RCMP C-IRG/CRU could be linked to British Columbia’s “Civil Disobedience Work Plan” to counter land defenders
Image from BC’s Secretive Plan to Tighten Protest Response (Amanda Follett Hosgood, The Tyee, August 28, 2024).
Amanda Follett Hosgood of The Tyee reports: “On the heels of the last significant police action on Wet’suwet’en territory [against Indigenous land defenders opposing the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline], [the provincial government of British Columbia/B.C.] quietly embarked on a process to ‘streamline’ its response to what it saw as a rising wave of protests across the province.”
The article continues: “Weeks after the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] arrested 30 people [including Indigenous land defenders] on Nov. 18 and 19, 2021, along the Coastal GasLink pipeline route, the Civil Disobedience Work Plan was launched by B.C.’s Public Safety Ministry following direction from the premier’s office, according to documents obtained by The Tyee through freedom of information requests.”
“Efforts to develop a plan got underway on Jan. 25, 2022, with a meeting among the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General [that oversees policing and provincial jails] and police leaders, according to the documents. The work plan was meant to result in a ‘new model’ for managing civil disobedience in B.C., according to an internal briefing note prepared for deputy solicitor general Doug Scott on March 8, 2022. Scott approved the work plan the following month.”
Image from Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General website.
Significantly, the article also notes: “It’s not clear where the process led or what changes may have resulted. The Tyee emailed questions about the Civil Disobedience Work Plan and its outcomes to B.C.’s Public Safety Ministry on Aug. 7 but the ministry did not provide a response prior to publication.”
The possible changes could include an “Integrated Protest Response Team”, new information systems to “enhance government monitoring of protests”, updating “the information management system and policies to allow broader access to policing data”, a communications strategy to “counteract the negative narrative re: police response”, and more concretely exploring “legislative, regulatory and policy tools” to improve the province’s response to civil disobedience, as well as coordination with “those who manage projects that attract civil disobedience.”
The RCMP C-IRG/CRU
Follett Hosgood further reports: “According to the briefing note, the Critical Incident Secretariat [lead by former RCMP officer Norm McPhail] consists of an RCMP liaison and representatives from ‘several impacted ministries in the resource extraction, Indigenous relations and justice sectors.’ It is funded and operated by the Public Safety Ministry and ‘has a contracted resource who maintains ongoing situational awareness’ related to Fairy Creek, Coastal GasLink, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and ‘convoy style protests.’”
Photo: RCMP Inspector Norm McPhail, Pique Newsmagazine, April 2009.
“About half of the roughly 150-page document [a March 2022 briefing note prepared by an unidentified author] provided in response to The Tyee’s freedom of information request was withheld, and references to specific outcomes were redacted under a section of the act that protects government recommendations and policy advice. The work plan’s timeline coincides with provincial efforts to make the RCMP’s Critical Response Unit — British Columbia, or CRU-BC, a unit formerly known as the Community-Industry Response Group, a permanent part of the province’s policing.”
Notably: “Documents obtained by The Tyee through a freedom of information response released in early 2023 revealed that $36 million of the funding [for the RCMP] was earmarked for CRU-BC to ‘lead a consistent, integrated and impartially administered police response to unlawful protests and public order events across the province.’”
Follett Hosgood adds: “The Public Safety Ministry didn’t respond to The Tyee’s more recent questions about whether CRU-BC had been tapped by the province to fill gaps identified by the Civil Disobedience Work Plan related to a dedicated protest response team and standardized police training.”
The full article can be read at BC’s Secretive Plan to Tighten Protest Response (Amanda Follett Hosgood, The Tyee, August 28, 2024).
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