Gitxsan hereditary chiefs ban the RCMP’s “community-industry response group” (CIRG) from their territories

Photo: Gitxsan hereditary chiefs, matriarchs and elders, November 2021.

The Terrace Standard reports: “Gitxsan hereditary chiefs issued a notice this week prohibiting the RCMP’s ‘militarized squadron’ called the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) from Gitxsan lands centered on the Hazelton area, effective immediately.”

Their notice reads: “While we embrace safety measures for our community, the militarized squadron of the RCMP [the C-IRG] funded to the tune of $50M, have been sent to terrorize our people at the barrel of a gun during peaceful protests and blockades.”

Gitxsan Hereditary Chief Brian Williams says: “We’re a peaceful people and we’re not trying to hurt anyone on our lands and the C-IRG, they’re usually in full fatigues, carry lethal weapons and have dogs. …We need to maintain safety in our community. We don’t want to see a dead Indian because a militarized squadron is trying to break up peaceful protests or blockades.”

Williams adds: “We don’t want the C-IRG army back on our territory again.”

The C-IRG on Gitxsan territory

On November 21, 2021, the RCMP entered the village of New Hazelton, as Vuntut Gwitchin citizen Kris Statnyk has tweeted “to put down a peaceful protest led by Gitxsan families with a show of force, including tactical officers authorized for lethal oversight and traumatizing Gitxsan children.”

Video: CBC has reported 24 year old Gitxsan land defender Denzel Sutherland-Wilson shouted “I can’t breathe!” as RCMP officers tackled him at an encampment in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en struggle against the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Photo: Heavily-armed RCMP on the streets of New Hazelton, November 2021.

On January 1, 2022, Git’luuhl’um’hetxwit Media also tweeted:

Pipelines to be built on Gitxsan territory

Both Calgary-based Enbridge and TC Energy also have permits from British Columbia to build pipelines across Gitxsan land, adjacent to Wet’suwet’en territory.

Wilps Gwininitxw member Ankhla Jennifer Zyp says: “We’re worried, for sure, that we’re going to be met with the same violence [as seen against the Wet’suwet’en], with the same push from the government. We’re concerned about how these pipelines crossing all these rivers are going to affect the salmon returning back to our territory.”

CRCC review of C-IRG

Yesterday, APTN reported: “The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) for the RCMP says it is launching a “systemic investigation” into the activities and operations of the Community-Industry Response Group or C-IRG as it’s known.”

That article adds: “An APTN News investigation of C-IRG in June of 2022 uncovered allegations against the unit that includes ‘intimidation, torture, brutality, harassment, racism, theft, destruction of property, arbitrary detention, inhumanity, lying and deceit.’”

It further highlighted: “The investigation obtained evidence of vast spying — including casual surveillance of law-abiding groups engaged in the democratic process — collusion with private security, collaboration with industry lawyers and wilful violations of RCMP policy.”

#AbolishCIRG

On February 21 of this year, PBI-Canada organized a webinar titled “Dismantle the C-IRG, end violence against land defenders” featuring Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’moks, international human rights lawyer Shivangi Misra, activist-academic Keith Cherry and PBI-Canada Board member Seb Bonet.

To watch the video of that webinar, please click here.

Now, we are part of an informal network of activists, academics, lawyers and organizations who are also calling for the abolition of C-IRG.

For an in-depth read, please also see The C-IRG: the resource extraction industry’s best ally by Molly Murphy and Research for the Front Lines (January 5, 2022).