PBI-Canada supports gathering outside the Prime Minister’s Office calling for the abolition of the RCMP C-IRG, April 19

Published by Brent Patterson on

Share This Page

Peace Brigades International-Canada is supporting the call for the abolition of the controversial RCMP “community-industry response group” (C-IRG).

Local activists will be gathering on Algonquin territory (Ottawa) on Wednesday April 19 at 12 noon to help amplify an about-to-be-released letter from the recently formed Abolish C-IRG coalition that includes frontline land defenders, professors, students, lawyers, non-governmental organizations and allies. 

This Facebook event page notes:

Help protect land defenders experiencing police violence by supporting the call to abolish the RCMP community-industry response group (C-IRG).

Hear speakers, help amplify a letter coming from a new coalition calling for the abolition of the C-IRG, and have a piece of ‘Cut the C-IRG!’ cake.

This gathering is taking place on unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin territory.

The speakers will include Kyla Wills, a frontline activist who was at Fairy Creek, and Shivangi Misra, a human rights lawyer, formerly with the Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA), and one of the authors of the FAFIA report on the RCMP. Other speakers will be announced soon.

12 reasons to be concerned about the C-IRG

We are concerned that:

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.

Help stop violence against land defenders by joining this event on Algonquin territory (Ottawa) on Wednesday April 19 at 12 noon outside the Prime Minister’s Office.

The RCMP C-IRG on Wet’suwet’en territory, November 19, 2021.


Share This Page
Categories: News Updates

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *