On Valentine’s Day, a small group of Wet’suwet’en people gathered outside a Coastal GasLink pipeline work camp in northwest B.C. to hold a ceremony to remember Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. They chose the site because of the connection between work camps and violence against Indigenous women. 

It was a Sunday and no work was happening, which they confirmed with a Coastal GasLink employee before starting the ceremony. But just moments after starting, Coastal GasLink security officers approached the group, asked them to leave and said they were going to call the police, according to Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, a supporting chief in the Cassyex House of the Gidimt’en Clan. A security officer recorded the entire ceremony, she said, and when they left, security and police were waiting on the road, watching as the group left the site. 

The police and security presence on Wet’suwet’en territory has been constant since last February, when heavily armed RCMP descended on the Morice River forest road to enforce a Coastal GasLink injunction against land defenders who were blocking work on the pipeline. Twenty-eight people were arrested, including matriarchs. Today, the territory is still monitored daily by police and private security officers, despite calls from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for police and security forces to withdraw.  

A Coastal GasLink worker looks at a sign hung by land defenders as part of a Feb. 14 ceremony to remember Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Photo: Michael Toledano

“I just get so mad and frustrated because we’re living with it every day,” said Wickham, who lives with her family in a cabin on the territory and is the spokesperson for the Gidimt’en Checkpoint, one of the sites of the police raids. “They’re patrolling all the roads. You could get pulled over at any point in time for no reason at all. If you go anywhere, they’re going to follow you.”

Jeffrey Monaghan, an associate professor at Carleton University’s Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice and co-author of Policing Indigenous Movements, told The Narwhal there’s systemic racism in the RCMP and the “localized harassment” happening on Wet’suwet’en territory is common.

“I would characterize it as petty, retaliatory attacks,” he said.

 UN committee first asked Canada to stop construction on Coastal GasLink, withdraw police in 2019

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has been calling on Canada to withdraw police and security forces from traditional lands since 2019. It has also been calling on the government to stop construction on the Coastal GasLink pipeline — as well as the Trans Mountain pipeline and the Site C dam — until it receives free, prior and informed consent from First Nations. 

Before the arrests last year, the committee issued a decision statement, which is an official call for urgent action, saying it is disturbed by the “forced removal, disproportionate use of force, harassment and intimidation by law enforcement officials against Indigenous Peoples who peacefully oppose large-scale development projects on their traditional territories.”

It called on Canada to “guarantee that no force will be used against the Wet’suwet’en and guarantee that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and associated security and policing services will be withdrawn from their unceded traditional lands.”

An RCMP officer holds a land defender’s drum during the February 2020 raids of Wet’suwet’en camps, which were intentionally situated to block work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Amnesty International echoed the committee’s concerns in a statement and said when Canada committed to reconciliation, the government said it would respect and protect Indigenous Rights. 

“If promises to do so are not met with concrete action, including tough and challenging decisions such as those required here, then the words remain empty.”

A brief by Lawyers’ Right Watch Canada, a committee of lawyers and human rights defenders, said Canada is legally required to implement the recommendations of the UN committee.

“Canada has consistently failed to take appropriate measures to combat and eliminate all forms of discrimination against Indigenous Peoples.”

In November, the UN committee reiterated its requests in a letter to Canada’s permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva, stating the federal government “has provided no information on measures taken to address the concerns raised by the committee.” 

RCMP works with industry and province to patrol logging roads

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have also been calling for the police to get off their land. Following the 2020 arrests, the RCMP agreed to remove the temporary detachment it set up on the Morice River forest service road, the main access road to the Coastal GasLink work site. 

However, in late November, the RCMP re-established the detachment, which is known as the Community-Industry Safety Office. In an email to The Narwhal, RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Madonna Saunderson said the intent was to reduce the chances of COVID-19 exposures between local RCMP officers and members of the RCMP’s quick response team, which is composed of officers from across the province. 

A temporary RCMP detachment on the Morice River forest service road was closed in February 2020, following the arrests of land defenders and at the request of Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs. However, it reopened in November to prevent transmission of COVID-19 between local officers and members of the RCMP’s quick response team. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Saunderson would not divulge information on how many officers are assigned to the unit, citing operational reasons.

