The B.C. RCMP has assigned 40 investigators to the attack three months ago

Nearly three months after masked, axe-wielding assailants attacked a B.C. work camp in the dead of night, a team of more than 40 RCMP investigators have yet to announce any leads into the identities, funding or methods of those responsible.

On Feb. 17, between 20 and 40 masked attackers carrying torches, flare guns and axes swarmed a Coastal GasLink work camp near Houston, B.C., doing several million dollars in damage.

In the wake of the attack, a statement by B.C. Premier John Horgan called it a “violent and criminal act” and promised a “thorough investigation to identify and apprehend those responsible.” Within hours, the B.C. RCMP announced they had earmarked 40 investigators for the case.

Just last week, another violent incident — this time in Montreal — appeared to be linked to the Coastal GasLink project. A Jaguar and Land Rover parked in the driveway of RBC executive Michael Fortier were both lit on fire. Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal are currently investigating the arson’s connection to a string of recent vandalism incidents targeting the homes of RBC executives, ostensibly due to the bank’s financing of the Coastal GasLink project.

The Feb. 17 incident, which happened to occur during a brief period when the Emergencies Act was in force to clear anti-mandate blockades in Ottawa, was also prominently mentioned during last Wednesday’s Conservative leadership debate. When asked what he would do to counter illegal blockades, frontrunner Pierre Poilievre accused moderator Tom Clark of failing to mention “the axe-wielding terrorists who have been attacking our pipeline workers in Western Canada.”

No witnesses to the attack have spoken to the press or posted about their experience on social media, which Coastal GasLink says was done to protect their “safety and security” from possible retribution. Nevertheless, in a lengthy Feb. 20 blog post, the company published a witness account from a security worker identified only as “Trevor.”

Trevor described having his work truck surrounded by five figures who began swinging at the vehicle with axes, while another figure used a cordless angle grinder to cut through a security gate. “I heard smashes on the back tailgate and when I looked in my mirror I could see one of them was holding an axe,” he said.

RCMP officers responding to the attack found their progress slowed by trees felled across access roads, and police reported being taunted and hit by smoke bombs from the tree line while attempting to clear the obstructions with chainsaws.

“When the police gave chase, it appears as though they might have lulled us into a trap,” RCMP Chief Supt. Warren Brown said at a press briefing, adding that pursuing officers stepped on nail traps.

On Friday, an RCMP spokesperson told the National Post there were “no updates” on the investigation.

Several million dollars in damage was ultimately done, with a Coastal GasLink excavator apparently used to destroy trailers and parked equipment.

While the Feb. 17 attack represented an “amped-up level of violence,” according to police, it was far from the first time that Coastal GasLink operations has been interrupted by illegal agitation.

In November 2021, more than 500 Coastal GasLink employees in that same work camp became stranded after access roads were blocked by activists who used commandeered heavy equipment to trench road surfaces and erect blockades.

In that particular case, the blockaders made no attempts to conceal their identities or motives, and even established a protest encampment that was only cleared when forcibly dismantled by the RCMP. After multiple years of protests, the RCMP has spent roughly $21 million on policing and clearing blockades in the region.

Owned by Calgary-based TC Energy, the Coastal GasLink project is a $6.6-billion pipeline to connect northeastern B.C. natural gas fields with an LNG export facility in Kitimat, B.C.

The Coastal GasLink pipeline was the same project that, two years ago, prompted sustained countrywide road and rail blockades by anti-pipeline demonstrators. A subsequent accounting by the Parliamentary Budget Office estimated that the blockades caused an estimated $275 million in economic damage.

At issue was a faction of hereditary chiefs within the 3,200-member Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation who object to the pipeline running through their traditional territory. The pipeline has the support of the Wetʼsuwetʼen’s elected leadership.

In a December op-ed for the National Post, representatives of the Wet’suwet’en’s Gidimt’en Clan questioned the hereditary status that pipeline opponents were claiming for themselves, and condemned them for inviting “violent people into our territories.”

In the immediate aftermath of the November blockade, Wet’suwet’en chief Maureen Luggi similarly issued a statement saying the actions were contrary to the wishes of “most Wet’suwet’en people,” some of whom were among the workers trapped in the Coastal GasLink camp.

Nevertheless, among Coastal GasLink opponents, the Wetʼsuwetʼen’s anti-pipeline chiefs have often been portrayed as the community’s sole legitimate representatives.

In a March statement condemning Coastal GasLink, for instance, Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo dismissed the First Nation’s elected leadership as having been “put in place by the colonial government.”

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