RCMP officers arrive in Smithers, a militarized assault against Wet’suwet’en land defenders appears imminent

Photos of RCMP arriving at Smithers airport by Gidimt’en Checkpoint.

On November 17 just prior to 7 pm ET, Gidimt’en Checkpoint tweeted:

“Dozens of RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] have deployed onto Wet’suwet’en territory. A charter plane full of RCMP have landed at the Smithers airport, with between 30 and 50 officers equipped with camo duffel bags.

Police loaded onto two buses and unmarked, rental pick-up trucks and headed out towards the yintah. An RCMP helicopter is reported to be heading to the area. Throughout today, helicopters have circled over our camps, conducting low, deliberate flights for surveillance.”

The road into our yintah remains blocked by RCMP at 28km, with hereditary chiefs, food, and medical supplies being turned away.

In the middle of a climate emergency, as highways & roads are being washed away & entire communities are being flooded and evacuated, the Province [of British Columbia] has chosen to send busloads of police to criminalize Wet’suwet’en water protectors and to work as a mercenary force for oil and gas.

We will not back down. We need all eyes on Wet’suwet’en Yintah. We need boots on the ground. We need solidarity actions throughout Canada.”

This thread of tweets and further updates are at the Gidimt’en Checkpoint on Twitter.

We recall that the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has urged Canada to stop construction on the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline and “guarantee that no force will be used against Wet’suwet’en peoples and that the RCMP and associated security and policing services will be withdrawn from their traditional lands.”

PBI-Canada will be en route to Wet’suwet’en territory tomorrow.