girls inquiry around, you know, the ratification, adoption, full implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But, you know, his own Justice Minister, Minister there in Vancouver, Jody Wilson-Rebeck, the first First Nations Justice Minister called the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples a political distraction and unworkable under Canadian law. And when him and when she and Minister Bennett at the United Nations announced Canada's support and ratification of UNDRIP, they also ended their wonderful speech by saying that they would do that in accordance with Canada's interpretation and domestic Indigenous policies. In other words, they ain't going to do nothing. What does this mean in terms of Indigenous people stopping pipelines and stopping the expansion of the controversial Alberta tar sands these pipelines are connected to? What does it mean for Indigenous people stopping tanker traffic in our, you know, ecologically sensitive and just ever so sacred coastal waters there in British Columbia? Well, you know, I think one of the things that Harper wasn't able to do during his 10 years of power, without opening up constitutional debate, was to gut the legal regime of Indigenous peoples in this country. I mean, he did one heck of a job gutting the Navigatable Waters Act and Canada's environmental protections policies, you know, 40 years of environmental and social policy gutted by the omnibus bill agenda of former Prime Minister Harper. And, you know, Trudeau has not rescinded much of that. You know, Trudeau continues to benefit from the powers that have been concentrated in the office of the PMO. You know, he continues to contradict himself to continue to act as though he's campaigning to the left and then governing to the right in typical liberal fashion. But one thing that we know is that they can't come into our homes and, you know, dictate what's going to happen in terms of our water and our natural resources, especially in British Columbia. You know, the legal regime that Indigenous peoples have here in this country, you know, reinforced by Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution by over 200 Supreme Court victories, you know, affirming our rights and title to our traditional and treaty territories. These are very powerful legal instruments. The Canadian government, the Crown, has a fiduciary and legal obligation in a sacred trust relationship to adhere to, to uphold. And that's one of the reasons why we're still, you know, so very, I wouldn't say respected by the Canadian government, but certainly feared. And I think that, you know, one thing that we have to be aware of is that this government will stop at nothing to get tar sands to tide water. You know, and they'll go, I mean, they were even talking about building a pipe or doing a pipeline assessment to talk to a duck for crying out loud at the end of the Harper era. You know, and what we've seen, you know, for right from the get go, right from the beginning of the escalation of the Indigenous led international campaign to stop the expansion of the tar sands was that Indigenous peoples have the legal regime to hold Canada to account. And when Canada ignores its own laws, we can take them to the courts. But taking them to the courts is not the winning strategy, you know, legal litigations as we've seen historically are very costly. They take a long time. So we need to fundraise for that. I encourage everybody watching to support, you know, the legal challenges that are being brought against kind of Morgan in British Columbia, but also other legal challenges that are happening in the province of Alberta like the Beaver Lake case against tar sands expansion into their traditional territory and cases that are being led by the previous speaker, Ariel Derange's First Nation, Athabasca Chippewan First Nation, they have a lawsuit against TransCanada who, you know, is has built the Grand Rapids Pipeline, which is the mother pipeline to KEM and KXL, you know, we need to be supporting these legal challenges. But at the same time, as we learned from the tar sands campaign, we need to be very sophisticated in our social movement strategies. Our strategies need to be multi prong, and that includes base building. That means knocking on doors, having webinars like the one that you're watching today, sitting down at the kitchen table with your family, with your cousins, your grandmother, your grandfather, and talking about what you can do to contribute to stopping kind of Morgan from being built out here in our home territory. You know, we've got a big fight against line three, the Enbridge Pipeline that Trudeau approved in the same speech as Justin, or sorry, the in the same speech were just Justin approved Justin Trudeau approved the Kinder Morgan Pipeline. And we've got KXL back on the table. You know, Donald Trump is is is proven in his first hundred days to be a formidable foe. And you know, it's really important now more than ever that that malt sophisticated multi prong social movement strategy that we need to be applying in our territories where we live, you know, they need to be grounded in radical anti racism, radical anti oppression, and certainly anti colonialism. And we need to be integrating solidarity into our movements. I think that Standing Rock taught us a lot of lessons, you know, Standing Rock brought together Black Lives Matters with water protectors brought together, you know, our friends from the LGBTQ movement, it brought together, you know, you know, people from no one is illegal, you know, big shout out to no one is illegal in the incredible work that they're doing. You know, it's through solidarity and through convergence of our social movements that we will be able to hold to account the mechanisms within the settler colonial state of Canada that even allow for crazy proposals like the Tar sands techmine and like Kinder Morgan to even be on the table. You know, we need to continue to build power in a good way because there's a confrontation that's coming in BC. The Trudeau government is, you know, when they approved Kinder Morgan, you know, that approval meant that they are willing to accept at the scale of Standing Rock conflict. And so, you know, I suspect that that that conflict is going to come probably during the election year. You know, in the next year, there there isn't many scenarios to hold decision makers to account to put them in a decision dilemma now that they've gone ahead and approved. So we've got a lot of work to do base building, you know, we need to be expanding our political base of resistance in the lower mainland. Certainly, you know, that includes supporting indigenous led litigations and organizing efforts, direct action strategies. And that's really what we're doing at 350.org is supporting our our friends at the display with tooth, you know, and other nations there in the territory, the Musqueam, the Squamish that are concerned about the tanker traffic in the impact of an oil tanker spill on their food system, which is the ocean. You know, so we're supporting them. But at the same time, you know, supporting narratives that lift up the importance of stopping this at the source, you know, we've been playing a game of whack-a-mole with pipelines for the better part of a decade now. We've done a good job as social movements, keeping tar sands oil landlocked, which is no small feat. And we all should pat ourselves in the back. But this fight is is is starting to escalate now, especially with number 45 in the lower 48 states below us doing all the things that he's doing. We need to stand united. And we need to, you know, understand that that our government's ready for a big conflict. And a whole lot of us are probably going to have to get arrested, you know, so civil disobedience, nonviolent, direct action has also got to be another prong in that sophisticated multi-pronged social movement strategy to keep tar sands in the in the ground and to stop these pipelines from being