{"id":130,"date":"2022-01-06T19:58:17","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T02:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wolvesofthewest.net\/blog2\/?p=130"},"modified":"2025-08-19T07:59:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T07:59:22","slug":"who-is-the-cause-of-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wolvesofthewest.com\/?p=130","title":{"rendered":"Who is the cause of Violence."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Root of Policy-Based Violence: How Government Systems Manufacture Crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see the media machine at work right now. There is a crisis at Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en territory, and once again the narrative is being skewed to paint Indigenous land defenders as the aggressors, as if they are acting unlawfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make no mistake\u2014this crisis is not about the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en acting outside the law. It\u2019s about how colonial public policy creates conflict through systemic strain, disempowerment, and oppression. The Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en have never ceded their land, and their hereditary leadership structure has been affirmed by Canadian courts. Yet still, the RCMP and pipeline companies are sent to occupy and forcibly remove people from their own territory. This is a policy choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why I contacted the National NDP, and why I believe the BC government must be held accountable. The problem is not the people defending their land. The problem is policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How Policy Creates Violence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The diagram below illustrates a systems model of policy-based violence, based on peer-reviewed social science. At the center of it is community strain<\/strong>\u2014a stress response triggered by spatial isolation, lack of access to resources, racialized policies, and the slow erosion of cultural worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s break it down:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Racialized Policies and Practices<\/strong> \u2013 These are not limited to overt laws but include zoning rules, funding allocations, land-use decisions, and even how police and courts are resourced. Policies that ignore Indigenous legal orders\u2014like BC\u2019s support for the Coastal GasLink pipeline\u2014reinforce the idea that Indigenous people must assimilate or be removed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Spatial Isolation & Access to Resources<\/strong> \u2013 Many reserves and Indigenous communities remain underfunded, physically disconnected, or deliberately excluded from infrastructure, economic opportunity, and social support systems. This fuels a feedback loop of disempowerment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Internalization of Tension & Cultural Disorientation<\/strong> \u2013 When communities are cut off, told their governance isn\u2019t valid, and continually criminalized for defending themselves, it creates psychological strain. That strain doesn\u2019t disappear\u2014it either becomes internalized (leading to despair or substance use) or expressed outward (through protest and resistance).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Civil Unrest as a Rational Outcome<\/strong> \u2013 What\u2019s often labeled \u201cunrest\u201d or \u201cillegal protest\u201d is, in reality, a predictable result of oppressive civil authority combined with spatial and cultural suppression.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. The Survival of the Fittest Norm (R1 loop)<\/strong> \u2013 When communities are forced to defend themselves because law enforcement is acting against them, not for them, it teaches that force is necessary for survival. That\u2019s not criminal behavior. That\u2019s an adaptive response to systemic violence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Media Complicity<\/strong> \u2013 By focusing on the visible result (a protest, a blockade, an arrest), media narratives erase the source: policy decisions that pushed people to the edge.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    From Model to Reality: The Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en Example<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Right now, hereditary chiefs from the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en Nation are being criminalized for protecting their own unceded land. These land defenders are not protesting outside<\/em> of the law\u2014they\u2019re upholding their own legal systems, which predate and supersede colonial occupation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The BC government\u2019s actions\u2014backed by RCMP raids and surveillance\u2014follow the exact pattern laid out in the diagram:<\/p>\n\n\n\n