James McIntyre was shot outside an open house for a dam project, “Site C” for the dam. You know, those open houses they hold to tell the public what they’re going to do before they do it… There was an investigation of the shooting by Canada’s “Independent Investigations Office,” and I’d had an alert and checked now and then, particularly a year after the shooting, but didn’t find the articles on the IIO’s November release of information until yesterday! Here’s the report from the IIO:
07-16-2015-Dawson-Creek-Firearm-Death-2015-000104
Here are some press write ups:
Police ‘begged’ Site C activist to put down knife before shooting him, witness says
IIO clears RCMP in shooting of James McIntyre
RCMP officers cleared in shooting death of Site C protester in Dawson Creek
Look at the way the press framed this article:
RCMP officer cleared in shooting death of B.C. activist that sparked Anonymous revenge campaign
This shooting of McIntyre hit home for me because of my routine of going to the open houses and hanging out at the door, and I know so well how angry people get when there’s infrastructure proposed in their community, on their land. They published my LTE about this in the Alaska Highway News:
UTILITY INFRASTRUCTURE LEAVES DEEP IMPACTS
Your coverage of the RCMP shooting of James McIntyre has been thorough in this general dearth of information.
I’ve spent the last 20 years advocating against utility infrastructure in the U.S., and the killing of McIntyre by RCMP is horrifying.
A big part of my schtick is to stand at the door (not inside where I’d be “interfering”) and enthusiastically greet everyone, hand them a flyer about how to participate, and direct them to the meeting. Had I been at that open house, I’d be the one they found at the door. Had they told me to leave, I’d have argued and resisted, as always, ramping up if they pushed.
In my experience, utilities have now and then requested police presence, and when I see it, I let the organizers know it’s offensive and off putting, chilling public participation. People have a right to speak out against a project, and they have a right to be angry! I talk to the officers too, find out if I can who wanted them there, and let them know it’s inhibiting and threatening to the public. I figure they just add me to their list of people to watch. But this atmosphere of blind fear is not acceptable. Don’t Canadians have a right to free speech? Civil disobedience is an appropriate response. Civil disobedience is NOT a death sentence with law enforcement as judge, jury and executioner.
People are being steam-rolled by utility infrastructure projects such as dams, transmission lines, and pipelines, and no one wants to hear about it. They want opposition to just go away. People are losing their land, communities are deeply affected, and those affected are not compensated sufficiently to make it acceptable — and money is not the answer to everything!
Is the Site C project worth the impacts? Is generating electricity and profiting from it sufficient reason to inflict these impacts, including this death? Maybe BC Hydro should think again.
—Carol A. Overland, Utility Regulatory Attorney, Minnesota
Here are my older posts about the shooting, including a video of the shooting by someone in the hotel who was looking out the window:
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