{"id":50241,"date":"2019-12-20T13:20:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T18:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=50241"},"modified":"2019-12-20T13:20:53","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T18:20:53","slug":"rcmp-planned-to-use-snipers-in-assault-on-wetsuweten-protest-guardian-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=50241","title":{"rendered":"RCMP Planned to Use Snipers in Assault on Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en Protest, Guardian Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2019\/12\/20\/RCMP-Planned-Snipers-Wetsuweten-Pipeline-Protest\/\">RCMP Planned to Use Snipers in Assault on Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en Protest, Guardian Reports<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Newspaper cites planning documents that called for \u2018lethal overwatch\u2019 to ensure pipeline built.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2019\/01\/08\/RCMP-Pipeline-Camp.jpg\" alt=\"RCMP-Pipeline-Camp.jpg\"\/><figcaption>Heavily armed RCMP officers sent to Indigenous checkpoint with instructions for \u2018sterlizing the site,\u2019 documents reveal.&nbsp;Photo by Michael Toledano.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The RCMP were prepared to use snipers with shoot-to-kill orders when they launched a raid to remove Indigenous protesters slowing pipeline construction in Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en territory, the Guardian reported today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/dec\/20\/canada-indigenous-land-defenders-police-documents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exclusive report<\/a>&nbsp;by Jaskiran Dhillon and Will Parrish reveals RCMP planning notes included arguments that \u201clethal overwatch is req\u2019d,\u201d a term for deploying snipers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Guardian reports RCMP commanders instructed officers to \u201cuse as much violence toward the gate as you want\u201d as they planned the Jan. 7 action to remove a gated checkpoint and camp about 120 kilometres southwest of Smithers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The RCMP sent heavily armed officers in military-style fatigues to break down a gate, arrest 14 people and enforce a \u201ctemporary exclusion zone\u201d that barred anyone aside from police from the area. The police were enforcing an injunction obtained by Coastal GasLink, the company building a pipeline to take natural gas to a planned LNG project in Kitimat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Guardian reports RCMP documents note arrests would be necessary for \u201csterilizing the site.\u201d Plans included arresting everyone in the injunction area, including children and elders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They also show the RCMP conducted surveillance in advance of the raid including heavily armed police patrols, drones, heat-sensing cameras and monitoring of protesters social media postings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the report reveals the RCMP and pipeline company officials worked closely together on strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RCMP Planned to Use Snipers in Assault on Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en Protest, Guardian Reports Newspaper cites planning documents that called for \u2018lethal overwatch\u2019 to ensure pipeline built. The RCMP were prepared to use snipers with shoot-to-kill orders when they launched a raid to remove Indigenous protesters slowing pipeline construction in Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en territory, the Guardian reported today. The&nbsp;exclusive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[94,28732,1476,3542,3543,28731,5499,8528],"class_list":["post-50241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-british-columbia","tag-lethal-overwatch","tag-pipelines","tag-rcmp","tag-royal-canadian-mounted-police","tag-snipers","tag-the-tyee","tag-wetsuweten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50242,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50241\/revisions\/50242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}