Blockade set up in Brantford to protest B.C. pipeline

A group of protestors has blocked off two main roads in Brantford to protest a pipeline in British Columbia.

Dozens of people showed up early Friday to set up a blockade at the intersection of Cockshutt Rd. and Highway 18.

The Ontario Provincial Police warned drivers there may be delays along provincial highways as Indigenous protesters took to the road in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation.

A convoy of protestors has been travelling down the highways at slow speeds to show support for the community. Police say the convoys are moving as slow as 50 kilometres an hour and have caused some short-term traffic backups.

Indigenous communities gathering on Six Nations & blocking traffic in solidarity with BC pipeline protest @CHCHNews 6pm full story pic.twitter.com/XjAiIY95B9

— Lisa Hepfner (@LisaHepfnerCHCH) January 11, 2019

The First Nation community in B.C. was fighting to protect their land from workers set to begin construction on the TransCanada Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Fourteen people were arrested on Monday and RCMP dismantled a nearby checkpoint erected by Wet’suwet’en members who say the company does not have the authority to work there with consent from the hereditary clan chiefs.

On Thursday, a deal was reached between the RCMP and the First Nation community that will allow a natural gas company access across a bridge that had been blocked in their territory in northern B.C.

According to The Canadian Press, the two sides met to discuss a Unist’ot’en healing camp, which they wanted left undisturbed as Coastal GasLink workers and contractors work on a natural gas pipeline.