On Nov. 18, on a remote forest road in northern British Columbia, armed RCMP officers with police dogs and a chainsaw raided a cabin near the Coastal Gas Link pipeline project. They arrested about a dozen people, mostly members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation who’d been blockading the main access road to the company’s construction site.
But the police also arrested two journalists who were not members of the First Nation. One was Michael Toledano, a Canadian Jewish filmmaker who has been documenting the struggles of First Nations in B.C. for years. He was filming the Wet’suwet’en activists for a CBC documentary when the RCMP broke down the door.
Toledano’s arrest made headlines across the country, and was condemned by the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Hot Docs film festival and other organizations and community leaders. He joins today to discuss his arrest, his family’s legacy as partisans during the Second World War, and the role he believes Jewish Canadians have to play in the ongoing struggle for Indigenous people’s land rights.
What we talked about:
- Learn about the Wet’suwet’en checkpoint at yintahaccess.com
- See Michael Toledano’s work at michaeltoledano.net
- Read “Avery Seligman writes from the frontlines of the Fairy Creek blockade” at thecjn.ca
Credits
The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.