Narwhal week, Episode 5: A first-hand view of rising tensions on Wet’suwet’en territory

Clip You’re listening to a frequency podcast network production in association with City News.

Clip I’m instructed to advise you that anybody that passes his gate will be arrested by the RCMP. And who’s instructed you to say that? So I’ve just been at the the libertarian chief truck with arrest on our own territory. There’s no threats here. You just trekking me. There’s no threat at all. I’m simply stating if you convey that or conceive that as being a threat, then that’s exactly how I crystal that.

Fatima Syed What you just heard was a private security guard hired by Coastal Gas Link warning Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief Namok that he could be arrested. Wait, let me say that again. What you just heard was a private security guard for one of Canada’s largest energy companies warning a leader of an indigenous community he might be arrested on his own territory for attempting to observe the work of a company building a pipeline on that territory without his nation’s consent. Look, you’ve heard of Coastal Gasoline on this show and in major headlines over the years. It’s the name of a fraught gas pipeline under construction in northern British Columbia. Calgary-based energy giant TC Energy proposed this pipeline ten years ago and it’s massive. It spans 670 km, crossing mountain passes, salmon rivers and dozens of indigenous lands. The pipeline actually cuts through around 190 Wet’suwet’en territory, and over the last several years, the project has faced strong opposition from these indigenous communities who say TC Energy did not get their consent to build on their land. Last year, indigenous land defenders occupied the drill site for more than 50 days to stop the company from drilling under the Morris River. The RCMP conducted a series of raids and arrested over 30 of those land defenders, plus two journalists that paved the way for the company to move ahead with construction. And it’s happening in a big way. TC Energy has begun to drill and lay pipe under the river. The climate crisis demands some difficult conversations and considerations about tradeoffs because it’s also a human rights crisis. If we want to limit the worst impacts of global warming caused by the continuous burning of fossil fuels, we have to pick what we value and whether that list includes indigenous people’s rights to life, lands and informed consent. Sure, the choice is hard and the conversations will be tense and challenging and change won’t be easy. But people should be able to deliberate and consider and even protest these things without fear of being arrested, right? I’m Fatima Syed, sitting in for Jordan Heath-Rawlings. This is The Big Story. It’s the last episode of Narwhal Week. Today we’re going to dig into the very complicated and extremely tense relationship between the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and the coastal gasoline pipeline with help from my friend Matt Simmons. He’s the Narwhals Northwest DC. reporter, and he’s joining me from Smithers, B.C. Hey, Matt.

Matt Simmons Good morning.

Fatima Syed You’ve talked about this on this show before, but give us a quick overview on the conflict. What is happening right now in your neck of the woods?

Matt Simmons I mean, an overview of the conflict would take more time than we have, really. It’s very deep and complex and it goes back a very long way and there’s a lot of moving parts to it. But to try and summarize it, I’d say the Coastal Gas Link project was approved by the BC government despite not receiving consent from the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, ben in 2018, temporary injunction was granted by the BC Supreme Court against anyone attempting to impede construction of the pipeline. And that was followed by a more permanent injunction issued in 2019. And that led to a number of conflicts with indigenous land offenders and their supporters being arrested. There have now been three raids, one in 2019, one in 2020, which caused solidarity actions across the country and beyond, shutting down rail lines and ports. And then the most recent raid was pretty much one year ago in 2021, November, where the RCMP conducted two days of raids, arresting more than 30 people. And those scenes are kind of famous by this point. Camouflage RCMP with the high caliber rifles, smashing down the door of a tiny house where unarmed indigenous land offenders were waiting, basically. And the RCMP used an axe and a chain saw to do it. It was very dramatic and quite disturbing, really. The story hasn’t stopped there. It just continued on and on and on. And while most major media sort of moves on after the big raids, I’ve been fortunate and honoured to stay with the story. And so most recently, I was out documenting and witnessing as the private security workers, many of whom are ex military, told hereditary Chief Namoks that he would be arrested if he walked past a gate on a public Forest Service road.

