Gitxsan hereditary chiefs recently marched from the Vancouver Art Gallery to the provincial courthouse in Vancouver, advocating for the disbandment of the RCMP’s task force focused on resource projects such as the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Currently, Gitxsan land is a passing point for industry workers, specifically those in the forestry sector and resource extraction. “The systemic investigation will identify the extent to which C–IRG’s operations and actions meet, reflect, consider or are consistent with the standards and expectations set by Bill C-15, An Act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples , the British Columbia Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and the calls for justice from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry ,” the federal government said in a statement at the time.
In an email, Staff-Sgt. Kris Clark, a senior spokesperson for the RCMP, said deploying the C-IRG is a “last resort” and deploying the group during the Coastal GasLink protests was a necessity.