Mounties investigate as Gidimt’en clan renews effort to stop B.C. pipeline construction
Global News
Coastal GasLink should expect that Wet'suwet'en law will prevail on the First Nation's unceded territory in northern B.C., said a Gidimt'en Checkpoint spokesperson.
The Mounties say they are investigating allegations that protesters threatened security officials, set off flares and damaged vehicles at a drill site for the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern British Columbia.
In a statement released Monday, RCMP said officers were called to the site along a forest service road near Houston on Sunday.
They say anyone blocking worker access to the area is in breach of a court-ordered injunction.
Opposition to the pipeline project among Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs sparked rallies and rail blockades across Canada last year.
The elected council of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and others in the area have approved the 670-kilometre pipeline, which would transport natural gas from Dawson Creek to Kitimat.
The Wet’suwet’en have never sold or ceded their lands, and its hereditary chiefs say their right to free, prior and informed consent was not respected in pipeline consultations or approvals.
Members of the Gidimt’en clan, one of five in the Wet’suwet’en Nation, re-established blockades against the pipeline in November, and several people — including two journalists — were arrested and detained by heavily-armed RCMP officers enforcing an injunction.
On Sunday, Gidimt’en members reoccupied an area known as Coyote Camp and enforced an eviction notice that was issued to the company by hereditary chiefs last year.