Ben & Jerry’s wants this contentious RCMP unit abolished

Ben & Jerry’s Canada is joining a chorus of Indigenous leaders, human rights groups and others calling for the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) to be disbanded.

On Wednesday, the ice cream giant signed onto an open letter detailing allegations against the C-IRG that urges Canada, British Columbia and the RCMP to suspend all of its activities. The C-IRG is a contentious unit, as thoroughly documented by APTN, formed in 2017 to specifically police energy and resource projects. It has most famously been deployed against protesters trying to stop old-growth logging at Fairy Creek and Wet’suwet’en resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline being built through the nation’s unceded territory.

While the RCMP’s oversight body, called the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, launches a systemic investigation into C-IRG, the open letter says reforming the unit won’t go far enough.

“There is no set of reforms that would make it acceptable for Canada to have a paramilitary force designed specifically to manage the assertion of inherent and constitutionally protected Indigenous rights in the face of unwanted development,” the letter reads. “The C-IRG should not exist, and it needs to be disbanded entirely.”

That letter was delivered to the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa on Wednesday following a brief demonstration outside. It was signed by Wet’suwet’en hereditary Chief Na’moks and Gidimt’en Checkpoint spokesperson Sleydo’ as well as over 50 groups, including Tiny House Warriors, Idle No More, Indigenous Climate Action, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, MiningWatch Canada, Greenpeace Canada and others.

The RCMP did not immediately return a request for comment.

Ben & Jerry’s Canada confirmed its support for abolishing the C-IRG to Canada’s National Observer.

“The Community-Industry Response Group was established to quash Indigenous resistance along pipeline routes, and as a result, has literally been evicting Indigenous peoples off their own land,” said Maryam Adrangi, the company’s Canadian activism manager.

“They have since expanded and demonstrated that they are willing to use an egregious amount of force against people protecting their land… Speaking out against C-IRG and alongside impacted peoples, legal associations, and social justice organizations to shed light on these abuses is completely aligned with our core values as a company.”

In a statement, Union of BC Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip threw his support behind the movement to abolish C-IRG.

“Corporate and colonial greed is what drove the C-IRG to unceded territories; lands that the provincial and federal government do not have jurisdiction to,” he said. “We cannot allow colonial actors to continue enacting colonial violence on First Nations people on First Nations lands.”