Smithers Interior News, September 02, 2015

Page 1

InteriorNEWS THE

108th Year - Week 35

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

www.interior-news.com

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The 96th Bulkley Valley Exhbition took Smithers by storm despite uncooperative weather. People from in and out of town enjoyed new additions as well as traditional mainstays of the Exhibition. See more on the event on page A21. Xuyun Zeng photo

Unist’ot’en raid fears By Alicia Bridges Smithers/Interior News

The RCMP last week played down claims it was planning mass arrests at the Unist’ot’en camp, where protestors are blocking multiple pipeline proponents from accessing their traditional territory. Chevron, TransCanada and Enbridge all plan to build pipelines which would cross Unist’ot’en land, however members of the house group say they do not have consent to access the land. The house group, which is part of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, set up the camp to block road access to the territory, preventing pipeline workers from carrying out field work or construction.

Last Thursday camp members issued a joint statement with the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs claiming members were preparing for a “large-scale RCMP mass arrest operation”. Based on information from camp members, B.C. Civil Liberties Association wrote to the RCMP that day to warn against raiding the camp. A further letter with more than fifty signatories was sent by camp supporters to police and the federal and provincial governments. Camp spokesperson Freda Huson told The Interior News a police source had leaked information about a possible raid at the camp south of Houston. “Somebody inside leaked out that they are planning to take down the camp,” she said. See DEBATE on A5

By Chris Gareau Smithers/Interior News

TransCanada’s Coastal GasLink pipeline project president Richard Gateman said the company has an alternate route that would avoid the main Unist’ot’en camp and stay out of the southern watershed of the Morice River. The plan would require more work on Unist’ot’en territory to finish environmental and

archeological work Gateman said is mostly done along the rest of the 670 km route from northeast B.C. Construction is still about a year away. “We won’t start until after final investment decision [from investors Shell, Kogas, Petro China and Mitsubishi] ... If that decision is made in the early spring, we likely won’t be on the right-of-way doing clearing until late summer or the fall — we have restrictions with nesting birds,” said Gateman. See PIPELINE on A5

RESTAURANT BOOM The Smithers dining scene is growing, but is it sustainable?

CENTURY OF SERVICE Lumberyard celebrates 100 years.

JUNIOR GOLFERS Young golfers embrace a tournament experience in Smithers.

NEWS/A3

OUR TOWN/A10

SPORT/A11

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Minute Maid Juices or Nestea see last page in A

Coastal GasLink offers alternate route

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