built. I encourage you to check out, follow us on Twitter, 350 of Canada. We just launched a wicked campaign today against the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, you know, which was the main lobby group of big oil here in Canada. They're the ones who gutted the Navigatable Waters Act, Greenpeace exposed that. Well, they're one of the biggest sponsors of the iconic Canadian Museum of History. So, check out 350 Canada on Twitter, check us out on Facebook, please share the cool little video we put out today, encouraging our friends at the Museum of Civilization to drop cap as a museum sponsor. You know, it's a real sleazy relationship that they don't need to have. You know, they're a really good institution and a lot of the, you know, they boast the biggest totem pole collection, indoor totem pole collection in the world. So, I wanted to encourage everybody in BC, especially my First Nations relatives there to, you know, support the campaign and to tell the museum to drop cap and certainly we'll see you in the streets and out on the land in this fight to stop the construction of Kinder Morgan and to reverse Prime Minister Trudeau's support of of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain Project and I encourage you to support other pipeline fights and certainly the good fight in the Alberta tar sands to keep that project from expanding any further. You know, shut down tech mining, shut down Trans Canada, shut down Enbridge, shut down Kinder Morgan. Let's do this. Thanks, Clay. Let's do it. I think we all agree and I think that was really a great kind of naming of the moment because we're living some kind of a strange moment because we've had three pipelines approved in the last four months, right? We've had KXL approved just most recently and as we've said, Kinder Morgan and Line 3 were both approved by our seemingly friendly Canadian government, you know, who talks the talk but clearly does not walk the walk when it comes to these projects. So whether you're south of the border and your your probably your heart is probably hurting a little from yesterday. It was a particularly bad day but know that you know that this resistance in some ways it doesn't really matter whose government because the resistance is strong and growing and these approvals are going to make it grow stronger and and this is you know all having this conversation together is a big piece of that. Well, as we learned with Northern Gateway, an approval does not mean it's going to get built and I think that that's an important point for all of us to hold close to our hearts as we move forward. Definitely, it's really the beginning of the next phase. So before we open to questions and I encourage you to take in notes if questions are coming up for you. I'm going to turn it over to Chief Bob Chamberlain. Are you settled and ready to go there Bob? Yes, I am. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Thank you so much. Okay, I just accidentally unplugged something but I'm glad you can still hear me. So get out of the castle to everybody that's on this webinar. I truly appreciate everybody's interest to be here today. The challenge that we face in protecting our environment and affecting change with the gate Canadian government and the provincial government here in B.C.'s folk because on extractive industries, in particular the oil and gas, it is going to take many hands to lift this up. There's no question that this government has lost its way of its commitments to First Nations people, the commitments that it's made to Canadians as you know heading into the election and coming out of the election. I guess the question for us is what is it that we're going to do and how is it we're going to accomplish that? You know, we had the commitments about revamping the environmental assessment process and so on before anything major gets approved and as previous speakers have spoken about you know all of these have occurred now. All the wild consultation with Canadians and First Nations continues. When I consider the federal government and what it is actually accomplishing to date, I think of the most recent announcement of the six ministers that have come forward to have a review of all legislation, regulation, policy and so on that affects Aboriginal people's title and rights and knowing full well that the government has embraced finally the UN Declaration on the Rights Indigenous People as well as embracing all the calls to action from the Truth Reconciliation Commission and also considering the Supreme Court of Canada direction to the government over the decades towards First Nations people and Aboriginal title and rights. The path of reconciliation between the Crown's supposed title and the underlying Aboriginal title to our lands is the highest court in the lands direction to the government and of course if you speak to any First Nation leader across the country you're going to find that the government continues to take the most minimal approach in addressing and embracing and implementing the highest court of this lands direction to them as the Crown and of course all First Nations are very tall on this and become quite learned in all aspects of the law to fight the government. Changes that we have by and large by marching to the courts and when I consider that this new what I'm calling the super six pack of federal ministers and the work that they're taking on I think we can be guaranteed that it's going to be a mid-term long-term deliverable and so as they begin that examination and I realize that there's going to be a signing ceremony sometime in April with the AFN's national chief on this we have to then I believe turn our minds to presenting speed bumps in terms of progress on some of the the initiatives that we're here talking about today the oil and gas industry specifically kinder Morgan and also being mindful that there are a number of First Nations that are supportive of this industry and certainly there are people that find gainful employment in the oil patch and so on so we have to be very considerate about our approach here because I know that at this point the federal government is beginning a journey of looking at Aboriginal training and how that's going to be going about and to look at how do we focus in then a transforming employment opportunities from extractive industries to the renewable energy sector I know that we have a number of provinces and the prairies that have set very high targets for renewable energy in their province and I believe that if we were to do the same and put the same pressures here we can stop developments that we know imperil the territories and the environment that we so dearly and deeply rely upon but then also chart another course where people can find employment and continue to meet the energy needs of Canada and when I say Canada about the energy needs I think of bitumen that's going and that's going to meet the needs of another country's energy and if we were to look at how do we make sure that we sustain Canada's power needs first I believe that we would have a different priority in terms of government approach to what it is that they're accomplishing today and but then of course the question would be in my mind how do First Nations and how do Canadian citizens come together to ensure that that view is going to be communicated to the governments that are going to be making these decisions but back to my comment about the six ministers in this window of opportunity that we have I consider the Canadian government's approach to reconciliation from a government to government level is very abysmal at best it has not it has not accomplished what First Nations envisioned when the Supreme Court of Canada has given such direction to the Crown and so my thoughts have really turned a fair bit not that that I'm changing focus from that government to government reconciliation but when I was at the Kinder Morgan rally here in Vancouver not so long ago and and to see you know in