In northern British Columbia.
Protesters stopped while songs were sung before crossing the bridge connecting downtown Edmonton to Old Strathcona.
The Coastal GasLink project is a 670 kilometer pipeline that would transport natural gas from Dawson Creek to Kitimat. It is already more than half completed. According to Coastal GasLink, most of the route is clear and 200 kilometers of pipeline has already been installed.
TC Energy is the Calgary-based company building the pipeline.
The elected council of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and others close to it have accepted the project, but the hereditary chiefs of Wet’suwet’en have opposed it.
After the dispute resulted in protests and rail blockades across Canada last year, a memorandum of understanding was finally signed between the hereditary chiefs and the federal and provincial governments, but tensions have recently resumed.
Over the weekend, two journalists, including Edmontonian Amber Bracken, were among 15 people arrested by the RCMP near a pipeline workplace. On Monday, the couple were released under conditions.
The RCMP said they were arrested after refusing to leave “building-like structures” near a drilling site for the pipeline.
READ MORE: Journalists Released With Conditions After Their Arrest In The BC Pipeline Dispute
The arrests came days after members of the Gidimt’en clan, one of five in the Wet’suwet’en nation, set up blockades along a forest service road.
More to come …
–With files from Sarah Komadina, Global News and Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press
© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Reference-globalnews.ca