RCMP C-IRG snipers repeatedly deployed against Wet’suwet’en land defenders and water protectors

Published by Brent Patterson on February 20, 2025February 20, 2025

Photo by Gidimt’en Checkpoint.

Reporting this week on an abuse of process application brought forward by three Wet’suwet’en land defenders, The Tyee’s northern B.C. reporter Amanda Follett Hosgood wrote: “The court heard that RCMP officers had set up snipers in the area prior to the arrest…”

This issue noted by Follett Hosgood is perhaps one that should receive more extensive coverage and examination by a wider range of news sources. Toward that end, we take this fuller look at the issue of police snipers being deployed against Indigenous land defenders, including the killing of Dudley George in 1995.

November 2021

Follett Hosgood has previously reported that the C-IRG (Community-Industry Response Group) had “used ‘lethal-force overwatch’ — snipers armed with rifles — during the high-profile enforcement [on November 19, 2021], according to officers with a specialized RCMP response team meant to resolve high-risk situations.”

After that raid, Toronto-based Canadian Forces College Department of Defence Studies professor Chris Madsen told PressProgress: “Emergency Response Teams [ERTs] are being improperly used in suppressing peaceful indigenous protests on their own lands. Use of the ERT in this situation is improper because the protestors are clearly neither armed nor offering resistance, other than perhaps words.”

Further to the comment by Professor Madsen, University of Winnipeg criminal justice professor Kevin Walby told PressProgress: “I think the use of the ERT and the snipers is clearly meant to intimidate and abuse. It is meant to be traumatizing.”

February 2020

Follett Hosgood has also noted: “In February 2020, The Tyee observed what appeared to be officers armed with rifles dropped by helicopter onto a hillside overlooking the area where police arrested seven people outside the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre.”

Shortly after this raid, Global News reported: “[In a video] one [C-IRG] member is repeatedly shown aiming what looks like a sniper rifle directly at [23-year-old Gitxsan land defender Denzel] Sutherland-Wilson from behind a truck that has been turned onto its side.”

In that video, Sutherland-Wilson can be heard pleading: “He’s pointing his gun at me! Take your gun off of me! …I have nothing! Please, take down your weapon!”

Video still: C-IRG officer points assault rifle at Gitxsan land defender.

January 2019

And following the first C-IRG raid on Wet’suwet’en territory, The Guardian reported: “Canadian police were prepared to shoot Indigenous land defenders blockading construction of [the Coastal GasLink pipeline] a natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia, according to documents seen by the Guardian.”

That article noted: “Police records seen by the Guardian include transcripts from police strategy sessions, reports filed after the raid and audio and video files. One document noted that the Wet’suwet’en possessed ‘firearms for hunting/sustenance’ but police intelligence indicated that there was ‘no single threat indicating that [land defenders] will use firearms’.”

Following that article, the CBC reported: “The RCMP falls under federal jurisdiction. [The then-Indigenous Services Minister Marc] Miller said police deployment tactics need to be reviewed ‘in these very, very sensitive situations’.”

APTN also reported: “Canada’s minister of Public Safety [Bill Blair] says he has raised concerns with the RCMP about what he calls ‘unacceptable words and phrases’ that were found in RCMP documents [obtained by The Guardian] that revealed the RCMP was prepared to deploy snipers against Indigenous protestors.”

Dudley George killed by police sniper

In this context of the C-IRG deploying snipers, we recall the killing of Indigenous land defender Dudley George by an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) sniper on September 6, 1995, and the Ipperwash Inquiry, a two-year judicial inquiry, that concluded with the release of a Final Report in May 2007 and 100 recommendations.

The recommendations from that inquiry included (on page 96): “The Province of Ontario should enact a regulation pursuant to the Police Services Act requiring officers to file a use of force report when they point a long gun or rifle, regardless of whether a shot is fired.”

The inquiry also recommended (on page 105): “The OPP should post all significant OPP and provincial government documents and policies regarding the policing of Aboriginal occupations and protests on the OPP website.”

Photo: An OPP officer rushes toward Tina George at Ipperwash Provincial Park the day after her cousin Dudley George was killed by the OPP.

It’s unclear how many of the inquiry’s recommendations were implemented or how many are currently being followed.

Photo: An OPP officer at 1492 Land Back Lane near Hamilton, Ontario, October 2020.

Concerns

While federal cabinet ministers Marc Miller and Bill Blair (a former Metropolitan Toronto Police officer), and professors Chris Madsen and Kevin Walby, along with numerous Indigenous land defenders and water protectors, have expressed concern, BC Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen appears less worried on the subject.

This past week, Justice Tammen found that the C-IRG had violated the Charter rights of three Indigenous land defenders during the November 2021 raid on Wet’suwet’en territory, but rejected allegations the C-IRG had employed “unnecessary resources”.

Justice Tammen stated: “The police were unaware of the number of protesters they might encounter. They were not engaged in a simple peaceful demonstration akin to a sit-in, but rather wanton destruction of property, including vehicles and infrastructure. Police did not know if the protesters were armed nor if they were violent.”

It’s not clear if Justice Tammen had access to C-IRG documents that contradicted their 2019 assessment in which police intelligence indicated that there was “no single threat indicating that [land defenders] will use firearms.”

Further study warranted

It may be that further examination into the use of force by the RCMP C-IRG on Wet’suwet’en territory over the period of 2019 to 2021 is needed to ensure that the lives of Indigenous land defenders are not put at risk (notably on Gitxsan and Gitanyow territories with the imminent decision on the construction of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline) and that the tragedy of the police killing of Dudley George is not repeated.

Photo: This commemoration marks the site where Dudley George was killed.

Further reading: What weapons are deployed by the RCMP against Indigenous land defenders? (PBI-Canada, January 20, 2023).