Wickham said based on her observations, there are six or seven vehicles on duty per shift, with two officers assigned to each vehicle. She said she has also seen a canine unit on the territory and believes the RCMP have access to armored vehicles, snowmobiles and ATVs.

A helicopter flies overhead during the February 2020 raids of Wet’suwet’en camps blocking working on the Coastal GasLink pipeline. More than a year later, RCMP patrols of the territory continue, with land defenders saying officers have access to armored vehicles, snowmobiles and ATVs. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Saunderson said the unit’s mandate is to “conduct safety check stops for compliance” with laws and regulations. She stressed that check stops are conducted at major intersections and include industry traffic.

The RCMP aren’t alone in policing the territory. TC Energy, the company behind Coastal GasLink, employs multiple private security forces, according to Wickham. She said one is Forsythe Security, a company that specializes in working for the oil and gas industry. The company is operated by a retired RCMP officer, Warren Forsythe. According to Canada’s National Observer, Forsythe worked for Kinder Morgan during 2018 protests against the Trans Mountain pipeline. 

Coastal GasLink did not respond to requests for interviews or information. In an email, a Forsythe representative said it does not discuss companies it may or may not work for.

Vehicle inspections are costing community members thousands of dollars

In addition to stopping Wet’suwet’en people on the territory, the RCMP has recently started serving vehicle inspection notices, according to Wickham. Anyone who receives a notice has to take their vehicle into an approved mechanic for a full inspection and fix anything noted on the report.  

“Most of the stuff is not mechanical,” she said, explaining that a full vehicle inspection will note minor damages like chips in the windshield. She said an inspection costs around $200 and a second inspection is required to confirm the repairs have been made. As a result, she said, the inspections are costing community members thousands of dollars and three people have already had to take their vehicles off the road. 

According to Monaghan, this a common police tactic used against activists. 

“If you did those kinds of vehicle patrols in affluent neighbourhoods, you’d find all kinds of stuff,” he said in an interview. “You could get people on this anywhere, but if you only enforce it in one community, then that is really oppressive.” 

Wickham believes the recent tactics are designed to prevent opposition to the pipeline from growing. “They’re scared of any build up like it turned into last year,” she said. 

RCMP oversight commission agreed policing activity infringes on charter rights 

Monaghan said the only action an individual can take against police activity like random stops and inspections is to file a lawsuit or a complaint with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP, both of which would take years to complete. 

For example, it took seven years for the commission to wrap up a review of RCMP policing during the 2013 Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nation anti-fracking protests in New Brunswick. The commission concluded that random stop checks and searches were “inconsistent with the charter rights of the vehicle occupants.” 

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs wrote a letter to the commision prior to the 2020 arrests, expressing concerns about RCMP activity on Wet’suwet’en territory police and requesting a formal investigation. 

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP said the police raids of Wet’suwet’en camps in February 2020, shown here, were reminiscent of how the RCMP responded to Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nation anti-fracking blockades in New Brunswick in 2013. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

In a response letter sent a few days after the arrests, the commission agreed that many of the policing activities on Elsipogtog and Wet’suwet’en territories bore a striking resemblance. It said, however, it would not conduct a formal investigation on the grounds that it had “already provided extensive guidance” to the RCMP through its review of the 2013 protests. The guidance included “12 recommendations on a variety of topics related to the policing of protests, particularly with regard to Indigenous-led protests.”  

Monaghan called the commission a “toothless organization” and said despite 20 years of critical media coverage of policing of Indigenous communities, very little has changed.

“We’re stuck with this system where there’s not really much an everyday person can do if they have a shitty run-in with the police.”

Police and security presence is changing Wet’suwet’en relationship with the land 

Earlier this month, while on assignment for Al Jazeera for a story about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, journalist Brandi Morin and photographer Amber Bracken were driving on the Morice River road when they were waved over to a pullout by RCMP officers. An industry truck was parked beside the unmarked police vehicle and when they pulled in, the industry truck drove in a circle around both vehicles and left. 

“It was almost like he was corralling us in,” Morin said in an interview. “It was really strange.”

Morin, who is Métis, told The Narwhal the officer asked them their names and why they were there. She said the whole situation made her nervous, especially given her Indigeneity and the remoteness of the location. The exchange was brief and the police left. A few minutes after Morin and Bracken started down the road, the unmarked vehicle appeared behind them and followed them for the next 30 minutes. 

Photographer Amber Bracken — who took this photo of red dresses, which signify Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls — was recently pulled over by RCMP on Wet’suwet’en territory while working on a story with Métis journalist Brandi Morin. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

“I report on violence against our people by police on a regular basis and I felt afraid,” Morin said. She said she later called the RCMP to complain and was told the officers followed them to make sure they got out safe, but she said it was clearly an intimidation tactic.

“I felt it in my spirit and I didn’t like it at all. I had a freaking panic attack that night.”

Wickham said the continued harassment has changed her connection to the territory and is impacting her personal life. 

“It used to be so relaxing, and I could feel my body changing the closer to home that we got before all this started — now it’s just stress.” 

Updated Feb. 23 at 10:37 a.m. PST: This story was updated to include that Morin and Bracken were on assignment for Al Jazeera.

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After two months of deliberation, the Wet’suwet’en have agreed to sign a landmark document with the provincial and federal governments that could change the future of Indigenous rights and title negotiations in B.C.

“The Wet’suwet’en People have reached consensus and have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding between the federal government and province of B.C. to resume the full management of our yintahs [traditional territory] using our governance system,” Hereditary Chief Smogelgem tweeted on Saturday.

Details of the memorandum have been kept confidential, but a March 1 joint statement released by the province of B.C., the federal government and the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs noted that, if ratified, the agreement would “implement [Wet’suwet’en] title on an expedited basis.”

That statement also noted the memo would not resolve outstanding conflict concerning the pipeline: “All parties at the table recognize that the differences relating to the [Coastal GasLink] project remain.”

But while the clans have agreed to sign the memorandum, the Gidimt’en clan released a statement on Monday saying the agreement doesn’t go far enough.

“Along with thousands of our supporters across Turtle Island, we hoped that these discussions could end the conflict on the ground in Wet’suwet’en territory,” the Gidimt’en clan said in the statement. “Although this is a step in the right direction, [Coastal GasLink] continues to trespass on Wet’suwet’en territory in direct violation of the eviction order enforced by the Hereditary Chiefs.”

The statement noted the success or failure of the agreement, which has yet to be formally ratified with the province and the federal government, would be determined “within the next few months.”

“Until then, we continue to oppose this project and demand that [Coastal GasLink] and RCMP get out and stay out of Wet’suwet’en yintah,” the statement concludes.

The memorandum was developed after a heated territorial dispute broke out in Wet’suwet’en territory concerning the construction of the 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline, destined to transport fracked gas from northeast B.C. to LNG export facilities in Kitimat. Enforcing a court-ordered injunction, the RCMP raided Wet’suwet’en encampments along the route of the pipeline, arresting chiefs, matriarchs and their supporters. 

Related: In photos: Wet’suwet’en matriarchs arrested as RCMP enforce Coastal GasLink pipeline injunction

The provincial and federal government both declined to provide comment on the Wet’suwet’en announcement, telling The Narwhal in separate emails there would be “more to say in the coming days.”

Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs finalized the draft agreement on Feb. 29 with Scott Fraser, B.C. minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation, and Carolyn Bennett, federal minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, who said they’d return to ratify the memorandum if all the clans agreed to it.

It is unclear if Wet’suwet’en Peoples still need to vote on the memorandum before it is ratified with the province and federal government.

The Narwhal reached out to three Wet’suwet’en chiefs, Chief Na’Moks, Chief Smogelgem and Chief Hagwilnegh, and the Gidimt’en clan but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Coastal GasLink construction remains ongoing amid the pandemic despite growing concerns that its work camps could facilitate the spread of the virus within remote communities.

