The RCMP continued to make arrests on Saturday — the third day in a row of police enforcement against the Wet’suwe’ten and their supporters opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern B.C.
CBC News saw RCMP officers dragging several people on sleds out of a camp area early Saturday afternoon after people were told they had to leave the area or face arrest.
Tensions remain high in the area and more arrests are expected as people and obstacles remain in the way of Coastal GasLink and its contractors who are attempting to get back into a disputed area to re-start work on a natural gas pipeline.
On Dec. 31, a B.C. Supreme Court judge issued an injunction against members of the Wet’suwe’ten Nation blocking access to the pipeline project inside their traditional territory and empowered RCMP to enforce the injunction.
Chief Na’moks of the Wet’suwet’en Nation said people who have been arrested for opposing the Coastal GasLink pipeline weren’t obstructing any construction.
He said residents are going about their business while the project is on hold during the winter season.
Communication between the Wet’suwe’ten hereditary chiefs and the RCMP appeared to reach a new low on Saturday morning when the chiefs were prevented from moving through a police checkpoint to see people believed to have barricaded themselves in a warming centre on the 27-kilometre mark of the Morice Forest Service Road.
“We need access to get up there and you have no right stopping us at [this checkpoint],” Chief Madeek told RCMP Chief Superintendent Dave Attfield in a phone call heard by journalists.
“Sorry you can’t go up there right now,” said Attfield. “I do hope to get you guys in there if you want to go in.”
“We’ve been fed a bunch of lies ever since we met you guys,” said Madeek.
The chiefs said they were particularly angry because they had talked with RCMP the night before and asked to a