LONDON, ONT. -- A bonfire on the railway tracks at Pall Mall and Waterloo streets was part of Wednesday afernoon's protest of the Coastal GasLink being built in Northern B.C.
The Red Warrior Youth Group created the demonstration and blocked the railway tracks for three hours starting around 1:30 p.m.
The group's leader, Sturgeon, says the bonfire was a testimony to the solidarity blockades that were sparked last month, after the RCMP raided Wet’suwet’en camps to clear people out of the pipeline project’s path.
Federal and B.C ministers reached a proposed agreement with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs over land and title rights on the weekend.
The details have not been made public as the Wet’suwet’en are planning to discuss the proposed agreement internally.
On Monday, B.C Premier John Horgan said the agreement between the federal government and the Wet’suwet’en First Nation won’t affect work on the Coastal GasLink Pipeline.
But the Red Warriors say as long as the pipeline plan exists they won’t stop protesting.
“We are trying to continue it until they reach a perfect agreement, like no pipelines at all. We are showing that we are still here and we are still working.”
A large number of Western University students also walked out of their classrooms Wednesday in solidarity with hereditary chiefs.
PhD candidate Sikihitowin Awasis was a part of the march.
“It’s about protecting the water for future generations, it’s about Indigenous rights. But it’s a much larger struggle. We don’t see a healthy future with climate change.”
Serena Mendizabal and Riley Kennedy, the organizers at Western say over 36 universities and numerous high schools took part in the walkout across Canada.
“A coalition of student organizers across the country are inviting students to join a ‘walkout of classes action,'” Mendizabal says, "to demand that the RCMP and CGL (Coastal GasLink) fully withdraw from sovereign Wet’suwet’en territory immediately.”
The walkout on Western's concrete beach was peaceful. The Red Warriors youth group was forced to leave by police but no arrests were made.
The Canada-wide walkout originated at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia.