By Alex McCuaig (with files from The Canadian Press)

GasLink Protest

Medicine Hat set to join protest against GasLink project

Feb 9, 2020 | 5:33 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Medicine Hat is set to become the latest community to join a growing number of protests against the Coastal GasLink project and in support of a B.C. First Nation.

Dave Condon, chair of the local chapter of the Council of Canadians, says the protest set for Monday afternoon is aimed at Medicine Hat MP Glen Motz to take concerns about the natural gas pipeline project to Ottawa.

Condon says the issues are twofold.

“One is the issue of the pipeline itself. The other one is, of course, respecting the rights of the Wet’suet’en Nation for free, prior and informed consent,” he said. “How do we get to a point of reconciliation if we are just going to trample on the rights of Indigenous people.”

From the steps of the British Columbia legislature to Vancouver’s city hall to ports, bridges, railways and streets, protests are continuing to support hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation to halt construction of a natural gas pipeline in their traditional territories.

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But arrests are also mounting at protest camps near construction zones of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northwest B.C.

RCMP officers arrested 11 people Saturday who allegedly barricaded themselves in a warming centre in a forested area near the work site.

Those arrested are accused of breaching a court injunction related to opposition to the 670-kilometre pipeline project that crosses Wet’suwet’en traditional territory near Smithers, B.C., located more than 1,100 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

Wet’suwet’en supporters say the RCMP expanded the zone covered by the court injunction when it moved in to arrest the 11 people.

Protest supporters are gathering today at Vancouver city hall, and Indigenous youth and supporters continue to camp overnight on the front steps of the B.C. legislature in Victoria.

Protesters blocked Victoria’s downtown Johnson Street bridge Saturday and other groups of protesters continue their presence at Vancouver ports and railway lines in Ontario.

The protest in Medicine Hat is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Monday outside the 13^th Avenue offices of MP Glen Motz.