RCMP enforce Coastal GasLink’s injunction at the Unist’ot’en healing centre near Houston, B.C. on Feb. 10, 2020. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

A new way forward for land claims?

Just two short months ago, the conflict on Wet’suwet’en territory dominated national headlines. The Wet’suwet’en traditional territory comprises 22,000 square kilometres in central B.C.

The Coastal GasLink pipeline crosses Wet’suwet’en territory and, although approved by the province, was vocally opposed by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. 

The pre-dawn raids in February on the Wet’suwet’en camps by the RCMP, armed with tactical weapons and police dogs, sparked outrage and protest across the country by Wet’suwet’en supporters, many of whom occupied the B.C. legislature. Widespread solidarity actions led to the federal and provincial governments agreeing to sit down with hereditary chiefs to resolve outstanding legal issues around Wet’suwet’en rights and title.

The conflict stoked national debate about the significance of Indigenous title claims, particularly in B.C. where the majority of the province is unceded land with unresolved territorial claims. Against Canada’s own legal requirements, many of those territorial claims have been treated as non-existent, with unceded land considered Crown land.

Traditionally, land title claims are negotiated through modern-day treaties or, as in the case of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation, are fought within the courts. Some call this Canada’s “prove it” approach. Rather than acknowledging Indigenous rights and title to begin with, which exist according to both Indigenous law and Canadian law, First Nations are forced to prove it in court. 

Related: How the Wet’suwet’en crisis could have played out differently

This approach puts “the burden of proof on Indigenous nations to ‘prove’ to state institutions that their pre-existing title and governance exist in order for that title to apply,” wrote Eugene Kung and Gavin Smith, two staff lawyers from West Coast Environmental Law.

In the 1997 Delgamuukw decision, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan Peoples had never surrendered their land or had their title extinguished. 

The decision recognized Aboriginal title and the right to actively manage the land and benefit economically from its use, but found that such title must be proven in the courts. The decision also ruled Aboriginal title is a communally-held right that the province does not have the power to extinguish. 

The Wet’suwe’ten and Gitxsan were invited to return to court to formally resolve their territorial claim, but that did not happen.

Under this new memorandum of understanding, it’s possible they won’t have to. 

Lawyer Jack Woodward, who drafted Section 35 of the Constitution which enshrines Indigenous rights and has represented numerous First Nations in landmark cases, said until the agreement is public it’s difficult to tell what the ramifications may be.

“It proves that blockades make news, and news gets politicians into the action,” he told The Narwhal. “But whether that results in a better or worse agreement I don’t know, we don’t know, because we haven’t seen the agreement.”

Agreement not in exchange for pipeline consent

While the memorandum of understanding is meant to create a path to negotiate Wet’suwet’en rights and title, it did not resolve the battle over the Coastal GasLink project. Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs remain opposed to the project, while the B.C. and federal governments were clear they remained committed to the pipeline.

The pipeline project is central to the province’s years-long effort to develop an LNG export industry. In particular the pipeline will feed the LNG Canada project, which will turn fracked gas from the province’s northeast into liquified natural gas for export to Asia. 

The NDP government offered millions in direct and indirect subsidies to corporations behind LNG Canada. In February, Premier John Horgan said cancelling the Coastal GasLink pipeline was “not an option.”

To understand B.C.’s push for the Coastal GasLink pipeline, think fracking, LNG Canada and the Site C dam

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The RCMP is standing down on threats to arrest journalists who are reporting on a police raid in Wet’suwet’en territory in northwest B.C. that began in the early predawn hours on Thursday. The raid has continued into Friday afternoon as police advance down a forest road occupied by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, Wet’suwet’en members and their supporters in opposition to the Coastal Gaslink pipeline. 

Journalists reported being threatened for photographing police in tactical gear, and some were physically removed from the site. But on Thursday evening the RCMP wavered in the face of outrage to infringement on press freedom in an email to Ethan Cox, editor of Ricochet Media. Photojournalist Amber Bracken is also on scene for The Narwhal at Unist’ot’en camp where police are expected to make arrests late Friday or Saturday.

