Coastal GasLink says supplies like water are at risk of running out for more than 500 workers who have been trapped for three days behind blockages near a pipeline job site in northern British Columbia.
The pipeline company says it is very concerned for its workers, as the road is unsafe and impassable, making it difficult to access medical care in an emergency.
The blockade was erected on Sunday by members of the Gidimt’en clan, one of five in the Wet’suwet’en nation.
A spokesman for the group has said that hereditary chiefs have never ceded or handed over the territory, and Coastal GasLink workers received an eight-hour notice to evacuate peacefully before the road was blocked.
However, the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, which is one of several elected councils in the area, released a statement Wednesday saying those clan members do not speak for everyone and that their people are among the workers.
The statement said Wet’suwet’en’s elected councils support the project and the First Nation calls for an immediate end to the escalation of the conflict.
“Although we are also members of the Gidimt’en Clan, the protesters at ‘Camp Coyote’ and other protest sites have never consulted us about their actions and cannot claim to represent us or any other member of the First Nation.” added. the statement says.
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Crown Indian Relations Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday that talks between the hereditary heads of Wet’suwet’en, the British Columbia government and Coastal GasLink were at a “tipping point” towards a resolution.
In both 2019 and 2020, the conflict over the pipeline escalated when the RCMP enforced court orders issued to Coastal GasLink and arrested opponents of the project.
Supporters of the hereditary chiefs held nationwide protests that stopped the railroads last year and put the spotlight on indigenous rights and jurisdiction.
#CoastalGasLink, the elected council of Wet’suwet’en calls for resolution of the conflict. #Moisten
A memorandum of understanding signed since then between the federal and provincial governments and the hereditary chiefs of Wet’suwet’en had eased tensions, but Sunday’s statement from the Gidimt’en clan said an “eviction notice” served Coastal. GasLink by the bosses in January 2020. is being applied again.
The pipeline project is more than half complete with almost the entire route cleared and 200 kilometers of pipeline installed so far, the company said.
This Canadian Press report was first published on November 17, 2021.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com