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Protesters open second gate, give workers access to northern B.C. pipeline

Unist’ot’en camp complies with court injunction, allowing natural gas pipeline workers through
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Unist’ot’en barrier on Morice River in 2016. (Catherine Matheson photo)

Members of the Unist’ot’en camp south of Houston said Wednesday afternoon they are opening the gate to Coastal GasLink workers to comply with a court injunction.

“They do not want violence that happened in Gitdimt’en to repeat here. Many tears shed, many emotions,” read a Facebook post by the group at 4 p.m. “Police negotiating with Clan to possibly allow gate to stay up. This is not over.”

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The Gitdumden checkpoint further north on Morice River Road was set up days after the B.C. Supreme Court interim injunction in December by the neighbouring clan. It was taken down by RCMP Monday afternoon. Fourteen people were arrested and have since been released.

Coastal GasLink contractors then removed other barriers across the road on the way to the Unist’ot’en camp.

The hereditary chiefs of the Office of the Wet’suwet’en have said they support the Unist’ot’en camp’s effort to stop the construction of the natural gas pipeline leading to the planned LNG Canada terminal in Kitimat.

The named defendants in the injunction have until Jan. 31 to respond, with a more long-term decision to be made by May.