CBC News centers RCMP C-IRG narrative of Wet’suwet’en land struggle despite systemic investigation of unit

Video: CBC reporter Rob Brown interviews C-IRG Gold Commander John Brewer.

CBC News has published:When anarchists attack. How police say a peaceful, Indigenous-led protest over a B.C. pipeline was hijacked by violent outsiders.

This article, that focuses on the destruction of Coastal GasLink equipment on Wet’suwet’en territory on February 17, 2022, highlights: “According to the Mountie in charge of the investigation, a local group of peaceful protesters with environmental and Indigenous land rights concerns was infiltrated by outsiders with a different agenda. …Brewer described the outsiders as ‘anarchists,’ a small group of people who aren’t necessarily tied to each other but subscribe to an ideology aimed at causing chaos — in Brewer’s words, ‘targeting government, government facilities, government agencies, infrastructure.’”

Brewer is the Gold Commander of the RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) that has led militarized raids against Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

The C-IRG is now undergoing a “systemic investigation” by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC). That investigation seeks “to assess whether or to what extent the activities and operations of the C-IRG are carried out in accordance with legal standards, policy requirements, and leading practices.”

The CBC article briefly notes this: “The C-IRG is currently the subject of a federal probe. Brewer, who is in charge of the unit, stands by its tactics. He says police had no choice but to enforce a court order forbidding interference with the project.”

Social media responds

Some of the commentary in response to the CBC article includes:

Concerns about the C-IRG

We remain concerned that the RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), the primary source for this CBC News narrative:

1- has failed to recognize the Supreme Court of Canada Delgamuukw decision (1997) that established that the Wet’suwet’en nation has a system of law that predates Canada’s Indian Act and that under traditional Wet’suwet’en law the hereditary chiefs are responsible for decisions regarding ancestral lands.

2- was prepared to use lethal force and “as much violence toward the gate as you want” in their January 2019 raid against unarmed land defenders on Wet’suwet’en territory. The Guardian has documented this in their article titled Exclusive: Canada police prepared to shoot Indigenous activists, documents show.

3- has been accused of “a systemic disregard for Indigenous rights and sovereignty and the [Canadian] Charter [of Rights and Freedoms] more generally” in a court application by twelve Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

4- was censured in this 2021 court ruling that found their “exclusion zones, checkpoints, searches, and restrictions on media members clearly interfere with important liberties, including freedom of movement, freedom of expression (including freedom of the press), and freedom of peaceful assembly.”

5- was criticized by numerous United Nations Special Rapporteurs, including the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, for allegations that it has “continued to raid Wet’suwet’en encampments, dumping drinking water and violating COVID safety measures by not wearing masks or observing safe social distancing practices.”

6- is being sued in British Columbia’s Supreme Court for wrongful arrest, wrongful detention and violation of the Charter rights of photojournalist Amber Bracken and The Narwhal.

7- has used, as confirmed by APTN News, “so-called pain compliance techniques, which included gouging a protester’s eyes with a face hold, at Fairy Creek.” Allegations also include “intimidation, torture, brutality, harassment, racism, theft, destruction of property, arbitrary detention, inhumanity, lying and deceit.”

8- physically restrained and forcibly cut a cedar bracelet and medicine bag from Wet’suwet’en land defender Sleydo’ as about ten officers watched.

9- “humiliated and degraded” Mohawk land defender Layla Staats by winking at her when she was handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser after she was arrested at a blockade on Wet’suwet’en territory.

10- refuses to respect the Gitxsan hereditary chiefs’ decision to ban this “militarized squadron” from their unceded lands.

11- will receive at least $36 million in provincial government funding despite being investigated by the federal Civilian Review and Complaints Commission to see if their actions are consistent with “the standards and expectations set by Bill C‑15, An Act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the British Columbia Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) and the calls for justice from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry (MMIWG).”

12- has not withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en territory as repeatedly urged by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Webinar, Sunday April 16

Join us this Sunday April 16 at 1 pm PT / 4 pm ET to hear from those who have experienced or witnessed C-IRG violence directly. The webinar will feature Molly Murphy, author of The C-IRG: the resource extraction industry’s best ally (Briarpatch) and Louis Bockner, author of I watched my mom get arrested at a logging blockade (The Narwhal).

Register now here.