UNIST’OT’EN CAMP—Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have struck a deal with the RCMP that would let them keep a gate on a bridge on a logging road, but allow Coastal GasLink through to start preconstruction on a $6.2-billion gas pipeline that will run through their traditional lands.

In exchange, the RCMP will not raid the camp or enter the Unist’ot’en healing lodge without an invitation.

“This is an agreement with the RCMP and our people,” said hereditary chief Namoks of the Tsayu clan, who also goes by the name John Risdale. “It’s between the RCMP and the Wet’suwet’en.”

The Wet’suwet’en nation wants to protect their traditional territory from the environmental impacts of the pipeline development. They also say the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, which signed a $13-million deal with Coastal GasLink, does not have jurisdiction over the entire territory.

The Wet’suwet’en agreed to remove cars and trucks blocking the road, but Wednesday’s deal with the RCMP is contingent upon Coastal GasLink agreeing the gate can stay on the bridge below the healing lodge. “CGL will get soft access,” chief Namoks said.

The Wet’suwet’en say the gate is necessary, citing safety concerns. The healing lodge has been firebombed, shot at and vandalized before by pro-pipeline activists, according to Chief Namoks. A Thursday meeting with Coastal GasLink will be critical to the proposed solution to a standoff that heated up earlier this month when the Wet’suwet’en nation erected another barricade across the same logging road at the Gitimt’en camp.

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In December, Coastal GasLink got an injunction in the B.C. Supreme Court to allow the company to go through the Unist’oten barricade, but nothing happened until Wet’suwet’en land defenders put up a second barricade on the same road at the Gitimt’en camp. The injunction was amended in January to include the Gitimt’en checkpoint, which was raided on Monday. RCMP went over the barrier across the Morice West Forest Service Road and arrested 14 people, all of whom had been released by Wednesday night. They were freed after agreeing to appear in a Prince George court in February, to abide by the injunction, and to keep the peace.

RCMP and hereditary chiefs, with media in tow, arrived at the Unist’ot’en camp about 65 kilometres outside of Houston, B.C., on Wednesday afternoon in a bid to find a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict between police and the Wet’suwet’en nation.

The group crossed the Unist’ot’en checkpoint shortly after 2:30 Wednesday. As media waited for the results of the meeting, a camp supporter handed out glasses of water.

“Do you guys know what you are drinking?” he asked. “This comes straight from the Wedzin Kwa River. This is what we’re fighting for.”

The Unist’ot’en healing lodge houses dozens of people, including land defenders, camp supporters and those people here for healing. It is not covered by the court injunction, but the barbed-wire topped gate on the nearby bridge and the road behind it is.

Molly Wickham, 37, who acted as an informal spokesperson for the Gitimt’en camp when the RCMP broke through the barricade on Monday, was one of three people released before the others on Wednesday.

Wickham lives with her husband in a cabin beyond km 44 of the Morice West Forest Service Road, which is where police dismantled the Gitimt’en checkpoint on Monday.

Unlike the protestors arrested for blocking the gates of the Trans Mountain pipeline project last year — who were charged with criminal contempt of court — the charges against those arrested in connection with the Coastal GasLink injunction are all civil cases.

Dan McLaughlin, communications counsel for the B.C. prosecution service, confirmed by email Wednesday that it is not involved.

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B.C. premier John Horgan spoke to reporters about the conflict for the first time Wednesday, saying he believed LNG Canada had satisfied its obligations to consult and gain consent from First Nations band councils along the Coastal GasLink route.

But Horgan defended Forest Minister Doug Donaldson’s meeting with hereditary chiefs at the anti-pipeline checkpoint last weekend, ahead of the RCMP enforcement, as “appropriate” in order to keep the dialogue open.

“LNG Canada has shown they understand the importance of reconciliation with First Nations,” Horgan said, “and that is why they have signed agreements with every First Nation along the pipeline corridor.”

And though the project offers “great opportunity” for Indigenous people and for B.C., the conflict between four of five Wet’suwet’en band councils who signed deals and the five Wet’suwet’en clan chiefs who oppose it, “also highlights the challenge of reconciliation,” he said.

“There’s no quick fix when it comes to addressing differences of opinion within families, communities and within clans,” he said. “It’s the responsibility of the two orders of government to figure that out. We do that in consulting with band councils and the hereditary leadership.”

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