Wet’suwet’en Camps Reoccupied, Heavy RCMP Presence is Ongoing

WET’SUWET’EN TERRITORIES - Reconciliation is dead. The events of the past week on Wet’suwet’en territories have been an extreme demonstration of colonial violence, approved in contravention of Wet’suwet’en, Canadian and international law.

RCMP arrested 28 land defenders and matriarchs during the enforcement of the interlocatory injunction approved by Justice Church, who also approved the TMX pipeline on February 4, 2020. One person, refusing to acknowledge colonial law, remains in custody and will be appearing in court on February 21st, 2020 in Prince George. Charges are pending as CGL has requested Crown intervention. The rest of the land defenders are to appear before the Supreme Court in Prince George in late April 2020.

In response to discretionary, unreasonable and unjustified police action, the BCCLA has launched a policy complaint and public interest investigation aimed at RCMP conduct. The RCMP illegally arrested people encamped outside of the injunction zone, and people hiding from officers with assault rifles off the roads mentioned in the injunction. The blatant disregard and disrespect shown by the RCMP to Wet’suwet’en, Canadian and international law is now the subject of investigation.

While the admittedly illegal exclusion zones have been lifted, there is still an extreme RCMP presence on Wet’suwet’en land. We expect them to heavily guard and facilitate CGL access to unceded territories without Free, Prior and Informed consent from the Hereditary Chiefs. The eviction notice to CGL given on January 4th, 2020 still stands and will continue to be enforced with the full power and jurisdiction under Wet’suwet’en law.

We encourage all supporters to stand strong in solidarity with this struggle. It is far from over.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Wickham

Media Coordinator for Gidim’ten Camp

(778) 210 0067

yintahaccess@gmail.com