excess of 5,000 Canadians coming together and I know it struck me about how important the work is for societal level reconciliation between Canadians and First Nation people and I believe now with the rising tension within society what I see and what I hear now is there is no social license for the government to move forward on on Kinder Morgan specifically but I think that that you know waters the seeds of reconciliation for those of us that are of the same mind and the same level of commitment to protect the environment or Mother Earth or however we view that and to know that the laws of Canada have provided a very unique a very unique place for First Nations in clear opposition to the government's decision state and as the government moves down the road now of implementing new and declaration on the rights indigenous people and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action we can begin to envision a world where there is going to be some fundamental and systemic changes to how the government is actually operating and I believe that the work that we could do today is find all those small the smaller end of the scale of incremental steps of implementation of the UN declaration and by accomplishing that and that certainly some of the approaches that I'm bringing into the work that I'm pursuing is we can then show Canadians that there's not a great big world change that's going to come that they should fear and so that they can then begin to enhance that sorry to enhance societal reconciliation between Canadians and First Nations and part and parcel to that development would for everybody to communicate to their MLAs and to their MPs and make use of social media and any any means possible to communicate your displeasure or your priority of safeguarding environment rather than meeting the needs across the Pacific Ocean with their energy demands and to make sure that other people are not going to benefit while we as Canadians absorb the environmental impacts which are certainly the long-term impacts that are going to be realized and when I think of First Nations people we draw our identity by and large from the traditional territories we come from you know our stories of origin are no different or less significant than any other race of people in the world and so that love of our territory and the identity that flows from it is critical for our well-being declaration rights from Indigenous people as well as we go forward you know I mentioned about communicating with our MLAs and communicating with our members of Parliament and you know Prime Minister Trudeau and the various ministers that are involved here we have to turn of course to our circles of influence and each of us have family we have friends circles we have organizations that have memberships we have believers in the environment that are parts of trade unions and so on and we need to really instigate that level of conversation amongst ourselves and to ensure that we have a organized a clear message about you know the priority of the well-being of the environment and calling to task the various federal departments that have constitutionally or government mandated protection as the main focus of what they do when I think of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and as was mentioned earlier about the the omnibus bills of Stephen Harper's government the government refine them and they are currently engaged in that process with First Nations and Canadians alike and how is it that we're going to put a marker in the development of these extractive resource projects and to ensure that there is a place for the refined fisheries act or the wild salmon policy or the environmental assessment or what have you so I think that that has to begin to be part of the dialogue and communication from ourselves is to point out that these things that are coming down the road of legislation and so forth from the government are going to have to be applied to things that are under way today and I look forward to when we're all going to be standing together in opposition so that we can make sure that the federal government and the provincial government of the social license that's in place or not in place as it is as I understand it today and so we can begin to ensure that the views of all Canadians are heard not just the ones that have found their checkbooks that have significantly larger checkbooks than most of us do and support these governments now I focus quite a bit on the pipeline itself but as was discussed earlier when we start to think about the expansion of marine traffic and all that that means you know we've got after the fact protection for the orcas of the south Vancouver island area but it's only because of political pressure that has brought that about certainly it wasn't a consideration prior to us that would have announced at the beginning but the threats that we have to wild salmon are something that I believe First Nations here and some of the work I've been doing is organizing a very strong political voice for the safeguarding of wild salmon and it is such an integral component whether it's coastal or whatever it's way up into the Fraser of the Nass or the Stena and all the other rivers in between but so we need to ensure that the broad consideration of the impacts that we see and we know will occur are understood by government so I think that I've taken up a few more minutes and I thought I was going to but I'll turn it back over to our organizer and thank you or I could tell a joke No he'll come Thanks Chiefs everyone that was that was great saying thank you the man for bringing in the salmon an important element that we don't always get to remember and you know I think this your call around how do we really how do people on the call today with us really think about societal reconciliation what does that really mean not you know safeguarding the environment is critical and but the societal recognition that is you know the root behind it all and how do we how do we actually get to that healing place I think that's really important so thank you so much for your comments to all of our panelists we have lots of questions pouring in I'll just remind people that on the right hand side in your little control box there's something that says questions and you can just type a question in there and it will magically come to us and I'm going to pull some of the questions and share them with our panelists so the first question we've got is one about starting at the source so you know the pipe pipelines oil tankers oil trains these are all ways that we get bitumen from this from the source in the Alberta tar sands to various markets and the issues of the source are very very critical so the first question is how do the tar sands affect you what does it mean to be impacted by the tar sands and maybe I'll ask Ariel to start and then others to jump in yeah I think that being from a downstream community from the development is the impacts are obviously going to be different than sort of a southern urban Albert for sure but I think that there are some clear and undeniable impacts that have been seen from the development of Alberta's tar sands in the degradations to the ecosystems that have been critical for cultural survival of the you know our neighbouring Cree from the Mikosu and the Dene people in the region as well as the Métis and all of our lives our livelihoods our culture is it really sort of it hinges on the intact ecosystems and water systems and the community of Fort Chippewan which houses the Cree the Dene and the Métis is downstream and it's in a flying only community that relies on the Athabasca river as a critical waterway for transportation a critical waterway to access hunting, fishing and trapping grounds as well as harvesting for medicines and berries and is a critical water source for drinking water for our community and what we've seen as far as direct impacts from the expansion and development of Alberta's tar sands is a degradation to