Protests are springing up across the country in support of a small indigenous band trying to block construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline..The protests have been stepped up in the wake of the RCMP raiding and removing the protesters’ main camp, near Smithers B.C..Protesters are showing their support for Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs. A total of 21 activists have been arrested since the RCMP raid began on Thursday..Demonstrations have been held across Canada – including blocking rail lines, ports and ferry terminals – inconveniencing thousands of people..Several activists were arrested Monday morning as they blocked access to ports in Vancouver..In Calgary, 200 protesters shut down the Reconciliation Bridge on Monday. Police allowed them to block the road for two hours. .In Victoria, several bridges were blocked..In Edmonton, students at the University of Alberta planned to walk out of classes..At one B.C. blockade, the focus seemed to be on a fed up driver who took matters into his own hands..On Friday, Mohawk members in Ontario parked a dump truck with a snowplow blade near a rail line, halting the Toronto-Ottawa corridor..At the main camp. a near constant Twitter feed is getting out their side of the story..The pipeline has the support of all First Nations along the route, but hereditary chiefs of Wet’suwet’en Nation, through which 28% of the 670-km route passes, oppose it..A group of unelected hereditary chiefs had set up a camp near Smithers and have kicked out Coastal GasLink workers..The RCMP said they have found traps like felled trees and three stacks of tires along with flammables along the access road..On Jan. 7, 2019, RCMP arrested 14 protesters along the B.C. logging road. .International attention was drawn to the issue when a British newspaper reported RCMP were ready to shoot protesters when they broke up the camp. The RCMP denied the story..On Dec. 31, the B.C. Supreme Court granted CGL an injunction against members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation from blocking the pipeline route near Smithers, B.C..But the situation has been further complicated after an Jan. 3 indict by the Unist’ot’en, a smaller group within the First Nation, that they intend to terminate an agreement that had granted the company access to the land..The RCMP checkpoint had been set up at the 27-km mark of the forest service road “to mitigate safety concerns related to the hazardous items of fallen trees and tire piles with incendiary fluids along the roadway.”.The $6.6 billion pipeline, to be operated by TC Energy Corp, would transport gas from near Dawson Creek in northeast B.C. to Kitimat on the coast and supply Canada’s largest liquefied natural gas export terminal, called LNG Canada, which is under construction..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter: @Nobby7694
Protests are springing up across the country in support of a small indigenous band trying to block construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline..The protests have been stepped up in the wake of the RCMP raiding and removing the protesters’ main camp, near Smithers B.C..Protesters are showing their support for Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs. A total of 21 activists have been arrested since the RCMP raid began on Thursday..Demonstrations have been held across Canada – including blocking rail lines, ports and ferry terminals – inconveniencing thousands of people..Several activists were arrested Monday morning as they blocked access to ports in Vancouver..In Calgary, 200 protesters shut down the Reconciliation Bridge on Monday. Police allowed them to block the road for two hours. .In Victoria, several bridges were blocked..In Edmonton, students at the University of Alberta planned to walk out of classes..At one B.C. blockade, the focus seemed to be on a fed up driver who took matters into his own hands..On Friday, Mohawk members in Ontario parked a dump truck with a snowplow blade near a rail line, halting the Toronto-Ottawa corridor..At the main camp. a near constant Twitter feed is getting out their side of the story..The pipeline has the support of all First Nations along the route, but hereditary chiefs of Wet’suwet’en Nation, through which 28% of the 670-km route passes, oppose it..A group of unelected hereditary chiefs had set up a camp near Smithers and have kicked out Coastal GasLink workers..The RCMP said they have found traps like felled trees and three stacks of tires along with flammables along the access road..On Jan. 7, 2019, RCMP arrested 14 protesters along the B.C. logging road. .International attention was drawn to the issue when a British newspaper reported RCMP were ready to shoot protesters when they broke up the camp. The RCMP denied the story..On Dec. 31, the B.C. Supreme Court granted CGL an injunction against members of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation from blocking the pipeline route near Smithers, B.C..But the situation has been further complicated after an Jan. 3 indict by the Unist’ot’en, a smaller group within the First Nation, that they intend to terminate an agreement that had granted the company access to the land..The RCMP checkpoint had been set up at the 27-km mark of the forest service road “to mitigate safety concerns related to the hazardous items of fallen trees and tire piles with incendiary fluids along the roadway.”.The $6.6 billion pipeline, to be operated by TC Energy Corp, would transport gas from near Dawson Creek in northeast B.C. to Kitimat on the coast and supply Canada’s largest liquefied natural gas export terminal, called LNG Canada, which is under construction..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter: @Nobby7694
