Amnesty International reports 'ongoing violations' of human rights on Wet'suwet'en territory

Amnesty International is calling for an immediate halt to Coastal GasLink pipeline construction and the withdrawal of police and private security forces from Wet'suwet'en territory in northern B.C., citing what it considers ongoing human rights violations against activists resisting construction.

In a report released Monday, the global human rights group describes "the years-long campaign of violence, harassment, discrimination, and dispossession" Wet'suwet'en members and their allies faced while fighting the project.

"What we learned and uncovered is really, really concerning," said Melak Mengistab Gebresilassie, Amnesty's corporate accountability and climate justice campaigner in Canada.

The 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline will transport natural gas from the area of Dawson Creek, B.C., to a coastal liquefaction terminal in Kitimat, to be shipped overseas.

Although the company signed benefit agreements with 20 elected band councils along the project's route in 2018, including five of six elected Wet'suwet'en band councils, several Wet'suwet'en hereditary leaders say band councils do not have authority over traditional territories beyond reserve boundaries and the company does not have consent to cross their territory, about 780 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. 

Delays and cost overruns have beset the project, with the initial $6.6-billion price tag spiking to $14.5 billion. In October, the company said mechanical completion of the pipeline, which involves final documentation, engineering analysis and testing, will be done before the end of the year.

After a spring 2023 research mission, Amnesty is expressing concern about reports of heavy-handed police raids, aggressive and intrusive surveillance tactics, intimidation, arbitrary arrests and detention, racial discrimination, and criminalization of pipeline opponents. 

The conduct amounts to "a concerted effort by the state to remove Wet'suwet'en land defenders from their ancestral territory to allow pipeline construction to proceed," the non-governmental organization says in its report.

"These actions have also resulted, and continue to result, in ongoing violations of the human rights of Wet'suwet'en land defenders and their supporters."

The advocacy organization recommends the project halt until the Crown adequately discharges its duty to consult Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs and secures their free, prior and informed consent.

Amnesty, said to have 10 million members across 170 countries, is also urging the RCMP's Community-Industry Response Group and Coastal GasLink's Forsythe Security to withdraw and for the dropping of all outstanding criminal charges.

Wet'suwet'en hereditary Chief Na'Moks (John Ridsdale) guided the researchers during their visit, so they could experience what he does, which he described as "psychological warfare" and heavy security in the forested, normally remote area. 

"To get that kind of support means everything," he said.

"We really hope that it does let the world know that the freedoms we are supposed to have are not there."