that critical water system a degradation not only in just the flow and rate of flow of the river system but contamination of the river system from both direct sort of they sort of put cleaned a fluent water into the river system or wastewater as well as contamination for particulate matter now David Schindler and Dr. Rooney from the U of A have done tremendous studies that look at how the sediment from the particulate matter the VOCs lands in the snow and every spring with the spring melts and the spring runoff that goes into the river systems it's almost the equivalent of like an oil spill into our water systems every year remember this is a critical water system that's necessary for so many faucets of the lives and livelihoods of the people in Port Chippewan and even further north in the Northwest Territories in Port Smith and all along Yathabasca river system and those are some of the and that has led this contamination to the river system of course contaminates all those other things the wildlife the berries the medicines the fish the water fowl so we are seeing not only a degradation to the water system but a degradation and a contamination of the critical food sources that the community has relied on since time immemorial you know 25 years ago closer to 30 now the community was 80% subsistence 80% of our food sources were from the you know the ecosystems around us and we're right up against the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Wood Buffalo National Park you know recognized for its tremendous flora and fauna and critical ecosystems for climate stabilization and we're now at a point where we're looking at this degradation to all of that and the access to our food sources is slowly disappearing because either through contamination or disappearance of those species and we're now being forced to rely on grocery stores and there's only one in Fort Yvonne where a gallon of milk costs 16 to 18 dollars depending on the season a loaf of bread it runs between 7 and 9 dollars and we're not talking like high-end organic gluten-free you know bougie bread this is like wonder bread and produce is a real problem and so we now have like increases of obesity autoimmune diseases respiratory diseases all sorts of ailments that are associated with poor health poor air quality poor water quality and poor quality of life that has been directly impacted from this industry and of course on a sociological spectrum there's this push and fear of continuing to practice some of those land-based cultures that are so intrinsic to our identity as well as there is now like this this and moving away from like traditional food sources but there's also this fear that we don't have a choice that we're being forced into these situations and that you know oil and gas is going to develop with or without us putting us into these economic hostage situation the impacts affect every facet from the economic to the sociological to the direct health of communities where we see lower life expectancies higher rates of cancers autoimmune diseases and it's just tremendous across the entire board that is the real impacts that we see from Tarsans and so far you know we've been pretty lucky because the Tarsans are actually not right up against our communities like they we see in Fort Mackay first nation so far most of the projects exist about you know a hundred kilometers from our from our community but tech resources which Clay mentioned tech resources is the largest ever proposed open pit mine and it'll be 16 kilometers from the boundary of popular point settlement which is one of the settlements of ACFN 16 kilometers from the boundary largest ever proposed Tarsans mine I don't even understand how the Trudeau government or how the Alberta government has even allowed this project to be considered and how the Alberta energy regulator has given it a sufficiency review as to being passing all the sufficiencies that are required for a project the fact of the matter is we talk a good talk in this country about environmental protection and indigenous rights respect and reform and in review of all these projects but we're still seeing Kinder Morgan and tech resources being proposed simultaneously at a time when they should not even be considerations on the table and the impacts that these projects have on the long-term health and longevity of indigenous communities is so tremendous and hits every faucet of their lives Yeah, I just wanted to respond to just a couple of points in terms of how does the Tarsans impact us for me it's the psychology of our young people um you know Suncor Petro-Canada the biggest energy company in our country is one of the biggest investors in our National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation in Despire you know the the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards were just last Friday one of our most iconic leaders Senator Marie Sinclair the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission received the Lifetime Achievement Award under the banner of companies like TransCanada like tech resources who paid for the award show and Senator Sinclair got to speak to you know youth at the National Suncor Youth Conference at Indespire about the work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and so you know the issue of corporate sponsorship and the way that banks who are financing the Tarsans and oil companies that are operating in the Tarsans are pervasively infiltrating our cultural academic and educational institutions with money dirty oil money and having their logos all over everything including you know spaces where young people are talking about the suicide crisis in this country that's happening in our communities one has to ask the question about the ethics of that you know these companies are the reason why our people are getting displaced from our lands they're the reason why our people are over-represented in the downtown east side in Vancouver you know because of the radical footprint of these corporations in our lands and the impact on our food security our water security you know they're the reason why people are becoming urbanized and over 50% of our people live in urban centers like Vancouver Winnipeg where I'm you know tuning in from right now Edmonton where Ariel's tuning in from there's a reason why so many native people in the city and not living in the most beautiful places on earth where Creator put us it's because of the ecological footprint of these companies working in collusion with provincial federal government on these extraction schemes so you know the tar sands has a huge huge role to play in that and I mean even in Vancouver you know the youth center the indigenous youth center that they've been trying to build there for years just got land donated to them I think from Sincrude you know another major tar sands operator and it was formally a gas station I sure hope that they removed you know at least 20 feet down the soil from that piece of land because who knows how long those those gas tanks were leaking there in the neighborhood but you know the point is is that these companies are everywhere in our indigenous people's lives they access and they try to weave an inevitability narrative that they are necessary that they're necessary able and that they're good neighbors ethical neighbors and they they throw these modern day bags of beads at our communities through corporate sponsorship schemes and you know it has devastating consequences on our young people well we call we call it bovets and trinkets in our community because they come in literally with iPads and iPhones and all sorts of things still to this day I mean there are Suncor and Shell sponsored feasts and community activities in our community that are like come and enter into a draw for for an iPad and it's it's very pervasive and it's a part of this this tactic to erase erase indigenous identity and assimilate us into mainstream society thank you guys for really bringing the reality to us