The RCMP have moved in to enforce a court injunction against protesters who say they are defending the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s traditional territory by opposing the construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia.

One group that is part of an anti-pipeline campaign, the Unist’ot’en camp, said on its website that RCMP officers had arrested six people early Thursday. Unist’ot’en is affiliated with Dark House, one of 13 Wet’suwet’en hereditary house groups, which in turn fall under five clans.

Supporters of hereditary house groups were “removed from Wet’suwet’en territories in an aggressive pre-dawn raid by RCMP on behalf of Coastal GasLink,” the Unist’ot’en camp said.

Coastal GasLink’s $6.6-billion pipeline would transport natural gas from northeastern B.C. to Kitimat on the coast, where Royal Dutch Shell PLC-led LNG Canada has started building an $18-billion terminal that is slated to export liquefied natural gas to Asia by early 2025.

About 190 kilometres of the 670-kilometre pipeline route cross the Wet’suwet’en’s traditional territory.

British Columbia and Ottawa support the pipeline, as do all 20 of the elected First Nation councils along the route. But a group led by eight Wet’suwet’en hereditary house chiefs and their supporters are opposed.

The eight house chiefs say Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders, not elected councillors, have jurisdiction over unceded territory outside federal reserves.

The arrests took place just hours after the RCMP held a news conference to say officers would soon be enforcing a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that extended an injunction against blockades on a logging road that leads to construction sites for Coastal GasLink’s pipeline project.

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