Earlier that afternoon, Cox tweeted an email he received from an RCMP spokesperson that stated Ricochet journalist Jerome Turner was “subject to all the same restrictions as anyone else within the zone,” and would have to choose to leave or “be subject to arrest.”

By Thursday evening, the same spokesperson, Chris Manseau, amended the RCMP’s position and said journalists “can rest assured that the RCMP will make every reasonable effort to allow media personnel to get as close as possible to the enforcement area, while ensuring no interference with police operations.”

JUST IN: RCMP have reversed course after a huge outcry over press freedom. Will not detain or remove embedded journalists. “For media personnel ahead of the advancing police line, they can continue to observe and report, but without interfering with police enforcement.” #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/Yy6M9I3TQG

— Ricochet (@ricochet_en) February 7, 2020

The pivot came after Cox referenced last year’s court decision in the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal, which overturned civil charges against journalist Justin Brake for disobeying an injunction as he reported on the Indigenous-led occupation of the Muskrat Falls hydro dam in October 2016. The court found the terms of the injunction did not apply to a journalist who is doing their job reporting events, not participating in the occupation.

The court referenced the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and concluded that the media plays a key role in reconciliation. Judge Derek Green agreed with APTN (which acted as an intervener) that Indigenous Peoples have been “historically under-represented” in Canadian media.

“That makes freedom of the press to cover stories involving Indigenous land issues even more vital,” said Green.

The RCMP’s about-face is a win for journalists. But, Brake told The Narwhal, it’s a bitter win in light of the ongoing raid.

“Indigenous people are still being removed by police from their unceded lands.”

“We may be already seeing some tangible results on the ground in terms of justice for reporters [and] for everyone in this country who has the constitutionally protected right to a free press,” he said about the RCMP changing its mind and allowing reporters to do their jobs.

“At the same time, I don’t want to celebrate what’s happening. Indigenous people are still being removed by police from their unceded lands.”

The Wet’suwet’en’s hereditary leaders are opposed to the $6.6 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline, which is under construction to move fracked gas from B.C.’s northeast to LNG Canada’s export facility in Kitimat, B.C. The RCMP are dismantling Wet’suwet’en camps as they enforce an injunction first granted to Coastal Gaslink in December 2018 and then extended in December 2019.

RCMP told press on Wednesday they would use minimal force. The next morning, before light, armed officers arrived and made 6 arrests at kilometre 39 of Morice West Forest Service Road. 

By publication time on Friday afternoon, the Gidimt’en Checkpoint at kilometre 44 tweeted they had been surrounded by RCMP and that two people had been arrested.

Location of camps in Wet’suwet’en territory. The RCMP exclusion zone extends from the RCMP checkpoint west, past the Unist’ot’en camp. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

‘When we don’t show up, bad things happen’

Brake pointed to a long history of journalists not showing up to cover Indigenous land disputes.

“When we don’t show up, bad things can happen,” he said. He referenced the Ipperwash crisis that took place in 1995 when people from Stoney Point First Nation occupied a provincial park to assert their claim to land expropriated during the Second World War. Ontario Provincial Police moved in on the occupation and killed an unarmed man named Dudley George.

“The [Ipperwash] Inquiry found that had a journalist been present, things may have gone differently or … we may have had documentation of what happened,” he said.

Karyn Pugliese, president of The Canadian Association of Journalists and former news director at APTN, also pointed to Ipperwash as an example of the worst outcome when journalists aren’t present. She referenced a report written by Ryerson University professor John Miller. 

” … if the media would have been present that night, lives might have been saved.”

Miller looked at news coverage and saw there was little interest in the conflict from national media until the shooting happened. The night George was shot, there were no journalists present. 

Before George died, there had been 68 news stories about Ipperwash. In the month after he died, Miller counted 275 news stories.

“Back in the day, at Oka in 1990, media were front and centre. The Globe and Mail was behind the lines embedded with the protesters,” Pugliese said. 

“When Ipperwash happened, John Miller looked at the media coverage, he was convinced if the media would have been present that night, lives might have been saved,” she added.