of what it's like to live you know right next to these companies and right next to these companies on the ground I mean I having been in some of the territories it's pretty heartbreaking the basic human rights violations that are happening every day in those communities and as Clay says this sort of colonization of the mind as well right I think you know the latest is that you know they're they're going they're going to green up the oil companies the technology is going to they're going to you know they're going to have lower emissions per barrel and therefore we should all applaud and it's just yeah just the latest so lots of questions lots of questions specifically on pipelines and on Tinder Morgan an issue near and near my heart is someone that lives in Vancouver so really your thoughts on the question is what do you think the best way is to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline who wants to take that I'll jump in well as I mentioned my opening remarks about looking towards the societal uprising of the societal messaging through every possible opportunity that we have I mean I know that I believe in the court yesterday that Burnaby suffered a setback and in the courts about their opposition to Kinder Morgan I believe now when I when I think back to the 5000 people that showed up for the rally that actually Vancouver across the bridge I believe that we need to be able to organize more and so it's not but not just solely in Vancouver and to be able to ramp it up in such a way that I know that we came across the bridge and there was a set period of time but I believe that they're just going to have to be a ramping up a stepping up an enhancing of what that effort is going to look like and whether it's you know a number of bridges all at one time or a number of bridges or highways and a number of different locations of British Columbia and I think that that's where the networking that's occurring through a webinar such as this and all the other good work has been accomplished here what were your concerns of the environment this extractive industry stuff I mean it's just not going to go away unless we make sure that it does and it's going to take every every person that has a care and a belief and understanding about the global warming impacts that are happening right you know the erratic weather that's been going on and it's like it's a reality that we cannot deny any longer and we have to start being a little bit more responsible for the world in its entirety and not simply looking at our little path that we're walking down today but to realize that our children and our grandchildren are going to bear the biggest brunt of our inaction today and so I would encourage everybody to do that or to make sure that we bring all of our family and our start getting out there and making sure the government is clear that the rally that we had in Vancouver against Kinder Morgan isn't the one-off thing and that we look to be a little bit more organized and strategic to make sure the government knows that there's enough people to shut things down and so that they can begin to understand the severity of the decisions they've made and let's make sure that they understand that they don't enjoy the social license. Thank you. Mayor Ariel, would you like to jump in? Yeah, I mean I was just going to say you know, absolutely we have to be sort of taking taking a multi-prong approach just to stop in these projects because it's not just about you know getting out in the streets and protesting these but protesting the processes in which these projects have been brought to the forefronts but we also have to think about the fact that these projects wouldn't even exist if Tarzan's development didn't exist and if there wasn't a push to continue to expand Alberta's Tarzan's now you know Alberta has come out really sort of promoting themselves as one of the best climate policy provinces in Canada with the only country and the only province with a cap on emissions in Alberta's oil sands but that cap when you look at it allows for a 30% growth in the industry so that 30% growth also needs a transportation route and so if we really want to be critical about this and how we're going to stop these projects because if we don't stop the continued expansion of Alberta's Tarzan's if we stop Kindermargen you know KXL, Line 9, Line 3 all the other proposed routes are just going to continue to have more efforts on them to be accepted and approved we have to stop the we effectively have to stop the expansion of Alberta's Tarzan's and that is a huge huge challenge because we have an entire economic structure in the province of Alberta that has been reliant on it now Alberta has done a really great job of trying to diversify and move away and support like transition economies but what we really need to be focused to know when we talk about indigenous resistance is how do we support indigenous people in this transition because a just transition in phasing out of fossil fuels particularly Tarzan's is going to be a huge undertaking because of the indoctrination and the the finances that this industry has brought that Clayton talks about that we've seen are so pervasive in our communities and we have to collectively address this as a social justice issue and as a way to pull us away from dirty Tarzan's development we can't allow for a 30% growth because that 30% gross growth means like approval of tech resources which my community cannot bear the impacts of that project we simply cannot that would literally mean the complete abrogation of our rights and not only of our rights but there are critical bison herds and caribou herds that are impacted the ecosystems of this country this is the lungs of the earth like we have to stop these pipelines but we can't lose sight of the fact that fighting these pipelines in challenging them through the courts on the streets in the regulatory structure also means challenging the expansion of Alberta's Tarzan's and their policies that allow them to continue to grow business as usual Yeah, I mean I echo everything that Chief Chamberlain and Ariel have said we've got one hell of a fight you know ahead of us but that said Justin Trudeau has picked one hell of a fight and he's got an even bigger fight ahead of him you know as I mentioned earlier approvals do not mean that construction is going to happen we've seen that with the Northern Gateway Pipeline we've seen that with the resiliency and just the power of social movements and I think that we need to be very meaningful about directing the incredible might of social movements the climate justice movement the indigenous rights movement the known as a legal migrant rights movement all these social movements that are coming together to fight against the rise of fascism that's happening in these times you know this might that has rosen up this hate represented by President Agent Orange is because we're winning it's because we've got power you know we move billions and billions of dollars of investment from fossil fuel companies in the last couple of years the global divestment campaign and we've seen you know oil rear its ugly head the oil companies rear their head and now we understand how embedded they are in our governments you know I mean Exxon now runs foreign policy for the United States you know Rex Tillerson is the Secretary of State and that demonstrates just how powerful they are you know so I think what we're doing the work to stop KM we need to be you know we really need to be looking and prescribing to root cause analysis you know and that means stopping Tarasans at the source you know that means you know yes we need to stop Ken DeMorgue but we need to be standing in solidarity with Ariel's community and other communities that are fighting the Tarasans like Lubacan Cree Beaver Lake Cree Nation and many others you know and we need to also understand that Justin Trudeau is expecting or willing to accept a standing rock level of conflict in the lower mainland