Supporters of B.C. pipeline opponents plan 'government shutdown' in Victoria
Credit to Author: Nick Eagland| Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2020 01:32:01 +0000
More than 400 demonstrators are expected to blockade government buildings in Victoria on Friday in a show of solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and their supporters who oppose the proposed routing of a natural gas pipeline.
Officials said they have plans in place to protect the public and staff during the so-called “B.C. government shutdown,” but would not provide details or say whether they could prevent the shutdown.
Organizers had been circulating a public sign-up sheet which showed that demonstrators planned to prevent employees from entering 33 government offices in Victoria.
The document said organizers needed 474 picketers. Close to that number had signed up by Thursday afternoon.
The province, city and police would not say how, exactly, they planned to approach the picketers, who planned to assemble outside the doors of more than 20 ministerial offices, the B.C. Public Service Agency, B.C. Pension Corporation and other buildings.
In Vancouver on Thursday, several dozen demonstrators briefly occupied the constituency offer of Attorney General David Eby. They left Thursday afternoon after leaving a note of demands on Eby’s desk.
Protesters’ spokesman Herb Varley said they wanted to highlight Eby’s participation in what he called the “ongoing genocide of Indigenous Peoples.”
Back in Victoria, Morgan Mowatt, a PhD student at the University of Victoria and member of the Gitxsan First Nation, said she will participate in the shutdown Friday.
“I’m participating because I have a deep respect for the hereditary chiefs and I know their authority, and I’m also participating out of love for the future generations,” she said.
The plan is to block government employees from entering their offices from 8 a.m. to noon, she said. Organizers have been speaking with union representatives and made efforts to be transparent about their plans, she added.
“We’re picketing specific B.C. government buildings, so this isn’t meant to be a massive public inconvenience,” she said. “We’re operating from a point of love and care for future generations and so we are completely nonviolent. There is no intention, at any point in the future, to escalate this to anything more than peaceful demonstrations and support.”
The Coastal GasLink pipeline project is supported by five of six elected Wet’suwet’en band councils, representing a quarter of the B.C. First Nations bands that have signed letters of support for the pipeline in exchange for financial, employment and training benefits.
The company has promised $1 billion in benefits to First Nations along the 670 km route.
The work site on the remote Morice River logging road southwest of Houston B.C. has become a flashpoint of Canada-wide demonstrations over the past two months.
The Ministry of Finance, responsible for the B.C. Public Service Agency which employs 31,000 people across the province, sent a statement saying it was working to ensure the public will be served and staff will be kept safe in Victoria on Friday.
“British Columbians have the right to free speech and a peaceful protest,” the ministry said.
“It is also important that public service employees — who work every day to deliver the services that British Columbians depend on — are not subject to verbal, physical or emotional abuse. We will not ask public servants to put themselves into any situation where they do not feel safe. Safety is our top priority.”
The ministry said government wouldn’t publicize what measures it has in place to secure the government buildings.
“Officers and resources are being deployed in anticipation of these actions,” Victoria police said in a statement. “Our primary duty is public safety.”
The department has only about 240 officers.
Police said they will post information about traffic disruptions and the demonstrations on the department’s Twitter account.
Over at the B.C. legislature, Speaker Darryl Plecas requested and was granted an injunction against further blockades at the legislature in Victoria. Justice Gordon Weatherill of the B.C. Supreme Court said his ruling authorizes police to arrest and remove people blocking entrances at the legislature.
Hundreds of demonstrators attempted to prevent public servants, politicians and media from entering the legislature earlier this week.
Weatherill cited social media posts about Friday’s government shutdown in his decision to grant the injunction. The justice said the court is concerned that demonstrators at the legislature blocked entrances, covered closed circuit cameras and aggressively harassed people at the building.
With files from The Canadian Press and David Carrigg