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Photos: Singing in Defiance of Arrest at the Last Wet’suwet’en Post

Scenes from the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre.

Amanda Follett Hosgood 11 Feb 2020TheTyee.ca

Amanda Follett Hosgood lives and writes amidst the stunning mountains and rivers of Wet’suwet’en territory. She is reporting from the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre camp. Find her on Twitter @amandajfollett.

“Shame on you guys. Shame on you. Shame on you,” Freda Huson (Howilhkat) told RCMP officers moments before her arrest yesterday.

Huson was one of seven people taken into custody Monday at the Unist’ot’en Healing Centre in northwestern B.C., where Huson is director.

The events were the last in a series of RCMP actions against several encampments and protest sites in the region.

Land defenders such as Huson are resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which would bring gas from northeast B.C. to an LNG plant on the coast.

Amanda Follett Hosgood was on the scene at the healing centre, providing this report.

Further images from the day follow.

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Huson was the last person singing by the fire when she was arrested by police. RCMP included tactical squad officers armed with rifles and handlers with dogs, arriving in a convoy of more than 30 vehicles as a helicopter circled overhead.
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Huson continued to sing even as officers led her away.
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An RCMP officer forces media back as arrestees, in the top right of the photo, are processed.
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Coastal GasLink workers disassemble a ceremonial structure used by the Unist’ot’en matriarchs as an RCMP officer tells media to stand back.
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A legal observer retrieves the regalia belonging to Brenda Michell, Chief Geltiy, as she’s loaded into a police van.
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RCMP officers with a police dog stand guard as CGL workers disassemble a gate blocking access to the Morice River bridge.
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A worker removes red dresses hung to commemorate missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
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Industry workers remove ceremonial fire. Following arrests, more workers in high-visibility gear assist a backhoe that clears the bridge. When asked if they were with CGL, they said, ‘No comment.’
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Aftermath at the gate, which RCMP cut through with a chainsaw.
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