and so you know Chief Chamberlain hit it right on the head we've got to organize organize organize we've got a year to base build you know maybe less you know they said that construction will start in September of this year you know our relatives in Skokwokmok big shout out to Skokwokmok you know to to to the manual family and and all those that are standing against kinder Morgan there in their territory in the interior the interior nations are rising up they're going to be you know enacting their own strategies confronting kinder Morgan and the and the and Christy Clark's government and you know they're into Slewa Tooth and Musqueam and Squamish territory is a big fight that's coming and I think that that is where the line needs to be drawn in the sand you know you know I think we look there's a lot of valuable lessons from Bernie B. Mountain people you know sure they got beat up day to day there but then they went home had a good shower and you know shit and shave and had a good sleep and then they went jumped on the bus and went right back to Bernie B. Mountain the next freaking morning and that's what's going to happen with K.M. you know and so we need to get prepared for that we need to be you know donating to those that are organizing especially you know yes we need to keep donating to the legal challenges support those first nations led legal challenges but we also need to be creating a war chest for legal legal fees legal defense for warriors water protectors who are going to be putting their bodies on the line and the lead up to the next federal election and this is really this is going to be one hell of a fight I just want to throw in one other thing like it's not just about legal challenges though either I mean it's good to support the legal challenges and the legal defense funds but the the fact of the matter is is that we spend so much time and so much resources on shifting the minds of decision makers that we're not spending enough time building the capacity of the grassroots we and the in this case indigenous resistance has proven itself to be a clear clear and critical component that's necessary not only to fight extractive projects but it's been recognized internationally as a critical component to addressing climate change and yet we have very little resources being allocated to developing and building a base of indigenous peoples to ensure that they understand the regulatory system the political structures and ways to challenge effectively utilizing all of the spectrums that of tactics that we've discussed on this phone call here it can't just be environmental organizations leading the charge with we want to uphold and support UNDRIP and and the and sovereign indigenous rights we need to support indigenous led campaigning that is built from the grassroots up and supported financially which we have not seen at all in this country indigenous climate action which is a project I'm involved in is the only indigenous led climate justice organization in this entire country and that is so alarming to me that that is the case and we have no core funding and that's that's just the way it is and like it's because this is a new model this is so new because it's this idea of flipping power dynamics and not just focusing on those already in power which is really supporting the dynamics of entrenched white supremacy but flipping it and allowing indigenous peoples to come back and take back their roles not only as as keepers of the lands and protectors of the water but of their ability to run sovereign communities and sovereign campaigns and develop sovereign solutions that speak for and uphold their rights well said thank you and I would encourage people to make sure that you're on the that you've signed up on the coast protectors dot c a list which is the call to action hosted by chief chamberlain and by grand chief steward philip I believe there'll be regular alerts going out there on kinder Morgan including things like how you can be trained for to participate in non violence solicit obedience and other informational events will be happening so make sure that you're tuned into that channel I would also just say that the the treaty alliance against tar sands expansion is calling people to speak to TD bank who is going to be financing the kinder Morgan expansion and it doesn't have enough funds to build the pipeline yet and they have hired TD bank to find them the four million dollars that they're missing so I know there'll be protest this Thursday at the TD bank AGM so there's lots of wherever you're living there's lots of different places to plug in you know the protest will be on the ground sometime probably by the end of this year or early next but you don't have to wait for that there's ways to get involved right now so thank you for that we have a couple more really great questions I think the number of people who are with us today are really seeing the link more between the indigenous rights struggle and these climate related struggles and so the question is what kinds of actions should allies prioritize to show their solidarity with First Nations what kind of actions should people prioritize non-native I'll jump in number one number one Karen mentioned the Tarsans Treaty Alliance this is a new alliance that that that emerged it's been it's a you know an agreement a treaty between nations to stop the expansion of the Alberta Tarsans and its associated infrastructure like Kinder Morgan you know I think that you know it's initiatives like that that need a lot of support I know UCBIC plays a big role in the leadership of that of that particular project that treaty you know and and I don't know I don't know if Chief Chamberlain will ever say it but UCBIC holds a lot of responsibility and they need your financial support you know if you've got ways you can support them to hire the communications specialists and to hire native organizers to help you know initiatives like the Tarsans Treaty Alliance to be successful there's a lot of work on the ground that needs to be done bringing together all the signatories of the coastal sailor sea alliance and you know all of those interior first nations that are rising up like Soquatmog together with you know the lower mainline coastal protectors there's a lot of organizing work that needs to be done and they need funding you know to hire those native organizers to do that work under the principle of the fact that we need for ourselves this is absolutely critical and then you know definitely plus plus to what Ariel was saying you know organizations you know social movement vehicles that are native led need to be leading native rights based interventions you know in social movement in the social movement landscape and so you need to you know if you've got the means donate to these critical social movement vehicles you know so that they can have the same tools you know that our brothers and sisters in the environmental movement have in the labor movement so that they can have sophisticated communication strategies digital campaigns and all of that good stuff that comes with doing this hard work of protecting our coast great I mean I just want to jump in on top of thanks comments there I really do believe that it's going to take the pockets of the average citizen to be able to organize our peoples you know I think if we're whether it's a twitter account or a facebook page the heavy promotion of individuals to other people to join up and to be aware of what's going on I think if we have as many people that are on board have been really quite blown away with the number of coast protectors have signed up upon the call from the union and it really does it just gives strength that are involved and certainly it motivates us even further at the union to be syndicates to continue but I'm thinking now if we could really push those numbers up and start to really include as many people as we have what if we ask many people to find a loony in their pocket a loony drive or a toony