RCMP say they are just working to keep the peace
A dispute over energy projects and aboriginal rights is heating up at a pipeline protest camp in northern B.C. where First Nations leaders fear police are planning mass arrests.
Since 2009, Wet’suwet’en people, activists and environmentalists have been building a remote camp in northern B.C. to block several major pipeline projects. They include:
- Chevron’s Pacific Trail Pipeline.
- Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project.
- Shell’s TransCanada Coastal GasLink pipeline project.
Shell plans to build a 650-kilometre pipeline from B.C.’s gas-fracking region to a proposed LNG site in Kitimat.
Spokeswoman Shela Shapiro told CBC News the company supports the right to peaceful protest, but called the RCMP after Unist’ot’en protesters prevented workers from using a public road on Thursday.
The camp is about a two-hour drive southwest of Houston, B.C. on rough forest roads.
Shapiro said Unist’ot’en protesters have told TransCanada staff to leave the area “on a number of occasions.”
Yesterday afternoon, the Unist’ot’en Camp posted a message on its Facebook page.
“Coastal Gaslink crews showed up at Chisolm checkpoint. Threatened checkpoint crew that a police report will be filed as they do not have consent to enter the territory.”
‘Non-violent occupation’
Shapiro told CBC that TransCanada is “absolutely willing” to work with camp leaders, saying the company has made more than 90 attempts to speak with the hereditary chief and Unist’ot’en spokesperson.
The Unist’ot’en camp calls itself a “non-violent occupation” of traditional aboriginal land. Unist’ot’en camp protesters routinely stop traffic on remote forest service roads near the camp and turn back oil and gas crews.
Companies trying to use the area say they’re trying to use public roads to access Crown land, and some have ferried their crews to nearby worksites by helicopter.
Now, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says top RCMP officials have told them a major police crackdown is imminent.
