{"id":13593,"date":"2019-12-22T10:55:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-22T18:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=13593"},"modified":"2019-12-22T10:58:49","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T18:58:49","slug":"exclusive-canada-police-prepared-to-shoot-indigenous-activists-documents-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2019\/12\/22\/exclusive-canada-police-prepared-to-shoot-indigenous-activists-documents-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Canada police prepared to shoot Indigenous activists, documents show"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Canada<\/a> (theguardian.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes from strategy session for raid on Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en nation\u2019s ancestral lands show commanders argued for \u2018lethal overwatch\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaskiran Dhillon<\/a><\/strong> in Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en territory and Will Parrish<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fri 20 Dec 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sabina<\/a>
 Sabina Dennis stands her ground as police dismantle the barricade to enforce the injunction filed by Coastal Gaslink pipeline at the Gidimt\u2019en checkpoint near Houston, British Columbia, on 7 January. Photograph: Amber Bracken<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Canadian police were prepared to shoot Indigenous land defenders blockading construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia, according to documents seen by the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes from a strategy session for a militarized raid on ancestral lands of the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en <\/a>nation<\/a> show that commanders of Canada\u2019s national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), argued that \u201clethal overwatch is req\u2019d\u201d \u2013 a term for deploying snipers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RCMP commanders also instructed officers to \u201cuse as much violence toward the gate as you want\u201d ahead of the operation to remove a roadblock which had been erected by Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en people to control access to their territories and stop construction of the proposed 670km (416-mile) Coastal GasLink <\/a>pipeline<\/a> (CGL).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a separate document, an RCMP officer states that arrests would be necessary for \u201csterilizing the site\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en people and their supporters set up the Gidimt\u2019en checkpoint in December 2018 to block construction of the pipeline through this region of mountains and pine forests 750 miles north of Vancouver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 7 January, RCMP officers \u2013 dressed in military-green fatigues and armed with assault rifles \u2013 descended on the checkpoint<\/a>, dismantling the gate and arresting 14 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The checkpoint lies 22km east of a camp operated by a house group of the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en called the Unist\u2019ot\u2019en<\/a>, which has been at the center of the struggle against the pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The camp is one of several instances where Indigenous people in British Columbia have reinhabited ancestral territory that falls outside of demarcated reservations, in what they refer to as \u201creoccupation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unist\u2019ot\u2019en spokesperson Freda Huson (Howilhkat) said that the RCMP\u2019s militarized posture during the raid was consistent with a long history of colonial violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn our experience, since first contact, RCMP have been created by the federal government to dispossess Indigenous peoples<\/a> of their lands,\u201d Huson said. \u201cThey have proven [that] through their harassment of my people to support Coastal GasLink in invading our territories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police records seen by the Guardian include transcripts from police strategy sessions, reports filed after the raid and audio and video files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One document noted that the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en possessed \u201cfirearms for hunting\/sustenance\u201d but police intelligence indicated that there was \u201cno single threat indicating that [land defenders] will use firearms\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An RCMP spokesperson declined to comment on the specific content of the documents, saying they were merely carrying out a December 2018 injunction against people who interfere with the CGL pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the planning for the enforcement of the court-ordered injunction, the RCMP took the remote location of the Morice River Bridge into account and ensured that enough police officers were present in the area to keep the peace,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cWe also took into consideration the unpredictable nature of what we could face in the remote area, and so we moved additional police resources including members of the tactical and emergency response teams to provide support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Camp<\/a>
 Camp supporters wait for police at the Gidimt\u2019en blockade near Houston, British Columbia. Photograph: Amber Bracken<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The revelations come as the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en camps brace for a provincial supreme court ruling on an injunction<\/a> applied for by the pipeline builder TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), which seeks to permanently restrict the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en from blocking access to pipeline work sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pipeline would run from the Dawson Creek area of northern British Columbia to a facility near Kitimat on the Pacific coast. CGL has begun road-building and clear-cutting on the right-of-way, and the company intends to start construction in early-2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n