{"id":200506,"date":"2019-12-24T06:23:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T06:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/ndp-wants-rcmp-investigated-following-report-of-plan-to-send-snipers-to-wetsuweten-blockade.html"},"modified":"2019-12-24T06:23:17","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T06:23:17","slug":"ndp-wants-rcmp-investigated-following-report-of-plan-to-send-snipers-to-wetsuweten-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/ndp-wants-rcmp-investigated-following-report-of-plan-to-send-snipers-to-wetsuweten-blockade.html","title":{"rendered":"NDP wants RCMP investigated following report of plan to send snipers to Wet’suwet’en blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The NDP is calling for an independent investigation into how police handled the Wet’suwet’en pipeline blockade in northern B.C. earlier this year, in response to a media report saying\u00a0RCMP officers were willing to deploy snipers against protesters.<\/p>\n

But the RCMP is defending its conduct during the incident, saying its approach to the blockade was focused on\u00a0protecting lives and reducing the potential for injury of all those involved.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

The controversy stems from a\u00a0report on Friday in the\u00a0the U.K. newspaper the Guardian<\/a>\u00a0detailing\u00a0notes from what was described as an RCMP strategy session. According to the story, the notes say that RCMP argued for “lethal overwatch” of the protest site and officers were instructed to use “as much violence toward the gate as you want” in order to remove a roadblock erected by protesters.<\/p>\n

CBC News has not independently reviewed the documents cited in the Guardian article.<\/p>\n

Jack Harris, NDP public safety critic, sent a letter\u00a0to Public Safety Minister Bill Blair on Monday raising concerns about the “troubling strategies and tactics”\u00a0RCMP\u00a0brass allegedly discussed when planning to enforce an injunction against protesters\u00a0interfering with the construction of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline.<\/p>\n

“This language goes beyond what Canadians would consider acceptable within our national police force,” Harris wrote in the letter to Blair.<\/p>\n

“It certainly does not fall in line with the commitments made by RCMP leadership and this government’s promises with respect to Indigenous justice and reconciliation.”<\/p>\n

Harris’\u00a0letter\u00a0points the finger at\u00a0RCMP commanders and calls for a “full and independent investigation” into the allegations.<\/p>\n

In a statement released on Monday, the commanding officer of the B.C. RCMP,\u00a0Dwayne McDonald, disputed the Guardian story. McDonald said\u00a0the newspaper had not shared\u00a0the documents with the RCMP and the police force can’t speak to their authenticity.<\/p>\n

“The RCMP has commenced a review of all documents relating to the enforcement of the court ordered injunction and to date can find no documents or references\u00a0which reflect statements made in the article,” McDonald said in the statement.<\/p>\n

“Whatever the source, the assertions made in the article do not in any respect reflect the spirit and intent of the direction of the RCMP\u00a0commanders charged with planning and carrying out the court’s direction, nor does it reflect what actually occurred.”<\/p>\n

McDonald also said the Guardian’s report had damaged relationships between the RCMP\u00a0and the community. McDonald\u00a0said the RCMP\u00a0have asked for a meeting with the\u00a0Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs who led the blockade.<\/p>\n

The Wet’suwet’en\u00a0blockade<\/h2>\n

The blockade caught the attention of the country in January, when members of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and their allies set up checkpoints along a remote forest road to prevent workers from accessing a construction site for the Coastal GasLink project. The project is owned\u00a0by\u00a0TC Energy,\u00a0formerly known as\u00a0TransCanada Corp.<\/p>\n

The pipeline is meant to move natural gas from northeastern B.C. to the coast, where a liquefied natural gas project is scheduled for construction. Its planned route runs through the traditional territory of the Wet’suwet’en, located about 300 kilometres west of Prince George, B.C.<\/p>\n

Though TransCanada had said it has signed agreements with all First Nations along the pipeline route, some members of the Wet’suwet’en argued their hereditary chiefs had not agreed.<\/p>\n

The standoff lasted for a number of weeks until the RCMP entered the camp on Jan. 7 to enforce a court injunction from the B.C. Supreme Court ordering protesters to stop preventing workers from accessing the\u00a0site.\u00a0Fourteen people were arrested in the operation.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the people at the camp\u00a0accused the RCMP of using inappropriate force<\/a>\u00a0<\/u>when officers entered the camp.<\/p>\n

But the RCMP’s McDonald said\u00a0RCMP\u00a0officers followed the specific arrest and release processes permitted by\u00a0the court injunction.<\/p>\n

He added that officers conducted hundreds of hours of meetings with the\u00a0Wet’suwet’en people up to and following the enforcement raid.<\/p>\n

“Every person who was engaged in the enforcement of the order received cultural awareness training from the Wet’suwet’en elders,” McDonald said.<\/p>\n

Civilian review a possibility<\/h2>\n

Harris’s letter follows a similar one sent by NDP MP Taylor Bachrach\u00a0(Skeena\u2014Bulkley Valley) on Friday to the civilian watchdog set up to monitor the RCMP for wrongdoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In that letter, Bachrach urged Civilian Review and Complaints Commission\u00a0(CRCC) chairperson Michelaine Lahaie to investigate what he called a “military style response” to a civilian protest.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

I am calling on the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission to conduct an independent review of the RCMP\u2019s planning and actions related to incidents on January 7, 2019, to determine whether they were consistent with Canadian law enforcement standards.<\/p>\n

mdash;@taylorbachrach<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

“The violence faced by Indigenous peoples undertaking peaceful protest remains a serious issue throughout the country,”\u00a0wrote Bachrach.<\/p>\n

“To learn that violence seems to have been encouraged against Indigenous people who are friends and neighbours is shocking and disturbing.”<\/p>\n

A\u00a0CRCC spokesperson said the commission is\u00a0reviewing Bachrach’s letter.<\/p>\n

Indigenous services minister calls for ‘review’<\/h2>\n

Blair’s office confirmed it received the letter from Harris and that it had raised the issue with the RCMP.<\/p>\n

“We are committed to protecting the constitutional right to peaceful protest and are concerned by the unacceptable words and phrases that the Guardian reported were used,” said spokesperson Scott Bardsley.<\/p>\n

“The RCMP’s first priority always is to ensure the protection and safety of all persons.”<\/p>\n

When asked about the report on Friday, Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said he would like to see\u00a0a review of how RCMP resources are used in “sensitive” conflicts between companies and Indigenous nations over land.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There are a number of very deeply concerning words, phrases and terms used to a situation that is immensely delicate,” Miller said.<\/p>\n

“This is something that we need to revise as a government and take a look at that, because the terminology is entirely unacceptable.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Article source: https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/ndp-investigation-pipeline-blockade-1.5407310?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NDP is calling for an independent investigation into how police handled the Wet’suwet’en pipeline blockade in northern B.C. earlier this year, in response to a media report saying\u00a0RCMP officers were willing to deploy snipers against protesters. But the RCMP is defending its conduct during the incident, saying its approach to the blockade was focused […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-200506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}