drive you know if we have you know several you know if we've managed to mobilize a few hundred thousand people for a couple bucks we're going to have some money that's going to be able to help the grassroots organizations and I really do believe it's going to take that level of commitment from everybody that signed up to ensure others are part of this as well in the messaging you know like whether it's on Twitter or that's on Facebook I think the message and you know one thing I've really learned over this past year or so is how heavily government and industry monitor Facebook monitor Twitter and they monitor everything we're up to and so I think that we if we understand that and use the hashtags to draw attention to the coast protectors and First Nation issues and Aboriginal rights Supreme Court of Canada and the Constitution this is how average this is how Canadians can begin to voice that that direction to the government about reconciliation with something meaningful and then we can as the politician advance the fundamental changes that we no need to occur at the government level and by doing so we could then begin to have and exercise fully without contention the authorities that we have over our tidal lands and I bet you my last dollar that if you asked the First Nation about their economic development aspirations there isn't going to be very many are going to say you know what our community really wants an oil and gas pipeline going right through the middle I just can't see it you know not with you know with our attachment to our lands and you know the belief and the identity we draw derived from our territories and the natural resources which are constitutionally protected and so by changing the construct and the fundamental pieces of government operations then we can have First Nations defining what it is that we want and what we want to see in our communities I know for our First Nation we want to do ecotourism on grizzly bear watching it's consistent with our values it's something that's emerging in our territories and it's not going to be out there shooting the grizzlies it's not going to be damaging the environment we're going to use that as a means to limit logging in our territories which further protects the environment and adds to the carbon base and they're just and say that they they don't fear prosperous First Nations and I think that's one of the messages we need to get out so thank you I just want to add one more tool in ways people can support indigenous resistance one I just want to sort of highlight the fact that what Chief Chamberlain was talking about with the ecotourism is that that this is a key thing is that indigenous peoples already have and are in the process of developing solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change and we have to support those things that may not look as obvious as like a wind turbine or a solar panel project but the fact that indigenous people is even in standing rock we're holding the line to protect their lands and territories that are critical ecosystems for climate stabilization and ecotourism which supports an economic growth in indigenous communities as well as addressing the protection and preservation of critical ecosystems is a really big and critical component that we need to address and I think supporting somewhat non-conventional but indigenous led climate strategies needs to come and we need to understand what those are so there needs to be a better understanding of how does indigenous knowledge contribute to the development of climate strategies that aren't as conventional and traditional as we see being prescribed by governments and how do we support those and supporting those types of initiatives whether it's community-based monitoring conservation and co-management efforts of communities to preserve their traditional lands and territories we need to be supporting those but what I really wanted to talk about is that when we talk about civil disobedience and non-violent direct action that if you want to support indigenous communities put your body on the line because there are racial inequalities that still exist in this country we can't deny the fact that indigenous people represent over 26% of prison populations in this country we represent some like 47% of homeless people in major urban centers and we experience police brutality and violence at a much higher rate than non-indigenous and settler populations so if you are really serious about supporting these initiatives when there are calls for action for civil disobedience and non-violent direct action put your body on the line because you're not going to have as severe punishment as an indigenous person may have and you know baby boomers come on you guys are like you've already have your jobs and your careers and your life set up you don't need to impress some big manager put your body on the line like I challenge those to put their bodies on the lines because you have your life established and as the young people and indigenous peoples and young indigenous peoples that are already wanting to get out there and be on the front lines but take that role and take that that risk for a lot of those folks but also be humble about it and don't try and steal the limelight because we need to support that this is an indigenous lead resistance and while we ask for you to be on the front we ask you to step back when it's time to speak well well said thank you so much Clay drop Mike I know it's a little hard to go anywhere up that well we only have about 10 minutes left I'll just I'll put in a plug to follow Ariel there that you know I I was one burning man a couple of years ago and was arrested along with many others and there's something you know it's not as scary as you think and there'll be lots of training available and there's something really liberating about it because essentially what you're doing in that moment is you're saying I don't agree with the social norms our society is saying it's okay to do this and I today am breaking those societal laws and say this is okay because this is not okay by me so you know there's a chance we'll participate in whatever level of protest that you want and particularly you've heard the call for financial support too because it's a very real there's real limitations to what different nations and different different native organizations can do with limited financial resources so that's there's some specific answers to that question and let I think probably our last question of the day would be on divestment so there's been a lot of great work done on divestment and now related to Kinder Morgan there's this TD issue there was a TD issue related to Dakota Access Pipeline as well I think banks played critical role so the question is is divestment from Tarsans and Pipeline funding really an effective strategy? Maybe we'll start with you Clay because I think that's your gig but you're yawning Sorry I was stretching it caught me Divestment is one of the primary tools in our toolkit as you know for the movement for climate justice I think that you know divestment is part of the great transition that we are all responsible to facilitate we need to be putting you know similarly to the campaigns for you know the ratification adoption implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples we need to be targeting our institutions you know we need to target our universities we need to target our municipalities to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to you know in every jurisdiction that exists we need to be doing that and it's the same thing with divestment you know if these institutions whether it's your your you know the Canadian Pension Plan or your Union's Pension or your University you know big shout out you know to Laval University for being the first university to divest from fossil fuels here in Canada that's a monumental victory for those students and I think for people all across the planet that are involved in this campaign Canada