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As a result, police have now set up a “check point” along the Morice West Forest Service Road to “mitigate safety concerns related to the hazardous items of fallen trees and tire piles with incendiary fluids along the roadway, as well as to allow emergency service to access the area.”

A series of social media posts from the Unist’ot’en Camp, where the group of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and their supporters have blockaded work from continuing on the project, called the check point “a violation of our human rights, Wet’suwet’en law, and our constitutionally protected rights as Indiegnous people.”

The group did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

While police met with the opposed hereditary chiefs, a letter from Coastal GasLink president David Pfeiffer indicates the company building the pipeline project has yet to meet with the opposed chiefs.

“We continue to be available to meet yourself and the other Hereditary Chiefs this Friday, Jan. 17 in Smithers at your offices and hope a meeting can be arranged,” Pfeiffer wrote in his letter.

The standoff has highlighted divisions between elected and hereditary chiefs in northern B.C. and also issues of how and whether First Nations’ laws are applied within the broader scope of Canadian law.

British Columbia Premier John Horgan told a news conference Monday that Indigenous peoples have used courts to successfully assert their rights and title, but in “this instance the courts have confirmed that the project can proceed and will proceed.”