Fatima Syed Explain this to me. Is it just like a super fenced area with lots of gates and security guards at each post? Like, what are you walking into right now?

Matt Simmons Yeah, so I live in Smithers, so Wet’suwet’en territory is 22,000 km², which is kind of hard to visualize. It’s big. It’s really big. So Smithers is part of Wet’suwet’en territory. But this location where the pipeline is being built takes about an hour and a half to get there, half of which is on Forest Service road. So back roads, you’re out of self service. It’s kind of an industry superhighway. There are just constant trucks up and down that road, big heavy machinery, pickup trucks. And when you get to kilometer 44 on this particular road, the Maurice River Pores Service Road, there is a Gitdumden clan camp and village site. And until recently, every time I’ve been there, there are private security sitting there in trucks on either side of this camp village site. You walk along the road, they film you with cameras or their phones. They don’t give their names, they will give their private investigator license numbers. So that’s one site and then continuing on further, you get to this spur road, it’s just a little road off to the side and that leads to the drill site where Coastal Gas Link is currently drilling under and pushing its pipe under.

Fatima Syed What?

Matt Simmons Think about the Maurice river. But right at the beginning of that road there’s a yellow gate and you kind of roll up and there’s big lights and there’s CCTV cameras and there are private security. Their is station 24/7. So I’ve been there before documenting demonstrations and they read him a script and then he says I’m going to walk along this road, I’m not going to stop any construction. I have the right to do so as a chief and it’s also my duty, my responsibility to do so. He says that and then he’s previously just walked right past them and I’ve done the same. I just follow him taking pictures and interviewing him and he walks in, looks at what’s happening and we talk and then he walks out. It’s about 2 km walk and this time they said if you walk past this gate, the RCMP will arrest you.

Fatima Syed What did it feel like watching that moment? Like this is a security officer who doesn’t actually have the power to arrest this hereditary chief, right, but gave that warning. What are you feeling and what are you feeling among other people witnessing this moment?

Matt Simmons It’s a good question. I guess I compartmentalize a little bit and just focus on doing my job. And that includes shooting photos and recording audio, but it just doesn’t seem real sometimes. And yeah, standing there and then, you know, asking Namoks how he feels and just being present in the moment.

Clip It’s a lot of human rights abuse that I am witnessing. The Indigenous rights that are being stomped upon, in one sentence all of that threat was there. How do I feel? I feel like I’m the folks. I have the right to do and monitor our land as the chiefs have been mandated. When we become chiefs, their law just happened, they made it up. Our law has been here for thousands of years.

Fatima Syed Weren’t you also warned that if you cross the skate you might get arrested?

Matt Simmons Yeah. So after the initial interactions there was a lot of waiting around. So Namok said his legal counsel with him, Chris Statnic, who asked to speak with the RCMP to confirm what was being said. And we’re just standing around in the cold snowing and while they were discussing what to do and Chris was saying you might get arrested if you try to push this. And they’re talking. I went up to the security workers and I just asked the question as a member of the media, if the chief test this and I go to documented, that’s my job, that’s my responsibility. That’s what I’m here for. Will I be arrested too? And I asked it again maybe 5,10 minutes later just to confirm, because I was kind of shocked. And just to be clear, again, as a member of the media, should I document the hereditary chief crossing this line? I would be arrested as well? If you cross the line, based on what I read to you, the script, you will be arrested. Thank you. And then another truck pulled up, and I think it was a supervisor. And his response was, unfortunately, yes.

Fatima Syed Did, chief Nomaks cross the line? You say he consulted legal counsel and he’s crossed the gate many times before. What did this person do in this moment?

Matt Simmons He was very mad. So his English name is John Ridsdale. And at one point he turned to me and he said, John Ridsdale has a temper, but Chief Namoks cannot.

Fatima Syed Oh, that’s so interesting.