is so invested in fossil fuels our banks Royal Bank Scotiabank TD BMO HSBC they're not our bank but they're here super invested in fossil fuel and these banks they have a protection mechanism when you approach them you say hey why are you why are you financing the the DAPL or why are you financing Trans Mountain what the hell I don't want that I hate that what the bank will tell you is that well you know we're not actually doing that because these oil companies have an A1 credit rating we just give them lump sum funding at the beginning of the year what they spend it on is up to their prerogative and you know I mean bank bank divestment campaigns is not a new thing I mean we ran a slick campaign not 350 but you know Ariel and colleagues you know we all supported Ariel during her tenure at Rainforest Action Network when they ran the campaign against Royal Bank and you know Royal Bank had to change their social lending policies as a result you know to include you know their clients taking their money had to get the pre-prime informed consent to communities impacted by the investment and the only problem was is that the funders stopped funding the campaign once the policy was changed and it's never been tested so you know we need to continue to build and fund these divestment bank strategies and once we get them to change their policies we need to keep hammering them so that that's so that you know they don't continue to not not invest in big oil you know that we need to change that and so the other thing too with the divestment stuff is I think it provides a critical vector for new people to come into the movement for new people to do things there's a great video that the comedian Sarah Silverman put out there about how she moved her money from a big U.S. bank to a credit union and it was super funny super accessible and that was the point that she hit on that not everybody's going to go out and get arrested and and and do whatever but there are things you can do as an entry point into the movement like moving your money into a credit union that doesn't invest in fossil fuels I just I just want to add a little bit on to that it's like yeah you know money rules this world I mean even the entire political platforms of of our politicians and parties is contingent on on funding on them getting money to run their campaigns and lobby the Canadian public and like Clayton has said you know we already have these corporations influencing politicians and decision makers and both Canada and the United States and globally really and we need to be like looking as a citizens that contributes to these massive financial sectors how do we put accountability onto these financial institutions and it doesn't just stop at the Canadian border with Canadian banks it's it's a global strategy I mean the the movement towards supporting renewable energies that was done as in a global economic strategy as well as as how do we get solar panels on parity with with oil and gas so we can start to begin that transition these are real critical conversations that have been that have been had and as Canadian citizens you have an ability to to enact your your desire to ask for accountability from your financial institutions it's not just the RBC that is implemented these new policies the IMF which is the International Financial Corporate or not the IM the IFC the International Financial Corporation adopted new policies under the sustainability principles in 2011 that stated that they wanted free prior informed consent of Indigenous communities for mining projects now Canada has managed to get away from that by saying tar sands isn't mining it's oil and gas even though they utilize the mining technologies it's not classified it's mining but there are tools in the toolkit when it comes to finances and we need to start utilizing it whether it's within the lending policies of RBC or the international policies by the by the you know World Bank and IFC and the IMF they are already talking about reform because all of those systems are relying on antiquated policies that were created before social justice was something and you know corporate responsibility was a real thing they're using policies that were created 150 years ago or more and we have to push back and and we are we are a new society that's recognizing the rights of Indigenous peoples corporate social responsibility all of these things and yet we have all these antiquated policies in the financial sector we all have bank accounts let's utilize them and let's utilize our voice to ensure that there are changes to the financial structures that don't allow and railroad the rights of Indigenous peoples in the environment great I want to jump in and absolutely agree with the with the previous comments I mean we have to be able to identify any and all lever we can pull on to make sure that the Canadian government hears our voices whether it's relocating our our savings and checking accounts to places that are not going to be investing in these types of industries and that's what we need to do we also you know I often say whenever I get a chance to speak at rallies and so on that this here is probably one of the easiest simplest tools that we all have to begin and facilitate the social movement we're describing if we were all to take a moment and do a 15 second video you know and and hash and the things that we know people will pick up on then we can start to get a little snowball off the top of the mountain so we can continue to grow and encourage more and more people to do the same and then we can actually reach a reach a further audience and perhaps we think that we could just having conversations but you know I do think like I say if there's a lever we got to yank on it pull on it jump on it hold it down and make sure that the government sees that we are all doing that and that we're not going to be going away and if it means we're all lining up to get you know blue ink on our fingertips well then we're going to have some really great company when we do that and I'll be bringing my drama I'll be singing what I can and I look forward we can all come together in our language called galka poshla and that's when we lock arms and gather strength from each other and I think that that's what we're pursuing here and that's the that's the candle we have to turn into the biggest flame possible wonderful wonderful so we've heard thank you to all of our panelists this was a great conversation and you know we've heard a lot of specific suggestions here use your social media network that's what Chief Chamberlain just said we all have a figure in our pockets and we are the people who can organize we can help and you can organize move your bank account get trained think about participating in a protest at whatever level and donate to the organizations and nations you see here today also we have mentioned pulltogether.ca is a fund that funds legal strategies led by different first nations so that's another another one put in your toolkit and let's say I would say stay informed cosprotectors.ca is one of the hotlines hosted by the union of BC Indian Chiefs so I would say stay informed make sure you're talking to your friends and looking for ways to engage so thank you all we have just I just want to hear like what's one sentence can you do just one sentence from each of you one message that you have only one sentence that you're to our folks as way by way of closing I'm going to start from my left to right so Chief Chamberlain would you start with it with our unity we're going to find the strength we need beautiful say keep it in the ground install line stop it at the source implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People absolutely beautiful may it be so and just a reminder to you all that in your RSVP there'll be a link to this if you want to access the recording and stay strong we're getting stronger all the time we shall prevail thank you all for calling in thanks everybody thank you thanks everyone