Protestors against the arrest of Wet’suwet’en members opposing a natural gas pipeline in northern BC gathered at the Powell River RCMP detachment office and in front of Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons’ office on Friday, February 7, to express their opposition to the arrests.
Police arrested six protestors near Houston, BC, on Thursday, February 6, protesting the Coastal GasLink project.
It is actually the government that is breaking the law, said Mary Morgan, one of the Powell River protestors. Among the Powell River protestors were members of the Raging Grannies, Unspoiled Coast and other concerned residents.
“They are allowing the law to be broken when they are condemning the Wet’suwet’en for breaking the law for protecting their land,” said Morgan.
She said the Powell River protestors met an RCMP member while walking from Simons’ office to the RCMP detachment and she held up a sign that said: “would you shoot me, too?”
“I asked him if he would and he laughed,” said Morgan. “I asked him why they were being so mean to [the Wet’suwet’en] and he said he didn’t know what we were talking about. That’s a big problem if they don’t even know what we are talking about.”
Morgan said the RCMP is under the jurisdiction of the government to do this.
“This is a problem; we are saying this is wrong,” she said. “They are terrorizing these people. They are throwing them in jail and saying they can’t be there. They are not allowing the people to have access to their land.”
Morgan said protests will continue until the government takes responsibility and says its actions are wrong.
“But they aren’t because the BC government is not interested in taking care of the land,” said Morgan. “They signed UNDRIP (the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) and then they go and do this.
“The laws that are supporting the government aren’t laws. There’s international laws and constitutional laws, federal laws and they are cherry picking the laws they want to obey.”
When asked if the protestors were going to try to meet with Powell River RCMP, Morgan said they were not going to try and meet with the police because they don’t know what is going on.
“Nicholas Simons isn’t in his office, so we’re just here (at the police station) because we need a focal point and we’re disgusted with what is going on. It’s colonialism in its ugliest form. We don’t have that right to take over their (Wet’suwet’en) land.”
The Peak has reached out to Powell River RCMP for comment and will provide updates as they become available.
