Wet´suwet´en and Coastal GasLink head to the bargaining table
(The Star Fashion & Style)

SMITHERS—Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and representatives of Coastal GasLink are headed to the bargaining table Thursday morning to talk over a temporary deal to allow pipeline company workers to enter their traditional territories, and to prevent more police action against land defenders.The tentative deal was struck Wednesday night between Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and the RCMP at the Unist’ot’en camp, roughly 65 kilometres outside Houston, B.C. The Wet’suwet’en leaders want to prevent a repeat of Monday’s terrifying ordeal, when dozens of armed police officers overran the Gidimt’en checkpoint at kilometre 44 of Morice West Forest Service Road and arrested 14 people.They also want to ensure the healing lodge at Unist’ot’en — built almost a decade ago to provide support services for Wet’suwet’en nation members — would not be affected if the police decide to enforce a B.C. Supreme Court injunction against the checkpoint set up on a bridge near the lodge by Wet’suwet’en land defenders. The barricade consists of a barbed-wire topped gate with trucks and cars parked behind it.The lodge was not part of the Dec. 14 injunction granted to Coastal GasLink, which gave the Unist’ot’en camp 72 hours to remove the gate so the company could start work on a 670-kilometre pipeline to bring natural gas from the Dawson Creek area to an export facility to be built in Kitimat. It wasn’t until a second barricade was set up across the same road at the Gidimt’en camp in January that police decided to the enforce the injunction, which had been amended to include the new barricade. Read more:RCMP and Wet’suwet’en chiefs strike tentative dealHere’s what you need to know about the Wet’suwet’en protestsWet’suwet’en land defenders rally after 14 arrests, retreat from Gidimt’en checkpoint: ‘We l ...