RCMP moved in Thursday to clear an indigenous blockade that was preventing construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline..Tweets by supporters of the blockade showed a long line of RCMP vehicles going into the area this morning. Six people have been arrested..The RCMP could not be reached for comment..Indigenous supporters reacted in shock after the raids..Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, said: “We are in absolute outrage and a state of painful anguish as we witness the Wet’suwet’en people having their Title and Rights brutally trampled on and their right to self-determination denied.”.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 has 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.”.On Thursday, Coastal GasLink released a statement from its president..https://www.coastalgaslink.com/whats-new/news-stories/2020/open-letter-david-pfeiffer/.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