A Gitxan supporter works to start a truck at a Wet’suwet’en re-occupation camp on Jan. 13, 2020. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

The book Seeing Red: A History of Natives in Canadian Newspapers (and other studies) found that the media has participated in discrimination and disenfranchisement of Indigenous Peoples by perpetuating stereotypes and neglecting to report on key issues.

Similarly, Brake said people have to consider the RCMP’s historical role in dispossessing Indigenous Peoples from their lands.

“It’s an ongoing part of the history, whether individual RCMP officers or commanders or governments see it that way or not,” he said.

He said he believes officers face a lot of pressure to enforce injunctions, but added “I don’t think all of the officers involved feel that they’re doing the right thing.”

As the raid descended upon Gidimt’en Friday morning, Brake predicts national movements of solidarity. Friday morning, supporters of Wet’suwet’en were marching through the streets in Ottawa, Indigenous youth occupied the steps of the B.C. legislature and Idle No More announced a solidarity event in Vancouver.

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The arrest last week of 14 pipeline protesters raises serious issues about the role of courts and police in disputes over Indigenous land.

The protesters were participating in a blockade of an access road to the Coastal GasLink pipeline project near Houston, B.C. In December, Coastal obtained an interim injunction from the B.C. Supreme Court ordering the protesters to remove the blockades.

When the protesters refused and negotiations failed, the RCMP moved in and made the arrests for alleged violation of the injunction.

The access road and this section of the pipeline are on land that the Wet’suwet’en Nation claim as part of their traditional territory. After a decade in court, the Wet’suwet’en won a significant victory in 1997 in the Delgamuukw case. While not deciding the substantive issues, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Indigenous nations that can prove they were in exclusive possession of land at the time of Crown assertion of sovereignty have constitutionally protected Aboriginal title.

The Supreme Court applied the Delgamuukw decision in 2014 in the Tsilhqot’in Nation case. The court ruled that the Tsilhqot’in have Aboriginal title to the portion of their traditional territory in the Interior of B.C. where they had proven exclusive occupation.

Significantly, the trial judge and B.C. Court of Appeal decided that this title is vested in the Tsilhqot’in Nation as a whole, not in the bands that exercise powers delegated to them by the federal Indian Act. This ruling was accepted by the Supreme Court.

This means that decisions regarding the Tsilhqot’in’s Aboriginal title land need to be made by their traditional government that exercises inherent jurisdiction, not by individual band councils because they do not have authority to make decisions for the nation.

In the context of the current protests, the Wet’suwet’en have a claim to the land in question by virtue of the Delgamuukw and Tsilhqot’in decisions.

In opposition, the province claims the same land as Crown land. A dispute over title to land is a civil — not a criminal — matter. If not settled by agreement, the courts end up resolving these disputes. In this case, no such resolution has taken place.

Instead, the province has acted as though this were Crown land and has authorized use of it for a pipeline project that the traditional Wet’suwet’en government opposes.

Based on Tsilhqot’in Nation, decisions on land use outside of reserves have to be made by traditional governments, not band councils. So the fact that Wet’suwet’en band councils may have approved the project is irrelevant.

Courts can issue interim injunctions in land disputes, authorizing one side to act as though it owns the land until the matter is finally resolved. Courts grant these injunctions mainly on the basis of balance of convenience — which party will suffer the most if the injunction is or is not granted.

Pipelines are short-term development projects whose environmental consequences make them highly controversial. The Wet’suwet’en, on the other hand, have been governing their territory in environmentally respectful and sustainable ways for thousands of years. So how can the balance of convenience favour a resource exploitation company in these circumstances?

Projects like this on Indigenous territories should not take place without the free, prior, informed consent of the people concerned, as required by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Canada has endorsed and the Trudeau government has promised to implement.

Nor should the police be placed in the awkward position, which many of them likely find uncomfortable, of having to arrest peaceful protesters involved in a civil, not criminal, matter.

The Supreme Court has said repeatedly that Indigenous claims need to be settled by respectful negotiations leading to reconciliation. The court injunction and recent arrests do just the opposite.

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