RCMP REBRAND: SAME VIOLENCE, NEW NAME
rcmp cirg indigenousThe RCMP’s shift from C-IRG to CRU-BC is a public relations tactic meant to distance the force from its violent history, especially its targeting of Indigenous land defenders. The tactics remain the same. Only the branding has changed.
$50 MILLION TO CRIMINALIZE LAND DEFENDERS
Since its creation, C-IRG/CRU-BC has spent nearly $50 million to monitor, surveil, and criminalize people defending land and sovereignty. This is state violence carried out in defense of corporate extraction projects.
C-IRG: POLICING INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
Created in response to Indigenous resistance against the Trans Mountain pipeline, C-IRG was specifically designed to counter Indigenous-led opposition to resource extraction. This is not “community safety.” It is militarized colonial enforcement.
INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE TREATED AS A THREAT
The RCMP has repeatedly framed Indigenous land defenders as criminal threats rather than people defending inherent rights and sovereignty. The goal has been to suppress resistance and protect state and corporate interests.
MILITARIZED POLICING OF INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS
The RCMP’s response to Indigenous activism has included armed raids, forced evictions, sniper deployment, helicopter surveillance, and militarized tactical operations against unarmed people defending their land.
RCMP VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
The RCMP’s violence against Indigenous communities is not historical. Indigenous people continue to experience police violence, deaths in custody, surveillance, and criminalization tied to land defense and resistance movements.
C-IRG: CREATED TO PROTECT PIPELINES
C-IRG was modeled after policing responses to resistance movements like Standing Rock. The RCMP feared similar organizing against the Trans Mountain pipeline and built a specialized unit to suppress Indigenous-led opposition.
SYSTEMIC ABUSE IS THE ISSUE
Changing the name from C-IRG to CRU-BC does not erase years of misconduct, civil rights violations, and abuse allegations. The problem is systemic violence and colonial policing practices, not branding.
MISSION DRIFT AND EXPANDED SURVEILLANCE
What began as a unit focused on Trans Mountain protests has expanded into broader surveillance and policing of resistance to resource extraction projects across British Columbia.
SURVEILLANCE AND INTIMIDATION
Indigenous activists and land defenders have long faced RCMP surveillance, profiling, harassment, and intimidation. These tactics are designed to silence resistance and protect corporate and colonial interests.
MOCKING AND DEGRADING ACTIVISTS
Reports of RCMP officers mocking and degrading Indigenous activists reveal a culture that treats land defenders with hostility and contempt rather than respecting Indigenous rights and dignity.
TARGETING INDIGENOUS LAND DEFENDERS
From Wet’suwet’en territory to Fairy Creek, RCMP operations have consistently targeted Indigenous land defenders while prioritizing corporate access to land and resources.
THE RCMP’S ROLE IN ENFORCING COLONIALISM
The RCMP was created as a colonial force and continues to play a central role in enforcing settler colonial control, suppressing dissent, and protecting extractive industries.
CRIMINALIZING LAND AND SOVEREIGNTY
C-IRG/CRU-BC is not simply policing protests. It is policing Indigenous sovereignty and resistance to colonial occupation and extraction.
ABOLISH THE RCMP. SUPPORT INDIGENOUS LAND DEFENDERS
A rebrand cannot fix systemic violence. Indigenous struggles for land, sovereignty, and liberation are not crimes. Supporting land defenders means confronting the colonial systems that criminalize them.
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