B.C. RCMP prepared to leave Wet'suwet'en traditional territory

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      Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says the Mounties are prepared to remove a temporary work station that's led to road, rail, and port blockade in different parts of Canada.

      Blair told reporters that the RCMP is willing to base its operations in the nearby town of Houston, B.C.

      “It’s moving towards a less confrontational and a more peaceable arrangement entirely appropriate to the circumstances, and I’m very hopeful that will satisfy the concerns that were raised,” Blair said.

      It would meet one demand of the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs.

      They have been refusing to meet federal and provincial meetings until the RCMP withdrew from their traditional territory.

      "We're not going to talk with guns pointed at our heads," Chief Woos told CBC.

      The Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs have also demanded that Coastal GasLInk withdraw from unceded land.

      In early January, they issued an eviction notice to the pipeline company.

      Today, the hereditary chiefs are visiting Mohawk territory in Ontario to thank people there for showing solidarity by setting up a camp beside a CN Rail line.

      Coastal GasLink persuaded a B.C. Supreme Court judge to extend an injunction in December, which led to RCMP raids earlier this month.

      The Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs have rejected the court ruling and continue to declare that the Coastal GasLink pipeline violates Wet'suwet'en law.

      Actions by the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs' sympathizers have alarmed Canada's business community because half of the freight in this country moves over the rails.

      There's a backlog of vessels in the waters off Vancouver, waiting to unload cargo at the country's busiest port.

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