UBCIC Stands with Wet’suwet’en After Wednesday Arrests, Re-Issues Calls to Have C-IRG Unit Suspended

Members of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs are standing with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation after learning of yet another police raid on their territory.

That comes after RCMP arrested five land defenders along the Morice Forest Service Road while executing a pair of warrants on Wednesday.

Police had obtained the search warrants following reports of a Coastal GasLink worker being swarmed by a group of masked individuals.

According to the report, the group fired flares to intimidate the worker into fleeing, before pouring liquid over a CGL truck and stealing a chainsaw.

Each of the land defenders were arrested for obstruction at a Gidimt’en camp, though the camp’s connection to the initial incident is unclear.

Wet’suwet’en members say that patrolling officers had been harassing and intimidating them, and disrupting cultural activities, in the days leading up to the arrests.

Now, the UBCIC says they are outraged to learn of the enforcement, which they say was conducted using an unnecessary amount of force.

They say the raid is an attempt to subjugate Indigenous peoples to the interests of fossil fuel companies on their own land.

As a result, the UBCIC is also calling for the RCMP’s controversial Community-Industry Response Group to be suspended immediately.

Not only is the group named in an on-going lawsuit filed by Gidimt’en members, but they are also the subject of a Civilian Review and Complaints Commission investigation into reports of Indigenous harassment.