Matt Simmons His hands were shaking. He was mad, but he was quiet and considerate. He was very respectful in his communication, so he probably didn’t want to be. And to answer your question, no, he didn’t cross the line. I honestly didn’t know whether he would or not. I think at first he was probably going to and then, you know, talking and calming down. I guess after those initial interactions, his sense prevailed. And at one point, he did mention that he would have needed to consult with his fellow chiefs before doing something like that. But here we are. The RCMP is right there. They’re asking to speak to the RCMP to resolve the situation or, like, come to some clear understanding of what’s going on. And the RCMP wouldn’t talk and is saying you have to drive 45 minutes on a snowy back road to get to self service, to make a call, to walk along a public road to monitor the construction that’s happening on his territory. It was just really, again, surreal. It was very bizarre situation. And the power dynamics that are at play there, it’s clear that they were just not going to let him do what he wanted to do.

Fatima Syed Matt, can you just give us a brief sort of a sense of what kind of leader was facing this moment?

Matt Simmons Yeah, he’s spoken at the United Nations General Assembly. He has presented lectures at universities. He’s told me before that one of the things he was required to do before taking on the chief name was, go spend a month in the bush alone. And so when you’re driving, driving up this road, he’s pointed it out before. He’s like, that’s where I was, and it’s just forest and mountains. He cares very deeply about his nation, his rights, and just generally about people. He’s very gentle and kind and warm, but he’s also really strong. To show restraint when being treated that way is quite remarkable, to say the least.

Fatima Syed What are they trying to hide? I have to ask this. They’re building a pipeline. What exactly are the great secrets that they don’t want you to see or they don’t want a hereditary chief to see?

Matt Simmons Yeah, honestly, I don’t know. The challenge is getting information with any major project. There’s a lot going on. The company has been out of compliance with its Environmental Assessment Certificate many times. So I’ll ask very specific questions and get no answers. And, yeah, I mean, Namok is wanting to walk along that road and have a peek, like, well, why not? He’s done it before. He’s not going to stop construction. He’s not going to lay down in front of a bulldozer. Like he’s a big chief, a hereditary chief. He wants to go as is his duty, to monitor the project and its potential impacts to the ecosystems that he cares deeply about and that his people rely on. There’s salmon in that river. There are steel head in that river. There are moose and bears and coyotes and wolves. It’s a very beautiful place as well, and it’s rich in biodiversity and the air is clean, the water’s clean. So naturally, even the issue of consent aside, he is concerned about the health of those ecosystems.

Fatima Syed Matt, as I understand it, construction has started in a big way, right. Like, what is the company doing in that region right now?

Matt Simmons Yeah, so currently the company is, I think it has 14.3% of pipe in the ground on this territory.

Fatima Syed On what?

Matt Simmons Souton territory. 100% of the route has been cleared. So that’s basically clear cut, a big line and less than a kilometer away from whatsoever camp and village site they were lasting as part of their clearing activities. And of course, they are currently doing what’s called micro tunneling, which is a bit of a misnomer because it’s actually, like, quite big, a big hole underneath the river. So they drill a big hole, they go really deep down and then they have to shoot, I think, about a kilometer underneath the river at a depth. I think the closest, they say, is 11 meters from the riverbed, and then it pops out the other side and you’ve got your connected pieces of the pipeline.

Fatima Syed That’s hurting salmon. Right?

