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Defenders—Tsleil-Waututh and

Squamish—Yinka Dene and

Wet’suwet’en—Sto:lo and

Gitxzan and Lubicon Cree

and so many more in this

unbroken line—and day and

night labourers nurses teachers

fishermen and foresters—bakers

baristas clerks and caterers—

grandmothers uncles nieces

and friends and acquaintances

who love and console us and

children gamers activists and

students and immigrants of all kinds—

Rise up—we are the people

come upon each other in

streets and on paths through

woods—in parks and alleyways

along piers on rocks overlooking

the sea and amongst the mottled

sides of rivers and streams and

in suburban back yards or the

middle of farms of modest size—

finding we compose a world

outside states corporate profits

or trade agreements and we rise

up together and we rise up

to defend our coast together