Photo: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) C-IRG officers during the November 2021 raid on Wet’suwet’en territory. Photo by Michael Toledano.
The Toronto Star now reports: “Prime Minister Mark Carney signalled Tuesday [August 26] that two port proposals could be among the first major projects approved under a contentious Liberal law, amid a European tour where he sought to bolster Canada’s economic and security influence abroad.”
One of those projects, the prime minister noted, could be “a new port, effectively, in Churchill, Manitoba, which would open up enormous (liquified natural gas) plus other opportunities, and other east coast ports” for Canada’s critical metals and minerals.
The Canadian Press also notes: “Carney also mentioned the possibility of projects coming for ports on the East Coast related to critical minerals and metals.”
Announcements coming soon
Raffy Boudjikanian, a senior reporter with the CBC’s Parliamentary Bureau in Ottawa, further reports “we are expecting an official list of the projects the government wants to prioritize to be released in just about two weeks right before MPs head back to the House of Commons for the fall [on September 15] and that “the Major Projects Office” that will oversee and fast-track these megaprojects “should happen by Labour Day” which is September 1.
Canadian-backed megaprojects in Mexico
Also, within this time frame the prime minister is expected to meet with the Mexican president in Mexico City on September 18.
Toronto Star business columnist David Olive has recently commented that discussions between Canada and Mexico so far have included “developing direct port-to-port trade routes between Canada and Mexico.”
Olive notes this could include liquefied natural gas exports and crude oil transported by the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and link in some way with the TC Energy Corp. Southeast Gateway gas pipeline in southern Mexico and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) rail network in Mexico.
The Southeast Gateway pipeline and the expansion of major rail projects – including the Mayan Train and Isthmus of Tehuantepec megaprojects – have seen significant opposition from Indigenous Peoples in Mexico.
Earlier this year, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project called for an end to the criminalization of twenty-four Indigenous land defenders opposed to Tehuantepec megaproject.
Other megaprojects in Canada
Along with the megaprojects expected to be announced by the Canadian government within the next few weeks, PBI-Canada is also monitoring the safety and security situation for Indigenous land defenders opposed to the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline on Gitxsan and Gitanyow territories (who we visited this past June), the building of compressor stations as part of the Coastal GasLink pipeline infrastructure on Wet’suwet’en territory (that we also visited in June), and on-the-ground resistance to the proposed mining of critical minerals in the so-called “Ring of Fire” area on Indigenous lands in northern Ontario.
We are also following the Checkpoint Parent blockade in Quebec: Checkpointparent opposes Bill 97, defends the ancestral family territories of the Nehirowisiw Aski nations in Quebec (August 15, 2025).
C-IRG model coming to other provinces?
It is in this context that we also highlight a recent article titled Controversial B.C. RCMP unit to police opposition to fast-tracked resource projects by Shiri Pasternak and Tia Dafnos (The Breach, August 21, 2025).
Pasternak and Dafnos write: “A RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] unit criticized for violent and unlawful conduct will be involved in enforcing new laws in British Columbia that will fast-track resource and infrastructure projects…”
They explain: “Newly obtained documents show the RCMP’s Community-Industry Resource Group (C-IRG) will work with secretive provincial committees that monitor and respond to opposition to major projects…”
They also caution: “With its policing of pipeline and logging demonstrations having been deemed a ‘national best practice’ by the RCMP, there is potential that this model—and its criminalization of Indigenous and climate protest—could be replicated in other provinces, as resistance heats up against a wave of environmental deregulation being pushed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and several premiers.”
No release date in sight for systemic investigation
On March 9, 2023, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC) announced a “systemic investigation” of the C-IRG.
The investigation was launched almost 30 months ago after the CRCC had received nearly 500 formal complaints about this RCMP unit. As CBC has reported: “More than 100 grievances accepted for investigation contain allegations of excessive force, illegal tactics, unprofessional behaviour, racism, discrimination and charter violations by the force’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).”
The CRCC now tells PBI-Canada: “The investigation continues and most of the material collected by the CRCC has been reviewed. Currently, investigators are analyzing this material and interviews with RCMP members are nearly completed. CRCC investigations consider all relevant information to make findings and recommendations, including a significant volume of records and video footage in this case.”
With no estimated date for the completion of this report, we recall that there had been demands for this unit to be suspended during this investigation.
The risk of OPP violence
In response to the warning of Indigenous blockades against Ring of Fire mining, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has stated: “You can’t break the law. Simple as that. … They need to move on or they’ll be dealt with appropriately.”
Sudbury.com notes: “[NDP member of the provincial legislature Sol Mamakwa asks] ‘What is the OPP [Ontario Provincial Police] going to do to the First Nations, once they start fighting on the land? That’s the scary part.’”
That article adds: “One of the people who spoke at Monday’s [June 2] anti-Bill 5 rally at Queen’s Park was the sister of Dudley George.”
30th anniversary of OPP killing of Dudley George
George was killed by an OPP sniper on September 6, 1995.
On September 10, 1995, the Peace Brigades International-North America Project (PBI-NAP) reported that it had received a verbal invitation to: “be observers for First Nations people if needed; be present during discussions between the different groups as a nonpartisan witness; do accompaniment for anyone fearing further violence on the part of the police; write nonpartisan reports on what we witness and hear.”
By July/August 1996, PBI-NAP reported: “PBI has made three more visits to the area of Ipperwash.”
PBI-Canada also recalls that the Ipperwash Inquiry that followed the murder of Dudley George was included recommendations on how Indigenous protests and occupations could be addressed to prevent the killing of another land defender.
Sentencing of land defenders, October 15-17
During a Keepers of the Water-organized webinar this past spring on the criminalization of Indigenous land defenders in Canada, Frances Mahon, a Vancouver-based criminal defence lawyer, stated: “We are moving on to the sentencing process [for Sleydo’, Shaylynn Sampson and Corey Jayohcee Jocko], that will happen October 15th, 16th and 17th on Gidimt’en territory in Smithers, British Columbia. I really encourage anybody who is in the area or is able to travel to actually come up and to witness that.”
We continue to follow this.