Matt Simmons Well, that’s the question. Is it hurting salmon? So they started drilling right in the basically the riskiest time for salmon as salmon were laying their eggs in the riverbed. But because they’re going under the river, the company and the BC Government Environmental Assessment Office, they say it’s safe, but when I ask detailed questions, I don’t get answers. So I think it’s natural for people who have been described as salmon, people relying on the salmon for their survival, and also the entire ecosystems rely on salmon. And salmon have been in decline for so long, I think it’s natural for them to be fearful of potential impacts at the top. You talked about how almost exactly a year ago, our friend Amber Brecken was there reporting for the Narwhal when she was arrested by the RCMP during a raid. The fact that this keeps happening again, this pattern that we’re seeing, I was going to ask you if that’s legal, but it sounds like even that’s a complicated answer. Yeah, well, I mean, of course the RCMP will say it is legal. When I asked them for comment about me being told I would be arrested if I crossed the gate, they said something along the lines of there’s no blanket authority for journalists who work in injunction zones. But I question that. And there have been court cases which have successfully fought and won assuring the rights of journalists to do exactly that operate in injunction zones. So the legality of it, you’re right, it is really complex. And this is the thing with law and courts, is there is room for judgment or interpretation. What I find really tricky with this one is who’s interpreting it. So there’s a sign at that gate that acknowledges that there is a court of injunction and then it lists a few things that people who know about the injunction are prohibited from doing. And I cross checked it to the actual injunction and the things that are written on the sign are not in the injunction itself. So for example, people are prohibited from the threatening or intimidating pipeline workers, also prohibited from being within 10 meters of pipeline workers or vehicles. And none of that is in the order. And the company, when I asked, they would not answer why it was on their side despite it not being in the injunction. So this is something that Chris was saying at this site is saying you, as security workers working for this pipeline company, do not have authority to enforce the injunction, nor do you have the authority to interpret it as the legal document that the courts or the RCMP can interpret. And so then there’s a standoff rate where they’re saying one thing about this injunction, but there’s nobody there to clarify whether what they’re saying is true except for the RCMP. But then the RCMP wouldn’t talk so bizarre.

Fatima Syed And just to be clear, who could clarify it? Who do we need there to be able to clarify which interpretation is accurate based on whatever the injunction says?

Matt Simmons I mean, the RCMP could add some clarity. However, in my reporting, we got our hands on internal emails, for example, RCMP emails, and they conflict with what the RCMP says publicly.

Fatima Syed Give us an example, Matt. Like, what’s the discrepancy?

Matt Simmons Okay, well, for example, with Amber Bracken getting arrested last year, the RCMP wrote that I’m doing error quotes here. Package would be filed with the courts that would justify their actions to arrest journalists and it was related to impartiality and advocacy. To date, it was over a year later or a year later. That package has not materialized.

Fatima Syed How close is the relationship between the RCMP and TC Energy?

Matt Simmons Like, it sounds weird for a public entity to be this close in proximity. Yeah, it is quite striking. I interviewed the Gold Commander of this unit. His name is John Brewer, and I asked him that question and he denied it. He said, we have just as much relationship with other stakeholders as we do with the pipeline company. But land offenders have also told me that they’ve seen RCMP and private security workers laughing it up and sharing information back and forth. It’s actually the subject of a civil suit. Certain community members have filed a civil suit against the RCMP for Site Security, which is one of those security companies, the main one working for the pipeline and coastal GasLink. And they’re alleging that there is this level of collusion that is illegal and leads to what they characterize as intimidation and harassment.

Fatima Syed As you continue to learn more, what are you concerned about and what are you watching closely as we head into a new year?

Matt Simmons I mean, the pipeline, it would transport a lot of gas basically from the northeast, the Monte region. And to supply all that gas, new wells would need to be drilled. And that’s done by fracking, which has a lot of implications on water and ecosystems in that region. There’s also the issue of the gas being composed mostly of methane, methane leaks. The industry has been tackling that to some degree in DC. But there’s still a lot of methane that’s going into the atmosphere. And methane has significantly more warming potential than carbon dioxide. So there’s that just from the fracking itself. Then you put in the pipeline, you ship it all the way to the coast, there it is, liquefied, exported, transported overseas. All of this has emissions associated with it. Then it gets to where it’s going, the buyer buys it and then burns it to create energy. So effectively putting a whole lot more emissions into the atmosphere at a time when we should not be doing that and we should be doing everything we can to decrease the emissions that already exist. And then there honestly, I live here. This is a small, small region. It’s huge in terms of distances, but it’s small in terms of population. And so I live here and I know people both through work and personally, and I love where I live. It’s a beautiful place and it’s hard sometimes to just bear witness. You know, it really, truly impacts real human beings and their daily lives, their health, both mental and physical. So, yeah, I mean, I’m concerned for the people who have lived here for thousands of years, the repetition of these confrontations, if that’s the right word to describe the face off between indigenous land offenders and the community in that region and this company. I guess there’s a silver lining in the fact that it keeps happening and people keep pushing back and people keep asking tough questions like you are. Yeah, I mean, it’s a really, really weird thing to say, but when this blows up to a major scale like it did with the race last year, it’s at least getting the story out. This may be a daily life issue for a lot of people here, but for people across the country and around the world that just don’t see it. So the silver lining is these are stories that need to be told. People need to understand that Canada is not just roses. It’s got some deep issues it needs to wrestle with and come to terms with and frankly, like, move forward from.

