By Matteo Cimellaro, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Mining projects and protected land can co-exist, two provincial environment ministers said at a press conference on Friday after two days of meetings with their counterparts from across the country.
Continue reading Mining and conservation can go hand in hand, environment ministers say
Green Party leader Elizabeth May flew in from Ottawa on Saturday, May 6. She was the feature speaker at the North Island – Powell River Electoral District Association (EDA) AGM at the Maritime Heritage Centre in Campbell River. Around 60 people from Campbell River, Comox, Powell River, Port McNeil, Quadra Island and Cortes Island were in attendance.
This is an edited transcript of her speech, and a couple of excerpts from the subsequent remarks made by local Green Party candidate Jessica Wegg.
Continue reading Elizabeth May comes to Campbell River: Why Greens matter
By Kaitlyn Bailey, Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The B.C. RCMP will not respect a ban from the Gitxsan hereditary chiefs which prohibits the police force’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) from entering their traditional territories.
In an email to Black Press Media, Sgt. Kris Clark wrote that while the B.C. RCMP will “do everything possible” to respect the ban, they have obligations and responsibilities to enforce court injunctions and maintain public safety.
The C-IRG unit is “uniquely situated” to do these tasks through specific training and resources, Clark stated.
Continue reading RCMP do not agree to abide by Gitxsan chiefs’ ban on ‘militarized squadron’
By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
On a dreary gray day in late October, passers by gawked at a scene outside a hotel in Smithers, B.C. The charred remnants of several trucks sat in the parking lot in the wake of what police described as a “targeted attack” in the pre-dawn hours of the morning.
Among the blackened wreckage were four police cruisers — marked and unmarked vehicles with the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group, a special task force assigned to police opposition to industrial projects. The controversial RCMP unit maintains a constant presence on Wet’suwet’en yintah (territory) where Coastal GasLink (CGL) is building a pipeline without the consent of the nation’s Hereditary Chiefs.
Continue reading ‘We should avoid monitoring’: feds quietly backed off while Coastal GasLink pipeline work killed fish
By Jen Osborne / Rochelle Baker, National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
At least one police officer joined protesters, journalists and politicians raising alarm bells over RCMP enforcement tactics during the peak of conflict at the Fairy Creek old-growth blockades in B.C. during the summer of 2021.
The officer, a former member of the RCMP’s specialized team that deals with resource extraction protests, resigned from the task force over concerns about “unjustifiable” police behaviour during an August crackdown on activists, a freedom-of-information (FOI) request shows.
Continue reading Police officer quits task force over concerns about RCMP tactics at Fairy Creek
