Have you heard that Canada is a colonial police state controlled by multinational corporations that uses military force to invade Indigenous people and force them off their land?
That鈥檚 the message conveyed around the world in recent days, as RCMP officers moved in as delicately as possible to enforce a B.C. Supreme Court injunction to take down roadblocks to allow construction to start on a natural gas pipeline to the B.C. coast.
We now know that 14 people were arrested after police in tactical gear took down a gate on a provincial forest service road south of Houston in northwestern B.C. Some of them at least are to appear in a Prince George courtroom in early February.
It鈥檚 one of two barriers on this public road, the first having been erected 10 years ago by a couple of members of a Wet鈥檚uwet鈥檈n clan and their outside supporters.
VIDEO:
READ MORE:
There were a few reporters allowed into this remote area, mostly trying to sensationalize the confrontation, but professional activists command the big audience. For example, U.S. actor Susan Sarandon was quick to promote a report from a self-styled 鈥渁narchist collective鈥� that used social media to broadcast slick video of the 鈥渂rutal raid,鈥� with close-ups of RCMP weapons. The video cut to scenes from dozens of marches magically staged across North America and Europe the next day. Sarandon hit all the key propaganda words, including 鈥渇racked gas,鈥� as she pushed this professional video to her 622,000 Twitter followers.
Activist pictures from inside the blockade showed female protesters staged at the front to depict helplessness in the face of overwhelming force. The last scenes I saw were of an obviously gasoline-fed fire at the barrier, clouds of black smoke revealing the accelerant.
Here鈥檚 the account of a well-connected area resident I won鈥檛 identify. As police prepared to move in, protesters soaked the frozen ground with gasoline. This was likely from jerry cans carried in earlier in the day by RCMP liaison staff along with other supplies, to allow occupiers to leave in comfort and dignity in their vehicles.
The fire was set as police entered and quickly got out of control, igniting the protesters鈥� tent and a bus that still had a protester tied to it. Police had bolt cutters to cut down the barrier and were able to rescue him.
After a couple of days of talks with RCMP and representatives of pipeline company Coastal GasLink, the spokesman for the dissident hereditary chiefs, John Ridsdale (Chief Na鈥橫oks), announced that the original gate would also be opened to comply with the court order, which extends to May.
鈥淲e are the peaceful people here,鈥� Ridsdale said. 鈥淲e are not invading them.鈥�
All 20 Indigenous communities along the pipeline route have signed impact and benefit agreements. Or rather their elected councils have, seeing an alternative to the poverty, unemployment, addiction and suicide that are rampant in these remote communities.
Ridsdale is an old friend of Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson, now B.C. forests and lands minister. Donaldson invited him to the B.C. legislature in January 2015, to press for a legislated guarantee from the B.C. Liberal government that Coastal GasLink and other gas pipelines can鈥檛 be converted to carry crude oil. Ridsdale didn鈥檛 object to natural gas then. He and Donaldson argued the existing regulation preventing gas pipeline conversion to oil is not adequate.
At that time, Ridsdale was leading protest marches against the Trans Mountain oil pipeline twinning project.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press Media. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
Like us on and follow us on .
