RCMP responds to report of 'lethal overwatch' plan at pipeline protest

A checkpoint is seen at a bridge leading to the Unist'ot'en camp on a remote logging road near Houston, B.C., on Thursday January 17, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Vancouver — The RCMP is defending its response to a pipeline protest on Indigenous territory after a newspaper report alleged some within the force had argued in favour of sending snipers to the scene.

In a story published Friday, The Guardian cited "notes from a strategy session" about how to approach the blockade set up by Wet'suwet'en protesters, who were trying to prevent the construction of a natural gas pipeline on their lands. Officers ultimately arrested 14 people at the site back in January.

CTV News has not viewed the documents cited in the article.

On Monday, RCMP assistant commissioner Dwayne McDonald issued a statement to the media slamming The Guardian's coverage as "unsubstantiated, incomplete and inflammatory."

McDonald also argued some terms used by the newspaper were taken out of context, including "lethal overwatch."

In The Guardian story, lethal overwatch is defined as "a term for deploying snipers." McDonald said it's used by police around the world to mean "an observation position taken by armed police officers, to ensure police and public safety."

McDonald said officers in this observation position are covering other police officers who are “occupied with other duties such as crowd control, barrier removal or arrest and who may not be able to access their police equipment to protect themselves from any harm.”

McDonald said the term doesn’t indicate that the armed police officer taking such an observation position will act – but they will “use lawful force should a threat present itself.”

The RCMP also released a list of the force's responses sent to The Guardian as the publication prepared to report on the documents. In those responses, the RCMP said it sent additional police resources, including members of the Tactical and Emergency Response Teams.

"To give context, the term 'sniper' is a specific position that a member of the Emergency Response Team holds," the RCMP explained. "We sent a contingent of ERT team to assist on January 7, 2019, and that contingent consisted of members holding various positions. Examples of general positions in an ERT team include 'sniper observer,' 'breacher,' or sub-teams like the aerial extraction team. When we send an ERT team to a scene, we don’t pick and choose which members holding particular positions are deployed, but rather a whole team consisting of all sorts of roles."

McDonald said the RCMP was not given a chance to look at the documents obtained by The Guardian before publication, and claimed the reporting has damaged the police force’s relationships with Indigenous people.

The office of Canada’s federal public safety minister, Bill Blair, said on Monday that ministry staff have spoken to the RCMP over concerns about the language The Guardian reported the force used while planning their response to the blockade and the court injunction.

"We are committed to protecting the constitutional right to peaceful protest and are concerned by the unacceptable words and phrases that the Guardian reported were used," Blair's spokesman Scott Bardsley said in an email.

The federal New Democrats have also called for a full investigation by Blair’s office and the RCMP’s civilian review.

With files from The Canadian Press