From January to March 2020, a series of civil disobedience protests were held in Canada over the construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline (CGL) through of Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation territory in British Columbia (BC), including land that is not covered by historical treaties and subject to ongoing comprehensive land claims. Concerns of the protesters included Indigenous land rights, the actions of police, land conservation, and the environmental impact of energy projects on climate change.

Starting in 2010, the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs and their supporters made their opposition to the project known and set up a camp directly in the path of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines, a path similar to that which would later be proposed for the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. Northern Gateway was officially rejected in 2016, but the CGL project moved through planning, indigenous consultations, environmental reviews and governmental reviews before being approved in 2015. However, the approval of all the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs was never granted. In 2018, the backers of the pipeline project gave the go-ahead to the project and it began construction. Access to the Coastal GasLink Pipeline construction camps in Wetʼsuwetʼen territory was blocked and the Coastal GasLink project was granted an injunction in 2018 to remove the land defenders. In January 2019, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) of British Columbia removed the blockades and CGL pre-construction work in the territory was completed. Subsequently, the blockades were rebuilt and Coastal GasLink was granted a second injunction by the BC Supreme Court in December 2019 to allow construction.

In February 2020, after the RCMP enforced the second court injunction, removing the Wetʼsuwetʼen blockades and arresting Wetʼsuwetʼen land defenders, solidarity protests sprang up across Canada. Many were rail blockades, including one blockade near Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory which halted traffic along a major Canadian National Railway (CNR) line between Toronto and Montreal and led to a shutdown of passenger rail service and rail freight operations in much of Canada. The Eastern Ontario blockade was itself removed by the Ontario Provincial Police. Blockades and protests continued through March in BC, Ontario and Quebec. Discussions between representatives of the Wetʼsuwetʼen and the governments of Canada and British Columbia have led to a provisional agreement on the Wetʼsuwetʼen land rights in the area.

Coastal GasLink pipeline project

The Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline is a natural gas pipeline designed to carry natural gas from mines in north-eastern British Columbia to a liquefaction plant at the port of Kitimat. The project is intended to supply natural gas to several Asian energy companies, who are partners in the project. The pipeline's route passes through unceded lands of several First Nations peoples, including of Wetʼsuwetʼen territory. Within the Wetʼsuwetʼen territory, the pipeline does not pass through reserves, only through traditional territory.

The consortium developed its plans for the pipeline route in the early 2010s, securing the approval of several First Nations councils along the route, but did not secure the approval of the Office of the Wetʼsuwetʼen, the hereditary government of the Wetʼsuwetʼen people, although most of the elected band councils of the Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nations did enter into a benefits agreement with TC Energy, the owner of the pipeline project.

In 2014, British Columbia authorities approved the environmental assessment of the project, then approved permits to construct the project in 2015 and 2016. TC Energy was given final approval by its partners to begin construction of the project in 2018, still without the consent of all of the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs. Only one of the nine sitting house chiefs, Samooh (Herb Naziel) supports the project.

Environmental infractions CGL Pipeline has taken many actions that contradict their own company's environmental guidelines, as well as those of the Canadian government. Over the course of the project's existence, the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) has found multiple violations of the company's environmental management plan. In December 2020, the provincial Environmental Assessment Office found that CGL had failed to properly comply with erosion and sediment control measures, a violation which posed a major risk to the health of the waterways the pipeline moves through. This environmental infringement also posed a high risk to fish habitats, according to reporting from CBC, with “sediment and turbid water from waterway construction [having] the potential to reduce the biological productivity of aquatic systems and suffocate fish eggs.”

Despite the fact that CGL has many different strategies to move the pipeline through waterways safely — ranging from man-made trenches to funnel the pipeline through the waterways to "trenchless" crossings where the pipeline tunnels beneath the waterway without touching the stream or river itself — the EAO has found that the uptake in turbid water and other insufficient sediment control persists. The violations cited by the EAO have affected numerous waterways during construction, including 68 wetlands, and even disrupting Fraser Lake with turbid water.

In addition to issues relating to the preservation of waterways, CGL has missed deadlines to protect plants and wildlife from construction, as well as leaving food in areas for natural predators to eat, creating further environmental risk for the Wetʼsuwetʼen and the stability of their land, as well as increased danger from predators in the area.

Threats from construction crews The placement of CGL construction crews, including the existence of remote temporary lodgings for mostly male workers (known as man camps) also created more environmental issues, as well as safety issues for the Wetʼsuwetʼen. The danger of man camps in increasing the risk of abduction and murder of indigenous women was reported on in the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and the Office of the Wetʼsuwetʼen used this as evidence in their opposition to the extension of CGL's environmental certificate before the EAO in October 2020. The EAO stressed the importance of the issue but did not place it into evidence for the cancellation of the certificate.

