The RCMP C-IRG and the Site C dam flooding Indigenous heritage sites and burial grounds in British Columbia
CBC photo (March 1, 2016): “Tuesday, RCMP flew in to a remote Site C protest camp and stood in a snowy, forest clearing to read protesters Monday’s BC Supreme Court order requiring them to leave or face arrest. (Christy Jordan-Fenton)”
The Canadian Press reports: “BC Hydro says it has begun filling the reservoir created by the massive Site C dam project in northeastern British Columbia.”
That article adds: “BC Hydro says it will take between two and four months to fill the 83-kilometre-long reservoir, which will cover about 5,550 hectares of land while totalling about 9,330 hectares in surface area.”
The National Trust for Canada has previously specified the significant impact of this reservoir: “The Site C project would destroy 78 First Nations heritage sites—including burial grounds—as well as 337 archaeological sites, 27 built heritage sites (including remains of fur trade forts), and 4 paleontological sites.”
Chief Roland Willson of West Moberly First Nations tells Sarah Cox at The Narwhal: “There’s spiritual sites along the river that will be destroyed, grave sites that are along the river that’ll be destroyed. … Everywhere they dug they found artifacts on the river. If we had to prove our existence and our presence in the Peace River, they’ve got more than enough evidence. They can fill warehouses full of stuff. We have stories — old, old stories — about hunting the mammoth. And they were finding mammoth bones with flint arrowheads stuck in them, spearheads stuck in the bones and stuff like that.”
Land defenders
On New Year’s Eve in December 2015, Treaty 8 land defenders and allies set up a resistance site at Rocky Mountain Fort Camp on the south bank of the Peace River to protest against the construction of the dam.
On January 8, 2016, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs stated: “Yesterday, BC Hydro moved equipment in toward the camp, despite publicly saying they are speaking with Site C dam protestors and local authorities to try to peacefully end the standoff. The RCMP made three arrests at the north bank entrance of the project yesterday morning including a former regional district director. We are deeply concerned that BC Hydro’s actions are increasing tensions on the ground.”
Red Power Media (January 9, 2016): “Protesters on the 269 Road blocked traffic from entering the Site C dam work site for about an hour before police arrived Wednesday.”
CBC photo (January 12, 2016): “David Suzuki, third from the right, and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, centre, joined protesters at the Site C protest camp at Rocky Mountain Fort on Monday. (Yvonne Tupper/Facebook).”
In this CBC article, Suzuki said that the daily checks by the RCMP amounted to “a form of harassment.”
Times Colonist photo (January 21, 2016): “Site C opponents Christy Jordan-Fenton and Yvonne Tupper wait for Saulteau Security employees to pass during a patrol near their encampment at Rocky Mountain Fort earlier this month.”
By March 7, 2016, Water Canada reported: “Justice G. Bruce Butler of the B.C. Supreme Court ruled Monday [February 29, 2016] that it is ‘contrary to the public interest’ to allow protestors to shut down work at the Site C dam… The injunction, applied for in January, went into effect on Tuesday [March 1, 2016] at midnight, but it gave RCMP discretion for when and how to remove protesters. Some Site C protesters who’ve been delaying dam construction have already started to pack up camp.”
At that time, land defender Helen Knott of the Prophet River First Nation stated: “The Court has now authorized the unjustified infringement of our treaty rights. It has granted BC Hydro and the RCMP the right to clear the camp and if necessary, arrest us. We do not wish to be arrested. We wish to see Canada respect the rights of indigenous people.”
CBC photo (March 1, 2016): “Opponents of Site C dismantle the remote protest camp that stalled BC Hydro dam construction work for two months. (Christy Jordan-Fenton)”
The C-IRG
Formed a year later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) were reportedly deployed to Site C.
Molly Murphy and Research for the Front Lines have noted in Briarpatch magazine: “In an interview with Research for the Front Lines, C-IRG Gold commander John Brewer [said] the C-IRG has been deployed … at the Site C hydroelectric dam…” In another Briarpatch article, they quote Brewer saying: “I have strategic oversight for the entire group, which includes Fairy Creek, Trans Mountain pipeline, Coastal GasLink, we’ve done fish farms, Site C…”
Photo: John Brewer.
The United Nations
The specific timing and details of C-IRG having “done” Site C is not publicly known, but it may coincide with warnings from the United Nations.
In December 2018, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which monitors compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (of which Canada is a signatory), stated: “The committee is concerned about the alleged lack of measures taken to ensure the right to consultation and free, prior and informed consent with regard to the Site C dam…”
Then in December 2019, the UN Committee, acting under its Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure, further called on Canada to “immediately suspend the construction of the Site C dam, until free, prior and informed consent is obtained from West Moberly and Prophet River Nations, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult.”
Despite this direction from the UN, construction on the dam continued.
By June 2022, the West Moberly First Nations that had long opposed Site C announced that it had reached a partial settlement agreement BC Hydro and the Province of British Columbia on the dam, with Chief Roland Willson commenting: “The final nail in the coffin was a while ago. They had no intention of stopping. …They beat us into submission, basically.”
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