The gate on the bridge at the Unist’ot’en Camp is now open.
“Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs will open gate and comply with injunction,” reads a post on the Unist’ot’en Camp Facebook page. “They do not want violence that happened in Gidumt’en to repeat here. Many tears shed, many emotions. Police negotiating with Unist’ot’en Clan to possibly allow gate to stay up. This is not over.”
Fourteen people were arrested Monday as police enforced a court injunction to remove blockades on the Morice West Forest Service Road south of Houston preventing work from beginning on a Coastal GasLink pipeline from Dawson Creek to Kitimat.
The Unist’ot’en Camp was erected in 2012 by the Wetsuwet’en to oppose pipelines in the Indigenous community’s traditional territory. On December 14, Coastal GasLink was granted an injunction allowing access to the area to start work on the pipeline, which would transport natural gas from Dawson Creek to Kitimat. A second blockade was also erected at the Gitimt’en camp, several kilometres from the Unist’ot’en Camp at the Morice River Bridge.