CGL construction teams obstructed Wetʼsuwetʼen access to traplines paths and walkways the nation uses to hunt and gather resources creating strain on the Wetʼsuwetʼen way of life. In response to the infractions of crews blocking Wetʼsuwetʼen territory, CGL spokesperson Natasha Westover said, “CGL has an obligation to facilitate access for Indigenous peoples to their traditional territories; however, that access may be delayed where it is unsafe [to] provide access immediately.”

Threats to construction crews

In the early hours of February 17, 2022, twenty masked attackers, some carrying axes, forced nine people to flee from a work site near Houston, British Columbia. They attacked and injured RCMP officers attempting to respond. Ellis Ross said "There were workers inside a truck while attackers were trying to light it on fire." Damage is estimated to be "in the millions of dollars" according to Coastal GasLink.

Wetʼsuwetʼen opposition Background

The Wetʼsuwetʼen are an Indigenous nation made up of five clans including the: Gilseyhu (Big Frog), Laksilyu (Small Frog), Gitdumden (Wolf/Bear), Laksamshu (Fireweed) and the Tsayu (Beaver Clan). These five clans' territory lies in the central western portion of British Columbia. The language spoken by the Wetʼsuwetʼen people is Babine-Witsuwitʼen, one of the Athabaskan languages. Their traditional government, predating Confederation, is a system of chiefs representing each clan, called the hereditary chiefs. The chiefs have been represented by the non-profit Office of the Wetsuweten since 1994, before having a joint office with the Gitxsan. The elected band councils were created by order of the Government of Canada, under the Indian Act, to govern the reserves put in place, of which the Wetʼsuwetʼen have several.

According to hereditary chief Na’Moks (John Ridsdale), "it's the hereditary chiefs' duty to protect the territory". According to Na’Moks, the pipeline "is going along rivers, it will go over rivers and even in some instances, it will go under. One hundred and ninety kilometres of the proposed route will run through our territory. It threatens our water, our salmon, and our rights, our title, our jurisdiction". The pipeline would also go through areas of cultural significance to the Wetʼsuwetʼen.

In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada issued the Delgamuukw-Gisdayʼwa decision, which ruled that aboriginal title exists as an exclusive territorial right for indigenous people. The ruling was made in an appeal of a Supreme Court of British Columbia decision, which had ruled against recognition of Wetʼsuwetʼen and Gitxsan land rights. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a new trial was warranted, but encouraged a negotiated settlement. The Wetʼsuwetʼen and Gitxsan then entered the treaty process with the BC government. However, the BC government's position that the Nations would only receive 4 to 6 per cent of their territory was unacceptable and the nations walked away from the process. Hence, the boundaries of the Wetʼsuwetʼen and Gitxsan nations' traditional territories are not yet recognized in Canadian law. In the absence of an agreement over aboriginal title and rights, the hereditary chiefs' position is that their full consent is required for any energy or resource projects within their territory, and the CGL does not have their consent. The rights and title issue has also been the basis for several solidarity protests, which have also objected to the actions and presence of the RCMP within the Wetʼsuwetʼen traditional territory (known in Babine-Witsuwitʼen as ).

Blockades, injunctions and RCMP interventions 2010

Beginning in 2010, the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs and their supporters set up barricades and checkpoints along the Morice West Forest Service Road that provides access to the construction of pipeline projects that threatened their territory, originally the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines, and later also Coastal GasLink (planning for which began in 2012). The largest of those camps is Unistʼotʼen Camp, directly in the path of the pipeline, established in 2010 as a checkpoint, and has since added a healing centre.

2018

After TC Energy received its partners' go-ahead in November, it appealed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia to grant an injunction to stop the blockade of its intended route through the Wetʼsuwetʼen territory. A temporary injunction was issued in December by BC Supreme Court Judge Marguerite Church to allow CGL pre-construction work.

2019

On January 7, the RCMP conducted a raid to enforce TC Energy's injunction, removing the barricades on the Morice Forest Service Road and arresting 14 of the Wetʼsuwetʼen land defenders. The RCMP faced criticism from protesters for the amount of force used in the raid, including police snipers, helicopters, and over a dozen police vehicles. The RCMP set up a continuous presence along the road, setting up a local detachment called the Community Industry Safety Office. RCMP at this injunction have faced any protesters attempting to enter with arrest, causing the Wetʼsuwetʼen to remain in place along the road