Mining, drilling, and logging corporations have been exploiting Indigenous communities for generations. Enabled by the government and unjust laws, they steal land, extract resources, and leave behind polluted water, ruined landscapes, and scarred communities. 

When Indigenous activists and community leaders stand up and protest, companies regularly bring in police to silence them and even force them from their own land. In fact, a secretive special unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was created in British Columbia with the sole purpose of suppressing protests. 

The Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) was formed in 2017 and basically works on behalf of resource-extraction companies to arrest Indigenous land defenders, suppress protests, and clear the way for extraction projects to proceed.

There are no limits on the unit’s budget or jurisdiction. It takes tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, while operating with minimal government oversight. It’s not even clear how many people work for C-IRG! But what IS clear is that the unit is growing and has dispatch squads all over British Columbia intent on shutting down protests. In fact, the C-IRG was responsible for over 1,100 arrests at clear-cut logging protests at Fairy Creek, Vancouver Island, making it the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. 

• An APTN News investigation in June 2022 uncovered allegations against C-IRG that include “intimidation, torture, brutality, harassment, racism, theft, destruction of property, arbitrary detention, inhumanity, lying, and deceit.”
• The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) is currently conducting a systemic review of C-IRG due to all the complaints. While the review proceeds, C-IRG will be allowed to keep operating, violently suppressing free speech.
• C-IRG was specifically created to police Indigenous land defenders and it continues to disproportionately police and criminalize Indigenous people—a clear example of racism in Canadian policing.
• C-IRG is facing several lawsuits related to its actions.

Ben & Jerry’s has joined a diverse network of Indigenous communities, human rights organizations, lawyers’ associations, environmental groups, politicians, and climate justice advocates to demand that the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) be disbanded.