Fatima Syed Matt, thank you so much for bearing witness and sharing what you’re seeing every day that we are too far away to see. We appreciate it and I love talking to you.

Matt Simmons Thank you. So I actually asked TC Energy many of the same questions Matt had asked them after Chief Namox was warned about being arrested if he crossed the line. These were questions Matt sent before the Narwhal published his story about the incident a week ago. I gave the company 5 hours to respond. They responded well after deadline, which is why I’m recording this on my phone in my car. I don’t know who sent the response. There was no name in the email. It said, this statement comes from Coastal GasLink. And I quote, it is our expectation this will be read in full and its entirety. So here’s their full statement. The safety of our workforce, contractors, local, indigenous and non-Indigenous community members and the public is paramount. An enforceable BC Supreme Court injunction is in place to support a safe working environment for the many indigenous and local women and men at our work sites. Coastal GasLink is lawful, authorized and fully permitted. It is now more than 75% complete and has the unprecedented support of Indigenous communities across the project route and whose members are working on the project. The majority of those communities have also signed equity option agreements to become owners in the project securities in place to protect our workforce and are required to control access for safety purposes. We have experienced unlawful and dangerous activities, including acts of violence that have put people, property, and the environment at risk. Safe access for community members is facilitated through a defined process that has been communicated to the office of the Wet’suwet’en and Hereditary Chiefs, elected Wet’suwet’en, leadership and House members. That was TC energy’s full statement to the Narwhal delivered after deadline.

Fatima Syed That was Matt Simmons, the Narwhals Northwest BC reporter. And that was officially the last episode of Narwhal week on The Big Story. Matt’s been trying to do this kind of journalism in a very remote community. He’s spent months bearing witness and trying to understand the history of Indigenous communities in the region and their relationship with Coastal Gasoline. He’s actually mapped it all out for you. Go check that out on the Narwhal CA. We’ve linked to some of his stories in the show notes like I’ve been saying all week. The Narwhal is a nonprofit journalism publication. We rely on the support of our over 4600 members in good times and bad. Last year, when our colleague Amber Bracken was arrested, it was those members that helped us fight the RCMP and get her out of jail and then publish the photos she took during the raid. If you want to support fearless and dedicated climate journalism, go to The Narwhal CA member, donate whatever you’re able. As a bonus, you’ll get a tax receipt and a gift like a toque or a Tshirt, along with immense gratitude from the entire team. If you want to see more conversations like the ones we brought about the climate emergency or literally anything else, please, please get in touch. We love an engaged audience. You can find a show on Twitter at thebictory FPN. They have an email. Hello at thebigstorypodcast CA. They even have a phone number 416-935-5935. The Big Story is literally everywhere on every single podcast app that exists in this world. So go there. Rate them. Tell your friend to listen. Make people listen in your car. Share it on WhatsApp. Whatever you guys do with podcasts, do it for The Big Story one last time. I’m Fatima Syed the Narwhal’s, Ontario reportor. I kept the microphone hot for Jordan Heath-Rawlings, who will be back on Monday. Please stay in touch and thank you so, so much for listening.