Five Indigenous land defenders were arrested along the Morice Forest Service Road yesterday as RCMP executed a pair of warrants.
Those warrants were granted following complaints of a group of masked individuals swarming a Coastal GasLink worker at the 43 km mark.
According to CGL security, the group fired flares to intimidate the worker into fleeing in order to gain access to their vehicle on March 26th.
They say the group then proceeded to pour liquid over the truck and steal a chainsaw from its bed.
As part of an investigation into that incident, RCMP conducted search warrants at two locations along the road yesterday.
While they weren’t able to locate the perpetrators, officers did arrest five individuals for obstruction at a camp at the 44.5 km mark.
RCMP say that they support peaceful, lawful, protests, but criminal acts under the guise of protest will not be tolerated.
Meanwhile, according to a statement from the Gidimt’en Checkpoint, police had been patrolling traplines and cultural areas, harassing and intimidating residents in the days leading up to the arrests.
They also lay claims of harassment against CGL security contractor, Forsythe, citing an escalation in surveillance efforts.
It’s just the most recent in a long line of harassment allegations levied against both the contractor and police by Wet’suwet’en members.
That suit alleges months of targeted harassment, intimidation, excessive force, and unlawful arrests along the CGL pipeline route.
RCMP have not confirmed whether or not the C-IRG were involved in the search, but Gidimt’en members claim more than a dozen police vehicles were used, with officers from across the province.
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