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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/police-arrest-43-wet-suwet-en-solidarity-protesters-at-port-of-vancouver-1.4804941">https://bc.ctvnews.ca/police-arrest-43-wet-suwet-en-solidarity-protesters-at-port-of-vancouver-1.4804941</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Police arrest 43 Wet'suwet'en
solidarity protesters at Port of Vancouver</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Alyse Kotyk and Sheila Scott
- February 10, 2020<br>
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<p>VANCOUVER -- Protesters demonstrating in solidarity
with the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs opposed to a
major natural gas pipeline in northern B.C. were
arrested by the dozens Monday morning after blocking
access to the Port of Vancouver.</p>
<p> The Vancouver Police Department confirmed 43 people
were taken into custody as officers enforced a court
order to clear three entry points at the port.</p>
<p> "They refused to abide by the court order and did not
clear access to the port after requested by police. All
43 people have been released with conditions to abide by
the injunction," the department said in a news release.</p>
<p> The port entry points were cleared "without any major
incidents," according to police.</p>
<p> Protesters who oppose the Coastal GasLink pipeline
project began blocking both the Port of Vancouver and
Deltaport over the weekend. They were served with an
injunction on Sunday.</p>
<p> The situation remained fairly quiet outside the
Vancouver port overnight, however about two dozen
officers arrived at about 5 a.m. Monday and protesters
were warned that they needed to move off the road or
face arrest.</p>
<p> “What they’re doing is standing up for us,” said
protestor Jordan Hollarsmith. “What everyone here is
defending is the right to a clean, and healthy, and safe
future.”</p>
<p> After the warning was issued by police using a
loudspeaker, dozens moved to the sidewalk to continue
their demonstration, while a handful remained in the
middle of the road around a fire.</p>
<p> Arrests were made slowly over the course of several
hours, with some protestors being carried away by VPD
officers to a waiting police van.</p>
<p> While the protest remained mostly peaceful, at one
point glass was smashed near a VPD officer and fireworks
were shot into the air from the crowd.</p>
<p> By 7:30 a.m, only one protestor, identified by the
crowd as an Indigenous elder, remained at the sacred
fire in the intersection. A Vancouver police officer
spoke with the woman for several minutes as the crowd
shouted and chanted at police.</p>
<p> She was eventually put into a police vehicle and
driven away.</p>
<p> “Watching someone defend this land and being arrested
for it by the police was really difficult and really
upsetting,” said environmental activist Kristin Street.
“We are very angry. We are very upset. We are going to
do anything to make sure the marginalized voices in this
country that continue to be ignored are upheld in
whatever way we can.”</p>
<p> By 10 a.m., police had cleared the protesters and the
intersection was open again.</p>
<p> Another dozen protesters blocked Deltaport in Delta on
Sunday and the injunction was issued in response to an
application from the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and
B.C. Maritime Employers Association after more than 250
employees were unable to get to work.</p>
<p> Red Braid, a group that has associated themselves with
the protests outside Deltaport, posted on social media
that arrests were happening there as well on Monday
morning.</p>
<div data-attribute="embed_code">
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr" lang="en"> As the police drag our people
out of the circle and into police wagons, ALL we are
thinking of is the Wet’suwet’en facing Canada’s
domestic militia at the Unist’ot’en bridge. We are
one! We are indivisible! <a
href="https://t.co/DI2ACdUHJq">pic.twitter.com/DI2ACdUHJq</a></p>
— Red Braid Alliance for Decolonial Socialism
(@stopdisplacemnt) <a
href="https://twitter.com/stopdisplacemnt/status/1226886638204112897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February
10, 2020</a></blockquote>
</div>
<p> Delta police confirmed with CTV News Vancouver that
arrests were taking place, adding that officers spoke to
protesters "and offered them the opportunity to protest
at another, safe location nearby." Fourteen people were
arrested in total, police said. </p>
<p> The Metro Vancouver protests continued in conjunction
with demonstrations elsewhere across the country.
Indigenous youth and supporters continue to camp
overnight on the front steps of the B.C. legislature in
Victoria, and VIA Rail passenger train service was
cancelled on Sunday between Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa
because of a blockade in Belleville, Ont. in support of
the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs.</p>
<p> Local protestors are meeting Monday afternoon not talk
about what comes next, but say this likely won’t be the
last time people in Metro Vancouver feel the impact of
the controversial project.</p>
<p> Later Monday afternoon, a group of several hundred
protesters regrouped near Main and Hastings streets to
continue their demonstration. Vancouver police said the
moving protest was impacting traffic on the Downtown
Eastside.</p>
<p> “No one is backing down,” Street said. “We are in it
for the long haul.”</p>
<p> <em>With files from CTV News Vancouver's Ben Miljure </em></p>
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