by Andru McCracken
A group calling themselves the Tiny House Warriors have been evicted from Wells Gray Park after one of their leaders, Kanahus Manuel, was arrested briefly by the RCMP.
Manuel said her group was forcibly displaced to the side of Highway 5 three kilometres south of the Secwepemc village site.
Manuel and the Tiny House Warriors are protesting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and also the camps that are going to be set up to house workers.
After the eviction, they are moving north, to Blue River.
“Tiny House Warriors are now in Blue River at the site of the proposed Blue River Man Camp, in which BC oil and gas commission eagerly issued this illegal permit to construct this man camp to house 1000 transient industry men,” said Manuel in a Facebook post on Monday.
Manuel said the camps correspond to an increase in violence against women.
“It is imperative that we stand up and stop these Trans Mountain pipeline man camps,” she said.
There have been confrontations caught on video, many recorded or live-streamed by Manuel herself, including one of her arrest by RCMP.
Another video recorded by former editor of the Clearwater Times Keith McNeil, showed a lively confrontation. McNeil had noticed the protestors had dug a hole near the side of the road and he went to find out its purpose. Manuel and other protestors assailed McNeil for asking what they were doing and called McNeil a white supremacist. McNeil said he was just trying to find out what the hole was for.
Simpcw Chief Shelly Loring said the protestors didn’t ask her band for permission to hold the protest in Simpcw territory or follow proper protocol according to a story by CFJC Today.
“When we enter into someone else’s land, we come and say ‘this is what we’re going to be doing,” Loring said. “We ask permission… in a respectful manner. We follow those protocols, and the protocols have not been followed in this instance.”
The Tiny House Warriors say they are on a mission to stop the Kinder Morgan TransMountain pipeline from crossing unceded Secwepemc Territory.
Their plan is to move 10 tiny houses on to the 518 km TransMountain pipeline route to assert Secwepemc Law and jurisdiction.
“This is one of the most serious threats to our Territories. We have never provided and will never provide our collective free, prior and informed consent – the minimal international standard – to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Project.”
The protestors say they will also protest the camp proposed for Valemount.
