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After Tait Day spoke on Tuesday, the Twitter account for the Gidimt’en Checkpoint, one of the protest sites for those opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which crosses Wet’suwet’en territory, attempted to discredit Tait Day.

“The Wet’suwet’en Matriarch’s (sic) Coalition is not endorsed by the Wet’suwet’en and is not associated with our traditional governing structure that predates colonization,” the account said.

According to Tait Day’s statement, the coalition was “asked in 2015 by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and the community at large to develop and facilitate a decision-making process for major projects like LNG Canada and Coastal Gaslink.”

Photo by Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press/File

Since the protests began, Indigenous groups have blasted Extinction Rebellion, an environmental group that uses civil disobedience to spur climate action by government, on Vancouver Island on at least two occasions, prompting protesters to apologize.

At the end of last month, Chief Russ Chipps and two councillors from Beecher Bay First Nation, wrote a letter, reported The Guardian, and sent it to Extinction Rebellion Vancouver Island.

Protesters from that outfit had, on Feb. 18, passed through Indigenous lands and gone to protest at the home of B.C. Premier John Horgan. Horgan was not at home at the time, but his wife was.

“We find it disturbing that you would ignore our rights and titles,” Chipps and the councillors wrote. “You’ve come into our territory without permission, putting yourselves above our traditional protocols and have insulted our community and terrorized a private citizen in our neighbouring community.”