PBI-Canada concerned federal watchdog is now unable to issue report on systemic investigation of the RCMP C-IRG
Video: “Dramatic Video Shows Militarized Canadian Police Raid Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders & Journalists” on November 19, 2021 (Democracy Now!)
There are new questions and concerns about the status of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) investigation into the RCMP C-IRG (now rebranded as CRU-BC) following the news that “the review body is unable to issue any decisions in the absence of a chair or other senior decision-makers.”
The investigation
On March 9, 2023, Michelaine Lahaie, the Chairperson of the Ottawa-based CRCC, initiated a systemic investigation into the activities and operations of the RCMP “E” Division Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).
That investigation was launched after the CRCC received nearly 500 formal complaints about the RCMP C-IRG.
As CBC journalist Brett Forester has previously 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).”
Photo: On March 22, 2023, PBI-Canada hand-delivered to the CRCC office in Ottawa this letter from the Abolish C-IRG coalition calling for the suspension of the C-IRG during the CRCC systemic investigation.
The last update on the CRCC systemic investigation was posted on November 23, 2023.
“Serious misconduct” by the RCMP
In February 2025, Justice Michael Tammen ruled that the C-IRG had breached the Charter rights of three Indigenous land defenders on November 18-19, 2021, during a raid on Wet’suwet’en territory. Justice Tammen commented that there were multiple offensive and discriminatory comments made by multiple officers and that this “is potentially a sign of systemic attitudinal issue within the C-IRG.”
Justice Tammen’s ruling can be read in full here.
And earlier this month at a sentencing hearing in Smithers for the three land defenders, Justice Tammen referred to the comments by the RCMP C-IRG officers as “grossly offensive, racist and dehumanizing”.
Justice Tammen added the comments amounted to “serious misconduct” and that “the need to take action is acute when the offending behaviour by state actors is racist commentary making light of the plight of the many murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.”
Photo: PBI-Canada, Amnesty International and Front Line Defenders observed the sentencing hearing of the land defenders this past October 15-17, 2025. Photo by Brent Patterson.
CRCC unable to issue decisions
Now, CBC News journalist Catharine Tunney reports: “The watchdog body meant to investigate Mounties’ conduct has been without a chairperson for months [since January 2025], stalling investigations and weakening transparency about how the country’s police force interacts with Canadians across the country.”
The article further notes: “While teams of investigators and lawyers are still working, a spokesperson for the CRCC said the review body is unable to issue any decisions in the absence of a chair or other senior decision-makers.”
When PBI-Canada contacted the CRCC on August 21, 2025, for an update on the systemic investigation into the C-IRG, we were told: “The investigation continues and most of the material collected by the CRCC has been reviewed.”
The CRCC added: “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.”
The C-IRG and resistance to the PRGT pipeline
This past August, Shiri Pasternak and Tia Dafnos also reported: “A RCMP 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 explained: “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…”
This is likely to include Gitanyow resistance to the construction of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline on their territory in northern British Columbia. Just two weeks ago, Business in Vancouver reported that construction on the PRGT pipeline could “start as early as the New Year” with “a final investment decision by the end of this year…”
Photo: PBI-Canada, PBI-Colombia and the Forest Peoples Programme visited Gitanyow territory and learned about their opposition to the PRGT pipeline in June 2025. Photo by Brent Patterson.
The Ring of Fire and C-IRG as a “national best practice”
Pasternak and Dafnos also cautioned: “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.”
Photo: Neskantaga Elder Alex Moonias and Chief Gary Quisess meet with Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan leaders, in Gatineau, Quebec, July 17, 2025. Photo by Brent Patterson.
Earlier this week, the Toronto Star reported: “Premier Doug Ford says he is ramping up plans to mine critical minerals in Ontario’s environmentally sensitive Ring of Fire after reaching a $39.5 million road-building partnership with [Webequie First Nation Chief Cornelius Wabasse].”
Northern Ontario Business further reports: “The Ford government is promising shovels will be in the ground by next spring [June 2026] to start construction on the most northerly leg of a road into the Ring of Fire.”
That article adds: “The [107-kilometre long] Webequie Supply Road is one leg of a longer, proposed road network, of several hundred kilometres, connecting the Ring of Fire and remote communities to the provincial highway system.”
Chief Gary Quisess of the Neskantaga First Nation responded: “That’s not leadership — it’s colonialism in 2025.”
Grand Chief Fiddler of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a political territorial organization representing 49 First Nation communities within northern Ontario, has previously told CBC News: “There will be conflict on the ground, and those that oppose it will most likely end up in jail. That is where we’re heading.”
And Ontario Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Sol Mamakwa has cautioned: “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.”
We continue to follow this.
0 Comments