Gitxsan leaders say MLA no longer welcome after failing to discuss RCMP deployment, arrests at encampment

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Gitxsan leaders say MLA Nathan Cullen is no longer welcome on their territory after he failed to meet them to discuss the deployment of RCMP officers at an encampment at a railway line in New Hazelton, B.C.

Members of the Git'luuhl'um'hexwit House traditional leadership are the latest to sign an eviction notice posted on the Stikine MLA's office, which states that Cullen has failed to ensure the safety of Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en peoples and failed to represent their causes and concerns in the legislature. 

The Office of the Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs posted the notice last Saturday on Cullen's Hazelton, B.C., office, which is on the traditional territories of the Frog Clan of the Gitxsan Nation.

It followed the release on social media of a video showing an arrest near the encampment in the northern B.C. community, in which four officers are seen on top of a man who is shouting that he can't breathe. 

Cullen told CBC News that he missed a meeting with the chiefs last Friday because of a delayed flight and that he was planning to speak with them this week. 

Hereditary Chief Luutkudziiwus (Gordon Sampson), told CBC News that the chiefs had requested an immediate meeting with Cullen after dozens of RCMP officers poured into New Hazelton — a community around 200 kilometres northeast of Prince Rupert, B.C. — to police an encampment set up Nov. 18 in solidarity with actions by Wet'suwet'en members and supporters to halt the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Video shared on Facebook of an arrest at the encampment on Nov. 21 shows four officers on top of a man near the rail line. The man is heard shouting, "I can't breathe!" while the person taking the video screams at the officers to let him go.

A second person who tries to intervene is seen being put in a headlock by another officer. 

WARNING: The video of the arrest, below, might be distressing and triggering for some viewers 

RCMP said 24-year old Gitxsan member Denzel Sutherland-Wilson was arrested for mischief at the site after he was seen placing obstacles on the railway tracks and refused to leave.

A second person was arrested for obstruction of justice, police said. Both were released shortly after being taken to a detachment.

CBC News has asked RCMP whether charges have been laid against the two people arrested, and has also asked for details on the deployment in New Hazelton — including how many officers were deployed — but has yet to receive a reply. 

Kolin Sutherland-Wilson, Denzel's brother and a member of the Git'luuhl'um'hexwit House of the Gitxsan Nation, said the police actions were the "final straw" for the hereditary leaders.