Caitlin Francis

Topic

Critical Infrastructure Protection or Persuasion? The Hegemonic and Repressive Function of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police during the Coastal Gaslink Flashpoint

Department of Sociology

Date & location

• Friday, September 6, 2024
• 10:00 A.M.
• Cornett Building, Room A317

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. William Carroll, Department of Sociology, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
• Dr. Midori Ogasawara, Department of Sociology, UVic (Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Kara Shaw, School of Environmental Studies, UVic

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Heather Castleden, School of Public Administration, UVic

Abstract

Throughout the Canadian settler-colonial project, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has been a dominant police force within critical infrastructure protection (CIP). CIP, often focused on the securitization of resource extraction projects, repeatedly confronts Indigenous dissent and Indigenous assertion of sovereignty since many resource projects fail to achieve consent. In adherence with the RCMP’s historical role, a division of the British Columbia RCMP, Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), was specifically created to police pipeline projects. This project looks at the roles the RCMP, and consequently, C-IRG, perform during the Coastal Gaslink (CGL) pipeline project (constructed by TC Energy), which trespasses through unceded Wet’suwet’en land without consent.

Existing research has extensively mapped out the power of the Canadian fossil fuel industry and the surveillance apparatus of (CIP); this research project aims to shed light on the RCMP’s role and relationship with the fossil fuel industry under the umbrella of CIP. In order to better understand C-IRG and the RCMP’s role within CIP, Freedom of Information (FOI) and Access to Information (ATI) requests were submitted to multiple government organizations. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was employed to unpack underlying assumptions within the RCMP’s text and connect CIP discourse to structures of power. The findings from this thesis project reveal the hegemonic and repressive role of C-IRG during the CGL flashpoint while simultaneously exploring the supporting role of fossil fuel allies within the media. The insight into C-IRG's duality as both an ideological and repressive force arrives at a significant time, as C-IRG, newly renamed as Critical Response Unit-British Columbia (CRU-BC), has begun a function creep, policing beyond dissent to extractive projects.