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More than 150 McGill law students have signed an open letter calling Justice Minister David Lametti out for his “inaction” in preventing the RCMP “invasion” of Wet’suwet’en territory.

Lametti, a professor on leave from McGill’s faculty of law, finds himself at the forefront of a legal battle to end the Wet’suwet’en resistance against a natural gas pipeline in British Columbia. The RCMP raided a camp on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in early February, sparking a movement that has seen railroad blockades and protests in cities across Canada.

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In response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called on Indigenous protesters to respect “the rule of law” and make way for injunctions to clear railroads and open a path for the pipeline.

“What is happening throughout Canada is still within the rule of law,” said Curtis Mesher, an Inuit law student who helped draft the letter. “It’s happening on unceded territory and the solidarity protests outside of the territory are also attentive to the rule of law.

“These are actions taken to rectify injustice.”

The letter points to a 1997 Supreme Court decision that ruled the Wet’suwet’en had never given up title to the 22,000 square kilometres of their lands in northern B.C. Those rights are protected under Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act — which guarantees ‘Aboriginal title’ over traditional lands.

“On a personal level, as one of the few Indigenous students in the faculty of law, this has affected me,” Mesher said. “I know one of the people in the (Wet’suwet’en) camp, we were in the same drumming circle. It’s a big country but a small world.”