Queen’s students will stage a class walkout at noon on Wednesday in support of Wet’suwet’en opposition to the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
According to the walkout’s Facebook event page, it is meant to function as a demand that the RCMP and Coastal GasLink withdraw from Wet’suwet’en territory.
As of Monday, 297 people had responded “going” on the Facebook event for Wednesday’s walkout, with another 794 responding “interested.”
Students participating will meet in front of Stauffer Library to hear from speakers. The group will then travel to the University Club to hear from Kanien’kehá:ka human rights and environmental rights activist Ellen Gabriel.
The walkout is being hosted at Queen’s by a variety of groups, including the Kingston chapter of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group, the Education on Queer Issues Project, the African & Caribbean Students’ Association, the Queen’s Native Student Association, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Queen’s, the Levana Gender Advocacy Centre, PSAC Local 901, Queen’s Backing Action on Climate Change (QBACC), and Queen’s Coalition Against Racial and Ethnic Discrimination.
On Monday, QBACC released a statement on its Facebook page announcing the group had postponed its Queen’s Strikes for the Climate rally, which was scheduled for Friday. According to the statement, the cancellation is “in order to avoid diverting attention from the National Student Walk Out for Wet’suwet’en,” which they are co-hosting.
“QBACC is committed to reconciliation and in the past we have sought to use our platform to amplify the incredible work being undertaken,” the statement read. “However, it has recently been brought to our attention that some in the community do not feel as though this is enough. It is clear that we must do better.”
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