By Shiri Pasternak and Tia Dafnos
Attribution: Written and compiled by Shiri Pasternak and Tia Dafnos. Adapted from an article published by the National Observer with files from Tim Groves
What is the C-IRG?
The RCMP’S Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) was created at the tail end of 2016 to manage resistance to the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline and the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. But the C-IRG has since expanded to cover other conflicts and regions in British Columbia (BC) and it has been mired in controversy since its inception.
Two components of this RCMP unit distinguish it from others. The first is that this unit polices conflicts specifically related to industrial resource extraction projects. The second is that the unit operates under a command structure that was designed to handle what are known as “major incidents.” These incidents, such as the Olympic Games, require emergency safety and negotiation protocols and exceptional levers of coordination across the force and relevant agencies, Ministries, and government offices.
The emergencies that the C-IRG manages, though, have been primarily the enforcement of corporate injunctions against Indigenous people and environmental activists at extractive sites. The emergency structure is now a permanent police force in the province.
What the C-IRG does
If anything, the C-IRG appears to be exceeding, expanding, and consolidating its power, as a recent boost in funding shows. This is a concern to those who see the C-IRG as a response to underlying political crises around Indigenous land rights and climate action.
The C-IRG has targeted the peaceful occupations of the Unist’ot’en and Gidimt’en clans of the Wet’suwet’en nation, Gitskan solidarity blockades in New Hazelton, Secwepemc land defenders against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, conservationists at Argenta and Johnsons Landing Face, and anti-logging activists at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island.
The C-IRG structure is a massive, volunteer redeployment scheme. Located within ‘E’ Division of the RCMP, which is the Provincial Police of BC, its Gold-Silver-Bronze (GSB) command structure organizes and executes this coordination across regional detachments. The logic of the GSB system is that it prescribes a hierarchical chain of command structure to coordinate policing as an integrated response.
The Gold Commander determines the strategic plan for C-IRG’s policing operations reports to and coordinates with higher leadership in the RCMP and government.The Silver Commander creates operational plans to execute the Gold Commander’s strategic objectives. This requires powers to deploy officers as needed from dozens of local detachments, forming Quick Response Teams (QRTs).
Silver Command must also manage the deployment of specialized units, such as the Divisional Liaison Team (DLT) (mediation and de-escalation), Tactical Troop Public Order Unit (crowd control), and Emergency Response Teams (high-risk tactical unit)..
Bronze Command is organized both geographically and functionally. There are North, South-East, Island District, and Sub-bronze (detachment level) commanders. Bronze commanders may have responsibility for specific tasks and units, such as intelligence, DLT, the Division Emergency Operations Centre, and marine unit.
Under the Provincial Police Service Agreement, the BC Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General is responsible for ‘E’ Division. It authorizes the additional resources required and redeployment of municipal officers.
The politics of C-IRG
Underlying C-IRG’s operations are injunctions. In 2019, the Yellowhead Institute ran a national study of over 100 injunctions. It found that from the years 1973-2019, 76 percent of injunctions filed against First Nations by corporations were granted, while First Nations were successful against corporations only 19 percent of the time.
The study found that the injunction test itself is biased against Indigenous peoples. Further research shows that the test for “irreparable harm” tends to be measured in lost profits and jobs, rather than in terms of environmental and cultural damage to Indigenous lands. The “balance of convenience” test tends to weigh corporate interests above Indigenous interests, since they represent the “maintenance of the status quo” and do not challenge provincial authority to lease and permit these projects.
These injunctions provide the context for C-IRG’s “measured response” and the role of liaison officers – interconnected components that are often emphasized as features of the unit’s claim of being “impartial”. The RCMP adopted the measured response and use of liaisons throughout the organization after significant criticism of its actions at Ts’Peten (Gustafsen Lake) in 1995 and the 1997 APEC summit. The measured response approach uses proactive, communication based strategies to try and preempt ‘disruption’. Towards this, C-IRG relies on DLT officers to attempt to build ‘relationships’ with community members and activists. Underlying this “soft policing” approach is the reality that these channels of communication are ways to collect information, and that ‘failure’ to stand down becomes justification to escalate the policing response.
The reason C-IRG needs to be abolished
A long track record shows that the C-IRG unit appears impervious to criticism and taking accountability for unlawful conduct. As early as 2020, the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) submitted a complaint to the CRCC for the RCMP concerning C-IRG’s implementation and enforcement of a checkpoint and exclusion zone in Wet’suwet’en territory. The BCCLA alleged that the zones constituted “improper and unlawful actions” of “overbroad scope.” They had to file another complaint in 2021 and 2022 to challenge these same tactics at Fairy Creek and at Argenta Landing.
In 2021, Teal-Cedar’s request to extend its injunction against Fairy Creek activists was denied citing “substantial infringement of civil liberties” conducted by the C-IRG. By 2022, then, it is not surprising that the CRCC received over 500 complaints in areas where C-IRG is active. Only a handful were ever investigated. The Gidimt’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation took matters into their own hands that year, as well, filing a civil suit against the RCMP, the Minister of Justice, and CGL’s private security force, Forsythe Security that covers hundreds of incidents of C-IRG harassment, including theft, intimidation, surveillance, targeting, and unlawful arrests in their camp.
In March 2023, the CRCC finally agreed to a Systemic Review of C-IRG, bowing to pressure from land defenders at Fairy Creek, Wet’suwet’en, and Argenta Landing. By then, journalists had also joined to file a lawsuit against the RCMP. The CRCC’s recent announcement that they will conduct a Systemic Review of the force is unlikely to challenge what the courts, United Nations, and hundreds of complaints could not. The Abolish C-IRG coalition recently released a letter, criticizing the weak process and demanding an immediate suspension of the force while the review was underway.
International human rights bodies also seemed unable to elicit any kind of political accountability from the federal and provincial governments. The United Nations has issued three rebukes against the governments of Canada and BC, alleging that the police “have escalated their use of force, surveillance, and criminalization of land defenders to intimidate, remove and forcibly evict Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en Nations from their traditional lands.” As well, a scathing report was released by the Special UN Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples on the use of police forces in Wet’suwet’en territory.